Disruptive Bias: The Assault on DEI, Values, Culture, Leadership, and Care

In the foundational work of Edgar Schein, culture is understood as both visible and invisible — what exists above the surface and what lies beneath. It is the set of shared beliefs, values, and practices that bind individuals together, shaping how they engage with society, institutions, and one another. Today, this foundation is under siege. What we are witnessing in America is an all-out assault on culture itself — not just in the superficial sense of traditions and celebrations, but in the deeper, more insidious attempt to dismantle the core principles that have long held American democracy together.

At the heart of this assault is what I call disruptive bias — a calculated effort to destabilize inclusion, erase historical and cultural truths, and weaponize ideology to create a more authoritarian, oligarchic state. This is not mere political disagreement; it is a strategic and systemic effort to bulldoze democratic ideals, re-engineer power structures, and recast society in the image of an exclusionary, hierarchical order.

To understand how disruptive bias operates, we must examine its historical origins, its theoretical foundation, and its four primary levels of attack: the individual, the cultural, the organizational, and the national.

Historical Origins: The Strategy of Disrupting Difference

Disruptive bias is not a new phenomenon — it is a continuation of a centuries-old strategy of dominance, division, and control. Historically, the rejection of difference as a threat to survival and supremacy has shaped power structures and governance in America since its inception.

In the early days of colonial America, enslaved Africans and European indentured servants found themselves in similar positions of oppression. They worked under brutal conditions, exploited by landowners and powerholders who saw them as disposable labor. However, these groups — though different in origin — began to form coalitions, recognizing their shared oppression. They resisted, rebelled, and sought collective power.

This posed an existential threat to the ruling elite. A diverse coalition of marginalized people — Black, Indigenous, and poor European workers —…