Back in May 2020 following the George Floyd protests that destroyed many a city across the US, companies from coast to coast imposed new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. A step with roughly a $340 billion cost, these employers were allowing the liberal mainstream media to tell them that they needed more racial equality.
These corporations took on incredibly racist policies as a form of “fair hiring practices” that, in effect, were nothing more than policies meant to hold white people and men from achieving success or getting a fair hire. Now shareholders from at least 25 companies have signed letters imploring the companies they invest with to change their policies. Already American Airlines, BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and Lowe’s have begun to back away from the racially charged parts of their DEI policies.
Supporting their efforts is a coalition of lawyers who specialize in employment law. Focusing on corporate laws on the books across the nation, they want to pressure firms into pulling these DEI policies back. With the rampant rise of antisemitism that their policies essentially encourage, the time for cycling back this racist and harmful idea could not come soon enough.
As they potentially lose money due to these racial and not achievement-based hirings, their lawyer, Mark Lebovitch, has been incredibly vocal about making the change. “Shareholders have every right to question whether the DEI programs that made us feel good in the past are now unjustified because their true economic and social effect is simply replacing one form of discrimination with another.”
Cinnamon Clark, cofounder of DEI consulting firm Goodwork Sustainability, said that companies are pivoting and instead looking for other opportunity-based decisions, not just targeting people based on their race. Looking to make a race-based change without admitting it, many are simply giving the same old trash another chance, just with a different name.
Following the resignation of Harvard President and infamous plagiarizer Claudine Gay due to numerous allegations of plagiarism, many people have been quick to toss the race card. Given her hard-nosed stance against plagiarism, like most academics, she made no attempts to refute the allegations nor even explain away her hire coming from DEI policies. Her lack of qualifications and the actions of others to cover up the multiple plagiarism allegations is nothing less than shameful.
Billionaire Bill Ackman penned a piece for Free Press about DEI policies following her resignation.
“Here we are in 2024, being asked and, in some cases, required to use skin color to affect outcomes in admissions (recently deemed illegal by the Supreme Court), in business (likely illegal yet it happens nonetheless), and in government (also I believe in most cases to be illegal, except apparently in government contracting), rather than the content of one’s character. As such, a meritocracy is anathema to the DEI movement. DEI is inherently a racist and illegal movement in its implementation even if it purports to work on behalf of the so-called oppressed.”
As the numbers have shown, these policies cause infinitely more harm than good. The only people who are benefitting from them are the C-suite executives who use it as a justification for their year-end bonus. Yet shareholders are losing out on getting people who are the best for the job. In their place, diverse hires who lack the qualifications are being put in place to keep the numbers even.
The DEI process doesn’t secure profits, nor does it keep those who are doing a dangerous job safer. They do, however, keep the liberals happy and help to prevent them from protesting their company. For many, the juice simply isn’t worth the squeeze.
Professionals who have worked in HR and as executives for years know the truth about DEI policies. Instead of making things even by ensuring people get a fair shot regardless of their race, they made race the main factor in hiring decisions. Now, the only way to fix it is to stop asking about race on applications or reviews.
