Rev. Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights activist and talk show host, preached his affirmative stance on the resolution “Resolved: DEI is the Way Forward” to the Yale Political Union on Tuesday evening.

Sharpton, who vied for the Democratic Party nomination for the 2004 U.S. presidential election and hosts the MSNBC political news program “PoliticsNation,” was introduced by YPU President Leo Greenberg ’26 to an audience of around 180 students.

“This is a man who has been at the forefront of civil rights activism for as long as anyone today can remember,” said Greenberg in his introductory address. “He’s a maker of mayors, the leader of the National Action Network, a reverend, and a champion for those Americans whose rights and privileges have been left behind.”

Rev. Sharpton began the debate by stating that he approached the subject of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, in terms of his own experience during the civil rights movement and the differences — yet prominent similarities — between his life and that of his parents, who grew up in a time of “strict, enforced segregation.”

Sharpton explained that while he grew up in Brooklyn during a time when “separation of matters based on race, class and nationality was more of an understood nature and not a forced legal nature,” he found that both his life and that of his parents required “some redress with legal settings in order to guarantee equal opportunity and fairness.”

Reflecting on the stories of marginalized communities in American History, Sharpton said his belief that unless there are intentional reinforcement laws enacted, “you will not get the required … necessary enforcement” of ensuring that individuals are not excluded based on race.

“Those that argue against inclusion try to avoid the subject that there was legal exclusion,” said Sharpton. “It was against the law for Blacks to be able to read and write … They could not name their children after themselves. They were named after their slave masters … Any measure of human dignity and human rights was stripped from them by law, not custom, [but] by law.”

Sharpton also argued that it was slaves and freedmen who considerably aided the Union’s eventual defeat of the South and the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

Sharpton explained that when Abraham Lincoln’s military officers began pressuring him that the Union was losing too many battles, Lincoln then began freeing slaves. These slaves then went on to help General Ulysses S. Grant and others defeat Robert E. Lee and the Confederate Army.

“I would argue that when people say ‘Lincoln freed the slaves,’ I would argue the other side, ‘the slaves helped free Lincoln,’” said Sharpton.

Sharpton then emphasized the lack of means that newly freed slaves had when the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted in 1863. He argued that slaves — who “walked off the plantation” — had “no education, no money” as they had not earned wages during “the 246 years of slavery.”

Tying the history of slavery back to the debate on DEI, Sharpton argued that while the private and public sectors of society had tried to deal with the issue of inequality throughout the “70s, 80s and into the 90s,” talks of diversity expanded with the issue of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

“I went to Minneapolis and marches started not only with us in Minneapolis but all over the world, in Europe, in Asia people were yelling George Floyd,” said Sharpton. “It was at that time that the private sector and public sector started saying we’re going to be more aggressive with diversity, equity and inclusion … They said ‘We have been unfair. We have a race problem.’”

Concluding his speech, Sharpton emphasized how imperative DEI is and that such policies of equity must be “emanated and [be] highlighted again out of the recognition of the exclusion of people in the private sector and in government.”

After the talk, opposing Sharpton’s speech, Ahmed Almoaswes ’25 argued that DEI actively harms minorities by “obfuscating” real problems in minority communities and lowering meritocratic standards.

“DEI is a necessary evil that isn’t actually working,” said Almoaswes. “The only way disadvantaged communities can be uplifted is by their own motivated pursuit of excellence.”

In a rebuttal to Almoaswes’ stance, Richie George ’27 took to the floor of the Union, stating that “DEI should address history” and that without addressing such problems, like the lack of diversity in institutions, “we fall back onto tropes, and stereotypes, and frankly biases.”

In agreement with Sharpton’s affirmative stance, Jin Chung ’27 argued that DEI and meritocracy are not contradictory, as DEI fights back against systematic hurdles that cannot be overcome by sheer will alone.

“A meritocracy in the modern day necessitates practice, implementation, and buy-in to DEI because the alternative to diversity is creative bankruptcy, the alternative to equity is national disharmony, the alternative to inclusion is vapid nepotism,” said Chung.

In a question posed to Chung after his speech, Ember McMullen ’28 stated that “DEI gives a veneer of truth to false claims that people of color are unqualified” and that the greatest threat to diversity are “systemic issues and existing racial prejudice,” which she believes DEI tends to reinforce among critics of diversity rather than dispel.

After the debate, the affirmative prevailed 43-23-3 on “Resolved: DEI is the Way Forward.”

The Yale Political Union is the oldest collegiate debate society in the U.S., founded in 1934.

BAALA SHAKYA
Baala Shakya covers Student Life and Campus Politics for the News. She is also a staff photographer and writes for the WKND. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, she is a first-year in Trumbull College majoring in History.