Major companies are pulling away from DEI policies.

 

File photo of Meta headquarters. AP.

Many major companies are pulling back from, or eliminating entirely, DEI policies. AP. The so called "diversity, equity and inclusion" policies were widely adopted after the 2020 George Floyd riots. DEI policies were designed to prevent discrimination against "marginalized groups" but critics say they were essentially discrimination in a new form. Activists, spurred on by a Supreme Court case that banned Affirmative Action in college admissions, have targeted companies that continue to use DEI policies. Companies that have dropped or scaled back DEI programs include Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram), Amazon, Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Ford Motor Company and Lowes. 

My Comment:

It really does seem like the DEI experiment is over. Certainly it seems like the pushback has begun at least and some companies are bending the knee. It's not the end for sure, many companies are still keeping some form of DEI and there are others that are only scaling back, but I still view this as a positive development. 

DEI was never anything but a racial spoils system for certain minorities that came at the expense of other folks, most notably Whites, East Asians, and men of all races. Instead of making colorblind hiring and promotional considerations, DEI made race and gender a forefront to those decisions and it had bad effects. 

It also caused a massive amount of resentment. Nobody wants to hear about how their race is bad and how it's their fault other people don't succeed. And nobody also wants to see someone get a job or promoted because they belong to a group they don't belong to. I really don't think people believe that your race either makes you a villain that isn't redeemable or a angel that can do no wrong. Those ideas are harmful enough on their own, but when you can't get a job because of it or are passed over for promotion? 

It also hurt those minorities as well as now very few people will believe that the folks that benefited from DEI, black women, transgenders and women in general, are actually competent. Many of them aren't of course, but it is bad for the ones that are that the perception is out there. The old color-blind system was so much better because you knew for a fact that anyone from one of these "marginalized groups" who actually made it had earned it by merit and merit alone. 

I do think that part of the reason why DEI is getting pushed back upon is because it simply doesn't work. There is a competency crisis in the United States right now and these programs are a real reason why. If you hire and promote people based on anything other than merit, you are going to get worse results. The fact that this wasn't obvious remains one of the major mysteries of the past few years. Did these big companies do this because they actually thought it would work? Or were they that scared of Democratic activists? 

What is clear is that they aren't afraid of Democratic activists now. I do think they have some genuine fear of the folks on Team Trump, largely because their outrage is organic while Democratic outrage appears to be mostly astroturf. After all, they all remember what happened with Bud Light, which still hasn't recovered from the Dylan Mulvany boycott. 

But I think most of this is simply the CEO's reading the way things are going. Folks have been talking about a vibe shift and I think I feel it too. The Democrats losing in 2024 in the fashion they did was a mandate of heaven shifting moment. Folks are sick of people being judged for anything other than their merit and things do appear to be changing.