Diversity is having a seat at the table, inclusion is having a voice, and equity is having that voice be heard.

DEI as it is practiced by leftist Democrats in Asheville: 

Diversity is having minority control of the table, inclusion is having only minority voices at the table, and equity is having those voices get their way.

Toward the end of his life, one of my favorite guiding lights, Malcolm-X, had a change of heart reflected in the quote above. 

He shifted from a color agenda to a unity agenda, and in so doing he embraced the essential core of MLK’s equality message.

Both of them were killed for their courage.

Today’s reparations, BLM and DEI are anything but courageous and have more to do with scamming our society than changing our society.

Did you know that Asheville-Buncombe Reparations Committee members are paid to serve? 

Did you know that their agenda is race-specific and involves proposals on spending tax dollars to compensate black citizens only?

Did you know that the BLM movement is led predominantly by smooth-talking pick-pockets busily milking the coffers for personal gain? 

Did you know that DEI is focused on swapping America’s historic mission of equality with a ‘what’s in it for me’ word called equity — a guise for preferential treatment on the basis of color?

How is racism supposed to fix racism? 

It can’t, but recently deceased actor Louis Gossett Jr. had an idea that might.

You might remember him as the iconic marine drill instructor in the hit movie “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

That was a great role, one of the best of his 200-plus cinematic participations.

If one took the time to look a little deeper at the man and his walk, his greater role was more likely attached to an activist mission — removing color as a consideration in human interplay.

Gossett was the founder of what he called The Eracism Foundation.

The mission? Erasing color as a filter for human interaction.

Gunnery Sergeant Foley would tell you that though through this effort he fought the good fight, he failed at his mission.

He would tell you that our racial divide has actually gotten worse in this century on his, yours and my watch. 

 He would tell you that instead of becoming colorblind, we have become color-centric.

Ill-conceived “equity” movements —  like racial reparations, defunding our police, quotas and affirmative action — have largely displaced the original dream of the MLK equality movement.

Here’s a quick list of reasons why:

1. Because it easier to lament, complain, and criticize wrongs than it is to build rights. 

2. Because there are lot of people hooked on anger and bonding to past harms gives a permanent license to that anger.

3. Because there are a lot of people who make money keeping us apart.

4. Because being a victim – legitimate or otherwise – is far less challenging than becoming an achiever.

5. Because giving into the temptations of racism is easier than crawling, clawing and climbing our way to a colorblind society.

6. Because equity and equality sound alike but are made very different by the fact that one can’t be entitled and equal at the same time.

7. Because a large number of politicians dependably play the race card to secure voter loyalty.

8. Because legitimate frustrations about past wrongs are easily crafted into illegitimate foundations for new wrongs.

9. Because we tolerate extreme poverty and violence in city neighborhoods that in turn become incubators for dysfunctional cultural norms.

10. Because we are losing sight of what was once a clear goal — that we would one day judge a man on the basis of his character and not his color.

 Gossett, 6-foot-4 and a former Army Ranger, was also famous for playing Fiddler, an older black slave who taught Kunta Kinta to speak English in the 1970s mini-series “Roots.”

 Tellingly, more than 85 percent of the U.S. watched at least a portion of this ground-breaking reveal of the dark days of slavery in America.

Gossett founded The Eracism Foundation in 2006 as an “all-out-conscious offensive” to eradicate all forms of racism by providing programs that foster cultural diversity, historical enrichment, education and anti-violence initiatives.

In a 2020 interview on the CBS program “Sunday Morning,” Gossett summed up his perspective on our current state of racial dysfunction as follows:

“We better take care of ourselves and one another better, otherwise nobody’s gonna win anything... We need each other quite desperately — for our mutual salvation.”

That pretty well sums up why you and I should dig in as dedicated Eracists, resist the army of racial con artists in our community and keep our eye on the real deal — color blind equality.