‘A Scary Future for Them’: Elon and Pals Turned DEI into Far Right’s New Boogeyman

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'A Scary Future for Them': Elon and Pals Turned DEI into Far Right's New Boogeyman

Elon Musk and other right-wing culture warriors are attacking efforts at diversity and inclusion — but experts say they distort the situation

www.rollingstone.com

‘A Scary Future for Them’: Elon and Pals Turned DEI into Far Right’s New Boogeyman​

Right-wing culture warriors have stepped up their attacks on diversity initiatives, but they're willfully distorting the issue

BY MILES KLEE

JANUARY 11, 2024

A student at a Harvard University rally in support of affirmative action. THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IM

NOT EVEN TWO weeks into the new year, and it looks as though far-right agitators have honed in on the scapegoat of the season: DEI, shorthand for “ diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives and policies that can be implemented in workplaces and educational institutions.

Although long included in the litany of vilified concepts that conservatives like to complain about — from “wokeness” to gender fluidity to Critical Race Theory — DEI has taken a new place of prominence after being scapegoated for two incidents that made headlines in early 2024. One was the ouster of Harvard University president Claudine Gay, the first Black person to lead the Ivy League school, just six months after she assumed the role. The other was an Alaska Airlines flight during which a door plug of the Boeing 737 Max 9 jet blew off the fuselage, causing cabin depressurization and necessitating an emergency landing.

Originally, neither story had any to do with DEI. The initial calls for Gay’s resignation stemmed from her perceived failure to address antisemitism on the Harvard campus. It was only after she faced the allegations of plagiarism that would ultimately unseat her that prominent critics, including hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman and right-wing activist Christopher Rufo (who first accused her of academic misconduct), argued that she was unqualified for the job of president and had been appointed solely because of her race and gender. As for the malfunctioning door plug on the Boeing, it was manufactured by Spirit AeroSystems, a company already facing a lawsuit over “ quality failures” of its parts. Yet Elon Musk, now closely aligned with the reactionary right, implied in a tweet that “ DEI hiring” at Boeing was to blame, and Chaya Raichik, known on X/ Twitter for her anti- LGBTQ hate account “ Libs of TikTok,” fumed that Alaska Airlines was jeopardizing passenger safety by focusing on diversity and inclusion and “ making their planes gay.”

This moral panic, DEI consultants tell Rolling Stone, mirrors the unfounded paranoia in recent years about Critical Race Theory, or CRT, being taught to young students. CRT involves advanced academic concepts introduced at the undergraduate or graduate level; K-12 schoolteachers have been largely baffled at the objections from parents to something that wasn’t even part of their curriculum. The conflict was cynically invented, in part, by Rufo. The backlash to DEI, experts say, can likewise be described as outrage at societal changes that are not actually occurring at significant levels.


“What’s really absurd about these attacks,” says Amber Madison, who co-founded the DEI consulting firm Peoplism in 2017, is that “when you actually look at statistics, we are making horrible progress.” She adds, “No, women and people of color and people who are underrepresented are maybe marginally better off than 10 years ago, but numbers are not moving and they’re not moving fast enough.” Madison also says that business owners and executives who claim to be “passionate” about implementing DEI practices can balk at her systematic approach and instead ask for a “one-off” training session that is far less effective.

Matthew Florence, a DEI consultant who has mostly worked with nonprofits, including education, housing, and arts groups, agrees that the supposed crisis is vastly overblown — not only because DEI doesn’t have the negative effects described by conservatives, but because it’s far less institutionalized than its critics imagine. “All of the promises of promotion of DEI after the big police cases, particularly [the killing of] George Floyd [by police officer Derek Chauvin], are starting to drop off,” Florence says. “The nonprofit sector definitely wants to continue the trend, but the money is not always there to follow through. And the urgency has gone.”

“It’s definitely ironic that they would step up the attacks when things are simmering down,” Florence adds. But he suspects that DEI “is a bigger boogeyman than CRT,” which is “a harder concept to understand.” Florence also says that “the newer attacks on DEI seem, to me, to be more in line with attacks on diversity in general, from the attacks on diversity in college admissions to the attacks on university presidents to the general whining about white men, in particular, not being hired, to the attacks around immigration. It feels like an overall last-ditch effort to preserve a more white-centered United States culture.”

Rachel Décoste, a writer, educator, and social policy expert from Ottawa, Canada, who leads workshops and lectures on topics including anti-racism and diversity, agrees that scare tactics around DEI are more broadly effective than anti-CRT propaganda. “I think that’s their strategy,” she says. “They were losing a lot of people with CRT. If you ask Joe Blow on the street, ‘What does it mean?’ — they usually weren’t able to define it. DEI is widespread, it’s the subtitle of somebody at your workplace, and it’s an easier, closer target.”

But Décoste also notes that the anti-DEI surge is really just an echo of the grievances voiced about similar attempts to foster social equality in the past. More than 15 years ago she spoke at conferences about “diversity” — “that was the term back then,” she explains. “I’m sure you could go back to the ’70s, and they had discourse about, I suppose the word in Canada was ‘multiculturalism.'” She cites the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and affirmative action as well. “All of these things, to me, mean the same thing,” Décoste says: people wanting “the same consideration, the same respect,” no matter how you label the project. And in each case, Décoste points out, there has been stubborn resistance.

 

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The opponents, Décoste says, are generally afraid of what they perceive as a loss of influence or status. “I’m not a psychologist, but I will tell you what I’ve read about the topic is that they tend to be very fearful, xenophobic,” she says. “And they liked the way things were when you could say whatever you want, and offend whoever, and face zero consequences. They see the power that they had inherited reduce and shrink, and only getting worse as the demographics are changing.” Alluding to the mid-2040s estimate of when non-Hispanic white people are projected to account for less than 50 percent of the U.S. population, she adds, “It’s a scary future for them. That’s so sad.”

Madison, too, says that people get “freaked out” when they fall for the line that DEI is about “taking down the straight white guy rather than leveling the playing field.” Working in sales, she encounters all kinds of misconceptions in this vein. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ll be talking to a CEO who’s worried that working with a DEI firm means we’ll ‘make them’ set quotas, or become prolific LinkedIn commentators on issues of social justice, or abandon their organization’s core mission in the pursuit of DEI greatness,” she says. “I always tell them: ‘Listen, what we do is actually quite vanilla. We want to make sure your hiring process more accurately identifies who is the best fit for the role. We want to make sure your performance management system is actually evaluating someone’s performance. And we want to teach managers methods to assign work more fairly, give higher quality feedback, and ensure they’re not systematically ignoring members of their teams.” The goal, she explains, is to ensure that “workplaces are more fair for everyone, not just people who are historically marginalized.”

“It’s rich that Elon Musk would post that diversity efforts make travel less safe given that self-driving cars have been found to be less likely to detect pedestrians with dark skin, and women are more likely to be injured in car crashes because car safety mechanisms were historically built with male bodies as the norm,” Madison says. “One might imagine that if the teams building cars, self-driving or otherwise, were more diverse, or at least thinking with a DEI mindset — this needs to work for all people — travel would actually be safer.”

Of course, Musk’s claim that DEI makes transportation less safe may be somewhat disingenuous to begin with, and possibly a screen for other sociological concerns he has frequently expressed. Musk often frets about declining birth rates (particularly in Western countries) and recently all but endorsed the Great Replacement conspiracy theory — the claim that nefarious forces are facilitating massive immigration of non-whites in order to speed the demographic decline of whites, which has inspired racist mass shooters.

Florence, for one, draws a connection between such ideology and the DEI scare, mentioning the wave of “legal actions around abortion,” most notably the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Movements like the Christian “Quiverfull” theology, he says, aim “to get mostly white folks to have larger families to ensure they are not replaced in the majority.” He continues, “They see how many immigrant and minority families tend to be larger, and that scares them. Change is so hard for so many, in general, and i feel like this whole thing is a reaction to change — and the accompanying fear.”

Even a more symbolic shift can lead to spasms of outrage and violence. Décoste recalls how arsonists targeted a Black church after Barack Obama was elected as the first Black president of the U.S. in 2008. “This is a recurring phenomenon,” she says, “whenever there’s perceived progress for minorities, especially the ones that are visible, and it’s happening again. But it doesn’t change the general trajectory is that are more and more of us. And we’ll be kinder to [the new] racial minorities than they were with us.”

In the meantime, DEI consultants and educators will have to try to move the needle while combatting misinformation about what they do. “Business leaders are reacting to what they read about DEI,” says Madison. “And if they’re reading all these horrible things about DEI, that needs to be countered with some very real explanations of what DEI work actually is.” She says that Peoplism’s strategies are “data-driven” and based on “a ton of research about what sorts of processes and practices undermine bias and ultimately lead to more fair (and thus) diverse companies.” They’re not “what many people have in mind when they conjure up images of DEI efforts.'”

And, according to Décoste, some individuals simply can’t be won over — so she focuses on those who are open to learning. “In any audience, there is a bell curve,” she says, noting that on one far side are people for whom the session is “redundant,” because they’ve already internalized the principles. The middle section is “where most people are,” she says, and for them the training “will be new, or it will be shocking, and it will be thought-provoking,” leading them to reexamine past behavior. Then, at the other extreme, is the cohort that is “there because they have to be, and you will never win that over. I’m not trying to win them over. I’m not trying to boil the ocean,” she says. “That’s an impossible task. I accept that people are going to be lost. I’m focused on the middle. And in all that middle, I know some of them will have a light bulb go off. I’ve seen it go off.”

“And I need to see those light bulbs go off in order to keep doing this work,” she says.

 

[Mike809]

Never heard of DEI until now. Anybody can provide a quick explanation?

 

[BaggerofTea]

Main goal is that your black ass is either washing floors, security or entertainment.


Anything outside of that scares them

 

[bnew]

Never heard of DEI until now. Anybody can provide a quick explanation?

DEI: What does it mean and what is its purpose?

Conservatives are attacking DEI efforts in schools and workplaces. What does DEI mean and what is its purpose?

abcnews.go.com

DEI: What does it mean and what is its purpose?​

Conservatives are attacking diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

By Kiara Alfonseca

February 10, 2023, 4:26 PM


DeSantis blocks AP African American history course

ABC News deputy political director Averi Harper breaks down the move by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the back...Show More

Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, have recently come under fire and are at the center of political battles being waged by Republican governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis.

These initiatives, seen in businesses, schools or government agencies, are intended to address inequities against historically marginalized groups that may be found within an organization.

ABC News spoke to DEI experts and consultants about what DEI is and what these initiatives look like.

What is DEI?​

“Diversity” refers to the representation of people from a variety of backgrounds – particularly referring to people of different races, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, religions and more – at all levels in an organization, including the leadership level.

“Equity” focuses on fairness and justice, particularly referring to compensation and whether people are being paid or treated fairly, DEI experts told ABC News.

“Inclusion” is about whether people feel like they belong, and whether they feel heard or valued in an organization, experts say.

DEI initiatives focus on three main areas: training, organizational policies and practices, as well as organizational culture, according to Erica Foldy, a professor at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Initiatives focusing on policies, practices and culture exist to correct inequities within an organization, said Tina Opie, a DEI consultant and professor at Babson College.

This includes addressing discriminatory hiring practices, pay inequity, or rectifying issues that cause poor employee retention rates among marginalized groups.

DEI training is meant to encourage people to be more aware and reflective about inequities and discrimination on an individual level, Foldy said.

What’s DEI’s purpose?​

DEI has its roots in the 1960's anti-discrimination legislative movement when laws like the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 addressed labor issues based on protected classes.

Companies had to comply with these anti-discrimination laws, and the DEI movement stems from these efforts to continue to create equitable workplaces and schools.

“Somewhere around the late '80s, early '90s, people are realizing that simply trying to stop discriminating against different groups of people is not enough,” Foldy said. “The kind of ethos of those initiatives was to go beyond just avoiding discrimination and to actively changing organizations so that they were more welcoming and more inclusive.”

And though DEI is in the spotlight, Foldy says, these initiatives are efforted under a plethora of different acronyms or names.

Every DEI initiative may be run differently, experts say, but the overall goal is to make companies and leaders examine the way their company treats or serves marginalized groups.

“Historically, there have been some groups of people who have had more access and control over resources, money, time, other people and the ability to affect policies, procedures, law,” said Opie.

“Are you saying that you think across the United States … they’re the only ones who are best equipped to run these companies? Is it something about their DNA, genetics or is it something else?” she added.

Opie and Foldy say DEI makes people uncomfortable because they feel that correcting power inequities can be seen as “unfair” to the people with power or privilege.

Opie and Foldy believe critiques of DEI often frame these initiatives as unfairly giving something to marginalized people who “have not earned” it and are taking things away from people.

“Dominance and privilege – understandably, those things are hard to give up,” Foldy said. “For the greater good, of not just a workplace, but for our country, our democracy, we have to become a country that equally and passionately welcomes all the people who live in the country.”

Opie argues some critiques see diversity as not an “us” issue, but a “them” issue.

 

[Mindfield333]

Never heard of DEI until now. Anybody can provide a quick explanation?

Diversity equity & inclusion

 

[bnew]

@Mike809

What Does Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Mean in the Workplace? | Built In

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) refers to practices and policies that give people of various backgrounds the support they need to thrive in the workplace.

builtin.com

What Is Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)?​

DE&I stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. As a discipline, DE&I is any policy or practice designed to make people of various backgrounds feel welcome and ensure they have support to perform to the fullest of their abilities in the workplace. This kind of environment is created by following all three aspects of DE&I.

Diversity is the presence of differences within a given setting. In the workplace, that can mean differences in race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age and socioeconomic class. It can also refer to differences in physical ability, veteran status, whether or not you have kids — all of those are components of diversity.

Equity is the process of ensuring that practices and programs are impartial, fair and provide equal possible outcomes for every individual.

Inclusion is the practice of ensuring that people feel a sense of belonging in the workplace. This means that every employee feels comfortable and supported by the organization when it comes to being their authentic selves.

Combining these three elements, DE&I is an ethos that recognizes the value of diverse voices and emphasizes inclusivity and employee well-being as central facets of success. To bring those values to life, companies must implement programs and initiatives that actively make their offices more diverse, equitable and inclusive spaces.

“We as employers need to make sure we’re including these individuals and that we’re giving them equity,” said Catalina Colman, former director of HR and inclusion at Built In. “We need to make sure that, not only do they have a job, but they have the same ability to get promoted, to contribute and have the same impact — in the world and in the workplace — as their peers.”

WHY DIVERSITY MATTERS​

Diversity in the workplace is important because with different backgrounds come different points of view, which ultimately leads to better ideas and solutions.

“From a business standpoint, different perspectives directly influence a product — how it’s made, who it serves, how it functions and so on,” Colman said. “More perspectives make for a better product.” People from different backgrounds with varying life experiences will be able to provide new perspectives that help refine and enhance processes.

“There’s a level of innovation that diversity contributes to,” Colman said. “People bring a unique framework to the job that enables them to approach problems differently and propose unique solutions. The more diverse voices there are in your organization, the better your outcomes will be, purely from a business standpoint.”

Even so, Colman urges employers to look beyond the business case: “I believe that if we give people the equitable opportunity to not only be employed, but to have employment with purpose and passion, our society can and will do great things. It’s a measurable good for everyone.”
https://builtin.com/jobs

WHY EQUITY MATTERS​

In order to ensure equal circumstances for all individuals across the organization, equity requires that employers recognize barriers and advantages. This is the crucial difference between “equity” and “equality.”

“Equity takes into account the fact that not everybody is starting at the same level,” explained Colman. “Take home ownership, for example. A bank can make the statement that the loan application process is equal and that they will not discriminate based on race, gender or ethnicity. That doesn’t take into account student loans, familial debt, socioeconomic status, what have you. These are prohibitive factors that hold some individuals back from receiving a loan.”

These limitations are what define barriers and give rise to advantages, ultimately leading to an inequitable process. Colman offers a second example of job application rates between men and women — women tend to apply to roles where they meet 100 percent of the criteria, whereas men will apply if they meet just 60 percent.

“That’s a manifestation of your application process being inequitable,” Colman said. “The solution would be to ask yourself: How can I standardize my job descriptions so everyone has an equal chance to apply? How can I encourage someone who is qualified to submit their application even if they can’t check every box? It’s about leveling the playing field so the barriers to entry are the same for every single individual.”

For example, rather than listing years of experience as a requirement, identify specific areas of experience or scope. Doing so opens the talent pool up to qualified applicants who may be earlier in their careers. Instead of “five to seven years of project management experience,” ask for “experience managing projects autonomously, from ideation to implementation.”

Inequity permeates every aspect of your business, requiring vigilance and swift action. “HR practitioners have to do the work to understand how it is we can go above and beyond to make an equitable organization for everyone,” Colman said. “You’re not going to be able to build diversity if you’re not taking the steps to be more equitable.”

Companies that establish equitable environments not only support diverse workforces, but also incentivize employees to invest more energy and passion into their positions. “Equity is why we go to work,” explained Colman. “We want to get compensated fairly for our work, we want to be challenged, to learn and to contribute. People often choose an employer based on those things, which boil down to equity.”

WHY INCLUSION MATTERS​

While the workplace does require professionalism and etiquette, an inclusive culture should not bar individuals from being themselves.

“Employees should not worry about code-switching or shielding part of their identity,” Colman said. “They should be able to walk through the door without feeling like something about them has to change.”

Inclusion is what maintains diversity. Without it, employees will simply leave the organization. “If a candidate walks into a workplace and they’re the only woman or BIPOC employee, they’re going to question the employer’s authenticity and values,” Colman said.

“People want to belong, plain and simple,” she added. “And marginalized individuals want to know that they’re not going to be the token person to represent a demographic. They shouldn’t have to worry about that in the workplace; they should be focused on how they’re going to have an impact within the company.”

Why DEI is Important: Benefits of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion​

DE&I is vital to creating and maintaining a successful workplace, one founded on the principle that all people can thrive personally and professionally. Bringing together people of various backgrounds leads to new and creative ideas. More importantly, a DEI strategy contributes to a space where all employees feel they have intrinsic worth, not in spite of their differences but because of their differences.

“Every employee should feel valued at work, by their peers and their employer,” Colman said. “It’s not about just opening the invitation to everyone — it’s about making sure that every individual knows and feels they are welcome at your organization.”

And it’s not just DEI professionals like Colman who are calling for a drastic shift in the tech industry.

DE&I ISSUES MATTER TO CANDIDATES AND EMPLOYEES​

DEI has grown in popularity among candidates and employees. In fact, three-fourths of job seekers and employees treat DE&I as a major factor when weighing job offers and companies. Candidates recognize the positive effects of an environment that welcomes a range of backgrounds and want to join this kind of space.

However, employees aren’t the only ones who should be pushing for more diverse and inclusive cultures. Company leaders must also make the effort to implement DEI policies, and there are plenty of incentives for businesses to get started as soon as possible.

 

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DEI INITIATIVES IMPROVE THE LONG-TERM HEALTH OF COMPANIES ​

Companies that listen to DE&I advocates’ demands and make changes can benefit from a diverse and inclusive culture as well.

According to Forbes, increasing female partners’ shares by 10 percent often leads to a 10 percent rise in revenue. In addition, firms that display culturally and ethnically diverse executive teams are 33 percent more likely to lead their industries in profitability. When people feel welcomed for who they are, they perform at a higher level. It’s a win-win situation for everyone when companies take steps to diversify their workforces.

If the tech industry wants to truly be a place where innovation and ingenuity thrive, diversity, equity and inclusion have to take center stage. Employers must actively work to create meaningful change in spite of the history of injustice that has marginalized underrepresented groups within the workplace. This work is often spearheaded by HR departments.

HR’s Role in Implementing a DEI Strategy and Culture​

For employers and people management professionals alike, the biggest challenge is knowing where to start.

“There’s no quick fix,” Colman said. “A lot of people immediately jump to figure out how they can make their company more diverse, but you can’t underestimate the importance of inclusion and equity. Without those two pieces, you’re not going to achieve true diversity.”

Understanding how each element of DE&I builds upon the others is important to creating a work environment that is equitable and inclusive of all individuals. Just like DEI is a multifaceted process, Colman encourages employers to lean on each other.

“It’s not going to be a single HR person that addresses the issue of DEI for a company,” she said. “Lean on your professional community. You’re not going to be able to have all the answers because you don’t have all the perspectives.”

The focus on DEI has prompted a huge shift for HR. “I think the mindset has always been to avoid talking about these things,” Colman added. “We typically put them in the handbook and address them in training maybe once a year. We didn’t want to make people uncomfortable. I think right now, the call to action is about understanding how to navigate that discomfort and how to use that to elevate your workforce. It’s about doing the important work that is long overdue and becoming inclusive and equitable.”

 

[MischievousMonkey]

Nothing about the IQ shyt nor what Musk&Co's real point is. Typical.

 

[levitate]

Never heard of DEI until now. Anybody can provide a quick explanation?

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Programs that many organizations have incorporated into their hiring and employee retention/engagement programs.
It is aimed to expand the hiring pool to both include more underrepresented candidates and to have a company’s workforce be more representative of society as a whole. Benefits include having a workforce with a broader set of experiences and ideas, that in turn can result in better products and services. Merit is still the determining factor, it is about expanding access and outreach.

Elon’s ilk are insinuating or in many cases outright stating that DEI programs are racists towards whites and honorary whites. They imply or outright state that unqualified black/brown employees are getting positions over more qualified white and honorary white employees. This is not the case. Merit is the determining factor…it is about expanding outreach and access.

 

[Tupac in a Business Suit]

DEI should matter in the private and public sectors in the bodies that govern the people. The reality is that it’s opponents want the rules to always skew to them because once the fields are even, their illusion of success crumbles in front of their eyes.

Keep it pushing though cause intellect reigns supreme then, now and forever.

 

[bnew]

https://archive.is/QfwxY

 

[Dynamite James]

 

[Dynamite James]

 

[Dynamite James]