The Biden Administration Made NASA A Cesspool Of DEI Lunacy

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) went from being the world’s premier space exploration and innovation hub to an agency overrun by indoctrinating its employees in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) nonsense.

According to a report from Open the Books, the Biden administration invested around $13 million in DEI from 2021 to 2024, prescribing trainings and programming that subordinated white and male employees against women and employees of other races.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX must step in to rescue two NASA engineers, Sunita Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore, from the International Space Station (ISS), having been stranded there since June after their Boeing Starliner capsule malfunctioned. Musk said the Biden administration had delayed SpaceX’s rescue of Williams and Wilmore due to “political reasons.”

While DEI was prioritized at NASA, an inspector general report noted quality control shortcomings about the agency’s ability to return to the moon.

“NASA’s mission is too risky to get distracted by identity politics,” John Hart, CEO of Open the Books, told The Federalist. “Newtonian physics and atmospheric reentry do not care about antiracism talks and gender ‘affirmation’ policies. NASA has an opportunity to take one small step toward fiscal responsibility and one giant leap toward common sense.” 

Through a comprehensive agency strategy to implement DEI, NASA was subjected to equity commitments, bizarre book talks, and other guidance, while also spending on grants and contracts.

Under the Biden administration, professional development coursework included a three-hour session on how to “engage men to advance women in leadership positions,” per the Power of Inclusion class.

One book offered, Diversity Beyond Lip Service: A Coaching Guide for Challenging Bias, notes that “a deeper level of candor and vulnerability is needed to move the needle towards real progress.”

It also explicitly states that “European-American, heterosexual, Christian men” are the target for feeling “discomfort”:

In order to move toward a more inclusive society, the primary beneficiaries of privilege—namely European-American, heterosexual, Christian men — must recognize the advantages they are automatically granted. But the goal in addressing privilege is not to antagonize white men, but to involve them in the process and encourage their accountability, because we will only make progress if all of us — especially those in positions of power — are on board. While white men must recognize their privilege, the rest of us must recognize that for them, this new accountability will come with a sense of loss and discomfort.

Some of the drive toward DEI actually started under the first Trump administration, where NASA’s Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity and the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer brought in noted race grifter Ibram X. Kendi to deliver a presentation called “Mission to Inclusion: Cultivating an Antiracist Workplace.”

While Open the Books was unable to track down Kendi’s paycheck for the NASA discussion, it did find records of a similar talk at the National Institutes of Health paying $5,000.

The first Trump administration tried to fight back against the DEI sessions across the government, with President Donald Trump signing an executive order on “Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping” in September 2020, which stopped agencies, contractors, and grantees from having DEI trainings.

However, just months later when President Joe Biden took office, he signed a day-one executive order, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” which, according to a NASA email, allowed government agencies to zealously pursue DEI.

For example, the Johnson Space Center had an entire six-hour day dedicated to DEI programming.

In 2021, the center invited Uju Asika to talk to parents about her book Bringing Up Race; How to Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World, which was meant to “positively open up the lines of communication on anti-racism,” according to an email.

That book teaches that American parents should teach their children that Thanksgiving is a “day of mourning” that “recalls the systematic genocide of indigenous people whose lands were stolen”:

Stop whitewashing America’s past. This doesn’t mean you have to cancel Thanksgiving, but your child should understand why a Native American might not want to sit at your feast. Explain that for many, Turkey Day is a day of mourning. It recalls the systematic genocide of indigenous people whose lands were stolen and whose children were taken from them, many of whom were captured and sold as slaves. Maybe you can use Thanksgiving to reflect and commit to creating a society more people can be thankful for.

These sessions were happening at the same time NASA’s ill-fated Starliner capsule was undergoing test flights.

NASA doubled down on DEI around the same time, publishing its “Strategic Plan for Diversity, Equity Inclusion & Accessibility” for 2022-2026. That plan ingrained hiring and promotion schemes that prioritized women and particular races over others. Similarly, the space agency’s 2022 Equity Action Plan required contractors to “to provide a DEIA plan upon award to demonstrate commitment to diversifying their workforce,” as well as re-orient awarding grants toward recipients that would prioritize DEI no matter what.

Further guidance to employees was “for Supporting Gender Transition/Affirmation in the Workplace,” encouraging staff to “be willing and available to collaborate with the transitioning employee on the development, implementation, and evolution of a Workplace Gender.” Any “transitioning employees” would be allowed to use any restroom or locker room of their choice, based on their incoherent understanding of gender.

The ongoing Starliner failures are not the only example of a lack of mission readiness at NASA, however, as an inspector general report from 2024 highlighted agency-wide quality control issues with Boeing’s efforts to send astronauts to the moon, including that workers on NASA’s Space Launch System did not have the requisite experience.

While the Biden administration did a lot to divert the NASA mission toward DEI, the Trump administration has instituted a “phased reduction in force” at the agency, which includes closing down the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility portion of the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity.

Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.