Dai, Dei, DEI!

Let’s start with a vocabulary lesson…

If you watch the Giro d’Italia bicycle race on TV, you will occasionally hear the spectators (back when there were spectators, before Covid) shouting “Die Die Die”. Or perhaps they are screaming “Dye Dye Dye”. But that is how the Italian word ‘dai‘ is pronounced, and ‘dai‘ is what the tifosi (fans) are shouting. ‘Dai‘ means ‘come on’ in English. The fans are exhorting the riders to keep fighting and struggling to get to the top of the mountain.

Some of the riders on the climb might feel like they are in fact dying, but they can rest assured that the fans are not encouraging their demise.

‘Dei (pronounced ‘day’) means ‘of God’ and is a part of many Catholic phrases. I’m not Catholic, but I recognize ‘Mater Dei’ as meaning Mother of God.

But now in the USA, DEI (it exists, just google it) means something different. Case in point:

A suburban Minneapolis theater company abruptly canceled its production of “Cinderella” because the cast was “too White.”

“It was 98 percent White,” the theater’s director, Michael Brindisi, said of the show’s actors Wednesday. “That doesn’t work with what we’re saying we’re going to do.”

“After careful consideration and with our ongoing commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, we have made the decision to cancel our upcoming production”

This is the first time I personally have come across the DEI triumvirate used in this fashion, but it certainly will not be the last.

Now take a careful look at the paragraphs in italics above. Imagine a few clever substitutions. For ‘theater company’ substitute NFL. For ‘production’ substitute ‘season’. For ‘director’ substitute ‘Commissioner’. I’m not going to suggest any other substitutions, since the whole idea is absurd. As is the reality.

DEI cancels Cinderella? Mater dei, what next? Dai!