Is Diversity Becoming Illegal?

Nearly every major company now has in place diversity and inclusion programs aimed at ensuring Black people and other marginalized groups are no longer overlooked for job opportunities and promotions.

Some are even investing in programs that help their employees learn about fellow co-workers and the issues they may face.

Companies and institutions learned what’s been obvious to me since I was in college. That a diverse classroom and workforce are not only important to advance equity in this country, but diversity at the table is instrumental in solving problems, getting fresh ideas and having more robust discussions.

People from different places, generations, genders, religions, races and ethnicities all have unique life experiences that cause them to bring different things to the problem solving arena.

It’s also not a complex math equation to figure out that generations of systemic abuse of our Black brothers and sisters in virtually every aspect of society has left us with a vastly inequitable society with uneven playing fields. That’s true even if you think we live in a post-racial world.

You’d have to be living under a rock not to know that companies have for generations not always hired qualified Black candidates. You’d have to be blind not to have noticed that Black people, women and others have been excluded from important projects at companies. Or not given credit when they have an idea.

There’s a reason straight white men still serve in 85% of C-suite executive roles at nearly every major company.

Even with this, DEI is not about seeing if we can stop hiring or promoting talented white men. There’s never been any mass exodus of white men from the workforce as a result of DEI.

Its core is about educating everyone about diversity and inclusion and promoting a diverse and equitable workforce. It’s about making sure everyone gets a fair shake at working their way up company ranks.

Yet despite this, conservative judges and politicians have now gone on an all-out assault on DEI programs, claiming, ironically, that they’re unfair to white people.

Have you noticed that only when the rigged system is being challenged is there suddenly something unacceptable and unfair?

It wasn’t enough that courts have outlawed any use of race in college admissions (God forbid we would want marginalized communities to improve), removed a race-based COVID program (even though Black people suffered a disproportionate impact due to a variety of systemic racist policies), ended federal contracting programs that sought to use diverse contractors, and forced the 55-year-old Minority Business Development Agency to stop focusing on minorities.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (covering Florida, Alabama and Georgia) in June 2024 temporarily outlawed a grant program that provided capital to Black women for businesses even though Black women have for generations not had fair and equal access to investment as white folks.

Multiple states have also enacted legislation aimed at stopping DEI programs. Florida even attempted to ban private companies from conducting DEI training, although parts of its Stop WOKE Act were overturned by the courts.

Fearing litigation following some anti-DEI rulings, some private companies are nonetheless ending minority fellowships and internships and programs aimed at diversifying their workforce.

It’s hard to imagine how a level playing field or giving people a fair shake or hiring a qualified diverse workforce is unfair to anyone. Unless, of course, by unfair you mean not giving mainly white folks most of the opportunities.

It’s likewise puzzling why learning about how race plays a role in our unconscious minds, or what our Black brothers and sisters endure, somehow harms white people. Unless we don’t want people to learn and grow.

White men for generations have been given preferential treatment at the expense of others. Not because they’re all bad people. That’s how the system was rigged, which many believe remains that way.

The idea that we should end that lopsided system and instead diversify our workforce and leadership ranks isn’t unfair. It’s the definition of fair.

So we’re clear, DEI is not and has never been about hiring Black firemen and women who can’t lift a heavy ladder while not giving jobs to qualified white people. It’s not about making sure people get promoted who didn’t do a good job instead of promoting white people who have.

DEI has never advocated having a doctor operate on you without proper training. DEI doesn’t mean retaining unqualified employees at the expense of white people.

Those are racist lies told by people who want to scare you and keep the status quo and their rigged system.

Indeed, that lie has been told since I was a teenager, and yet 40 years later, there’s still no problem with white folks being able to excel in this country.

Huh. Go figure.

Our nation desperately needs leaders who understand that the only way to a better America is to provide fair opportunity and dignity for all. Not just some.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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