Real victories are possible when we focus on solutions instead of grievances. What comes after diversity, equity, and inclusion ? Hundreds of DEI programs are now falling out of favor across America. Far too many of those leading efforts to correct course have been satisfied with simply rolling back problematic policies and legislation. The Woodson Center recently helped Utah find a more productive path forward.

Thanks to support from grassroots community leaders, Utah recently passed legislation that halts DEI activities in its universities, ending, for example, preferential or discriminatory race- or gender-based policies as well as mandatory training that promotes them. But Utah didn't merely reject the misguided components of DEI. It redirected the funding to student services that will help any student struggling in college. This does away with the condescending notion that, for example, black students will perform poorly in college simply because of their race.

This is what comes after DEI.

My problem with DEI was never about its intentions but rather its impact. I have taken issue with many DEI efforts because they are dangerous, often fatal, distractions from the very real work that needs to be done in the most vulnerable communities in America. Mandatory racial-sensitivity trainings burn through participants' goodwill and patience very quickly while doing nothing to reduce crime, violence, poverty, or other urgent problems. But by redirecting funds to instead provide substantive help to those who are struggling, mandatory racialized trainings will come much closer to achieving their stated goals.

Racial justice in America is not, and never was supposed to be, about equality of outcome. It was and is about equality of opportunity, equal protection under the law. That is why priority should be given to those whose property and safety the law is failing to protect: those living in high-crime neighborhoods with little opportunity.

Too many DEI efforts hijack their suffering, providing full and well-paid employment to a select, elite few who, at their best, suggest commonsense ways we can be nicer to each other and at their worst undermine the very values and virtues that make it possible to rise from poverty to prosperity. To quote Shelby Steele, a victim-focused liberalism appeals to many because it gives moral power to people who believe they are powerless. It fuels a sense of entitlement and grievance. It tells people that the reason for their failures lies not in themselves but in society.

The civil-rights movement was originally a dignified demand for liberty, safety, justice, and the right to be left alone, not a pernicious exercise in group therapy. Too many DEI efforts have moved us away from demanding concrete results to a misguided interest in other people's thoughts, opinions, and inner lives. The suffering of low-income blacks has been untouched by this bizarre charade that elite whites and blacks perform with one another in our colleges, universities, government offices, and corporate boardrooms.

I left the civil-rights movement over forced busing because that practice elevated the preferences of elite blacks over the desires of the black parents in the communities subject to busing. Poor and working-class black parents were forced by law to send their children to underperforming white schools where their children were mistreated and in many cases received an inferior education to the one they were receiving at their segregated black school. Elite blacks elevated a symbolic victory over academic results, and lower-income blacks suffered. Too many DEI programs are just the latest iteration of this same betrayal.

So what can be done to move beyond pointless symbolism to address the real problems of those who suffer? At the Woodson Center, we have been working on this question for over four decades and can provide an answer that we know works.

Our simple and irrefutable conclusion is that the problems of every community have answers within that community. In short, look not at the failures in those communities but rather for the successes, and then resource the community leaders who possess moral authority and the trust of their neighbors so that their successes multiply. This approach is not glamorous. It takes time, verified local knowledge, and a willingness to get involved, with a level of commitment and granularity that most organizations and individuals do not possess. But it empowers those who are committed for the long haul to get the work done, which leads to transformation that endures.

Normal Americans from all walks of life are exhausted by the never-ending conflict that the arguments over DEI have given us. It's time to move beyond DEI and invest in the real solutions that are found within the communities that need them most.

Bob Woodson, the founder and president of the Woodson Center, is the editor of Red, White, and Black: Rescuing American History from Revisionists and Race Hustlers and the author of Lessons from the Least of Us: The Woodson Principles.