What if Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Was Never for “Us”?: Re-Imagining DEI From the Cracks

This essay, centering on a painful lament drawn from the testimonies of queer international students of color, exposes how institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) functions as a colonial logic of management, rendering marginalized lives illegible, unmanageable, and ultimately excluded. Drawing on queer/crip negativity, the essay argues that “protecting” or “retrieving” DEI is insufficient, as it risks reproducing the very cracks that exclude. Instead, it calls for “re-doing” DEI by transforming hope from mere optimism into an ethical practice that both amplifies and sits with the negative affects (grief, emptiness, disappointment) experienced by those rendered illegible.