On Friday, my uni, like many others, received a “Dear Colleague” letter from DoE acting assistant secretary Trainor. The letter threatens to withhold funding unless we demonstrate compliance with the administration’s anti-DEI program. It uses words like “depraved” and “shameful” and promises that the days of “overt and covert discrimination” are over. It also says that higher ed has engaged in “toxically indoctrinat[ing] students with the false premise of structural and systemic racism.”

There’s a lot to say about the letter. How it weaponizes the law. How it falsifies history. How it pretends to care about principles of justice, fairness, and anti-discrimination.

But, most of all, I’m struck by the language of internal enemies and poisoned minds.

There’s a drive toward ideological unity and purity here that is both repugnant and extremely dangerous.