USA - People
Generations of separate and unequal education, housing, employment, and compensation have left Black and opther marginalized Americans at a persistent disadvantage. DEI holds the Nation accountable for this unjust and unequal treatment that began with slavery and segregation and continued with policies and practices that persist in discriminating against people denying them equal opportunity and treatment.
The statistics are stark: non-white school districts receive $2,226 less per student on average, contributing to an achievement gap that reduces Black students' college attendance and lifetime earnings by 65 percent. Even with advanced degrees, African American women earn significantly less than their white male counterparts and still less than white males with less education. African American women holding advanced degrees, such as a master's, earn $7 less per hour than Caucasian men with a bachelor's degree, and $17 less per hour than their Caucasian male peers. Furthermore, systemic biases persist in financial systems, where Black families earning substantially more than white families are still less likely to qualify for loans. A Black family earning $157,000 per year is less likely to qualify for a loan than a white family earning $40,000.
DEI efforts work to level the playing field and establish a meritocracy reflecting American national values. While correcting for the injustice of the past and present, DEI is a tool of intention, shaping the national trajectory. It compels strategically engagement with all the country's talent to compete in the global marketplace of today and tomorrow.
In today's fiercely competitive global economy, America's innovation, and adaptability hinge on the ability to harness the talents and perspectives of all citizens. By cultivating diverse talent pipelines and fostering inclusive practices, DEI not only enhances competitiveness but also leads in the global arena. Companies embracing DEI outperform their peers, with McKinsey studies showing a significant profitability gap between leading DEI practicing organizations and those lagging. Companies in the fourth quartile of both gender and ethnic diversity were 27 percent more likely to underperform on profitability than all other companies in their peer group.
Despite the proven benefits of DEI, right-wing conservatives seek to dismantle these efforts, perpetuating racial hostility and discrimination. Workplace discrimination lawsuits have surged, and hate crimes continue to rise to record levels year after year, in their wake, underscoring the urgent need for DEI to counteract these trends and increase awareness of each other's humanity and perspective.
One of the downstream effects of DEI requirements in Federal contracts is they create an incentive structure for these practices to bleed into the corporate world. This goes all the way back to then-President Richard Nixon, who implemented affirmative action requirements for private companies that contract with the Federal Government. Since that time, there have even been instances of companies committing to qualify for contracts that were prioritized for minority-owned businesses by claiming that an employee is a 51-percent owner in order to qualify for minority-owned status and thus get preferential treatment.
Critics charged that DEI was the woke addiction that the Biden-Harris administration simply cannot quit. Instead of becoming a more perfect Union, DEI turned schools, communities, and cities into cesspools of divisiveness and hate. DEI bureaucracies were also notorious drivers of campus anti-Semitism. While diversity, equity, and inclusion may sound like a benign or a nice thing, the dystopian reality is that there is nothing inclusive about DEI programming. On the contrary, it is quite divisive. In practice, DEI initiatives do the exact opposite of what they purport to do, and they fly directly in the face of everything that America stands for.
Today, with rights granted to everybody, regardless of race, color, or creed, by law, some see a different situation where the law and the policies that were intended to end racial discrimination have evolved into the modern DEI apparatus, creating a new kind of discrimination--something we sought to avoid but which has now crept back into our country. So the policies that were enacted to address one problem back during the civil rights era have been turned on their head--not to accomplish their original purpose but to do something entirely different, which is to enact preferences based on race, gender, and other immutable characteristics.
Instead of judging people on the content of their character, the DEI regime would assign points to people based on characteristics like skin color and gender and give preferential treatment to people on that basis. These are immutable characteristics, not something any of us can control. So it is profoundly unfair to decide that one person in a job candidate pool gets more weight put on their application because of something that was an accident of their birth. Many people, if they understand what DEI is all about, might agree that this amounted to an unfair hiring practice. It treats people differently based on gender or the color of their skin or some other immutable characteristic.
US President Donald Trump fulfilled campaign promises on the first full day of his second term Tuesday by moving to end federal policies promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and and LGBTQ rights. Trump scrapped 78 such executive orders signed by former president Joe Biden, initiating a new era of uncertainty for minority groups. On the campaign trail, Trump vilified diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the federal government and corporate world, saying they discriminated against white people -- men in particular.
"Agencies shall take all necessary steps, as permitted by law, to end the Federal funding of gender ideology," the order said, using a catch-all phrase invoked by Trump to refer to any language inclusive of gender identity other than male or female. His administration would only use "clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male," the order said. Anti-trans rhetoric was a mainstay of Trump's campaign rallies, drawing huge cheers from crowds.
The directive came in a memo from the Office of Personnel Management. The order said employees in DEI roles will be paid while on leave, but are not required to work or come into the office, and their email access will be suspended.
Many big US companies had already started preemptively doing away with DEI initiatives before Trump's return to office. US media outlets earlier reported that tech giant Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram, plans to end its programs, including a so-called "diverse slate" approach to hiring. Amazon also reportedly plans to end what it calls "outdated programs and materials" related to representation and inclusion. Fast-food chain McDonald's and retailer Walmart have already reviewed their DEI initiatives.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
