"E Pluribus Unum." Out of many, one. Diversity is our superpower — don’t let Trump and his minions reduce that

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the SDSU Chinese Students and Scholars Association China Night 2025. Great food, great company, fun entertainment. But there’s no place for that in Trump’s America. White men. White food. Anything else is DEI!

I grew up German Lutheran in northeast South Dakota (Summit). Diversity meant the Norwegian Lutherans. Maybe they thought we were the diverse ones. In any case my brother married a lovely red-haired Norwegian Lutheran who was the driving force behind the annual lutefisk supper until COVID put an end to it. She still makes kickass lefse.

How does that kind of diversity square up with the Trump crowd? White people, so it’s maybe OK?

Off I went to college (SDSU to earn a Mr. to bring back to the farm) and discovered Catholics. There’s a lot of them around and they’re nothing like what my hometown Wisconsin Synod pastor preached against. I did find a Mr. though he wanted nothing to do with the farm.

My dear late father-in-law loved me. In part because I was the only non-Catholic one of his five kids married.

My Mr. has been gone for going on 10 years now. He worked hard all his life, went on disability at 55 when he couldn’t breath enough to walk across the back yard, and died five weeks after his 65th birthday.

This big old house was lonely without him here. I got a dog but Fergus isn’t much for conversation. So I decided to rent a room. Best decision I ever made.

One of my first renters was a Chinese post-doc studying oxygen in the body. Don’t ask me how because she was so much smarter than me. She asked me to test the carbon monoxide in my bloodstream after each cigarette. Scary but not enough to make me quit.

I’ve had a young man from Saudi Arabia who told me how wonderful Mohammed bin Salman is. He was followed by a lovely Hispanic man who thanked me several times for renting the room to him. Others had turned him down because of his tattoos. He was so nice. Always, “I’ll help you with that.”

Another young man from Cameroon indulged my penchant for talking politics. All lovely people who have enriched my life.

Currently I host a Chinese woman and her 10-year-old daughter. Yanting is here studying grassland management for her government. Her work at home is in the Inner Mongolian herding communities. Coco is enjoying being an American kid. Her English has improved so much and she likes nail polish and blue jeans. She loved decorating the Christmas tree and opening presents. Then came Valentine’s Day. And wearing green for St. Pat’s Day.

Yanting has prepared feasts for me for Spring Festival, just because. I’ve made pizza and spaghetti for them. We’ve exchanged stories about our countries and families. I hope she will go back to China with positive memories of America.

Which brings me back to China night. Diversity. Though no one dared say the word. 

Mr. Trump can deport all Hispanic people but I bet the DEI haters would scream bloody murder if all the Mexican restaurants closed. Ditto the Chinese restaurants.

So once we get rid of the Hispanic diversity, then the Chinese diversity, then the Middle Eastern (or West Asian as I’ve recently heard the region identified), then Czech Days? Lutefisk feeds? Native powwows? No more green beer?

What’s left? White men and white bread. Diversity is our superpower. Don’t let them crush it. 

Kathy Gustafson, a lifelong South Dakotan who lives in Brookings, is a mother and grandmother who is now retired and concerned about the "Balkanization" of our country. It takes a lot for her to speak out, she said, but she has reached that point.

Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons