Common meaning:

Someone who is persistent in their effort to accomplish something.

Hidden meaning of the Equity religion: 

The virtue of diligence is a tainted white value.

Discussion:

Equity believers think that since the only things that really exist are groups, this  means that virtues and values belong to those groups, not to humanity as a whole. If white people value diligence, then it is a white group value and therefore it is tainted by the group it comes from. 

How exactly being diligent at what you do oppresses other people is never explained because it can’t be done, but since believers accept, by faith, that only groups exist, then it must follow that values are group-generated and specific only to the group that created it.  

According to Equity, the dominant white culture assumes that its values, including being diligent, are good and universal values that everyone should follow. But Equity sees values like this as part of the oppressive structure of Western society. They say people only believe that diligence is a good thing because society has told them that it’s good, but in reality it’s oppressing all minoritized people.

Believing that virtues and values are not human universals, but group specific, is completely wrong. It is this kind of Equity religious thinking that dehumanizes and damages us all.