DEI debate (conveniently) ignores the problem it’s supposed to help solve

By Steve Phillips

If not DEI, then what?

Elon Musk thinks we should simply move on. 

In a recent, now viral, sit-down interview with Don Lemon, Elon Musk, one of DEI’s top public enemies, doubled down and continued to assail diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Musk said society should stop making racism a “constant subject,” adding: “I think we need to move on.”

One attempted remedy

Attacks on DEI initiatives in academia, government, and business by high-profile, powerful business leaders like Musk and politicians, are all the rage these days (emphasis on rage). But if we step back from the sound and fury of the barrage against DEI, we can see that it’s simply one attempted remedy to fix a much larger and longer standing problem — the more than 400 years of historical and systemic racism in our country that has led to a gargantuan, ever-widening gap of inequity.

No amount of coaxing us as a nation toward “moving on” can mend that gap.

DEI, like any attempted remedy to any problem, is not perfect. However, my criticism of DEI is diametrically opposed to that of Musk and its mostly conservative foes; I firmly believe that the initiatives do not go far enough or fast enough. We’ve been dealing with systemic racism and white nationalism since 1619. Even though Musk told Lemon, “we [should] look to the future, rather than the past,” the fact is that the past is the present when it comes to the impact of this country’s racist history and the rate at which most Black people and other people of color experience racism and racial bias. What we need now are bigger and bolder solutions, and to unapologetically push for greater change.

Persistent racial wealth gap

“...the net worth of the average white household today is $250,000, that same figure for the average African American household is just $27,100. ”

By any objective measure, the problem that DEI was designed to remedy remains far greater than any perceived ills, inconveniences, or loss of privileges that may have precipitated in its relatively short lifespan (even with its roots in the 1960s and 1970s, that still wasn’t that long ago). For example, whereas the net worth of the average white household today is $250,000, that same figure for the average African American household is just $27,100. The plethora of social and economic inequalities in housing, employment, education, and other aspects of society are inexplicably intertwined with this enormous racial wealth gap that was created — and never rectified — through a system of free Black labor that created enormous white wealth. Do we say to these average African American households, just move on?

Those who support and do the work of DEI understand that achieving true equality requires more than just removing explicit barriers; it demands continuous, proactive efforts to address implicit biases, systemic injustices, and cultural norms that perpetuate discrimination.

Post-George Floyd “racial reckoning”

After the May 2020 police murder of George Floyd ignited nationwide and international protests against systemic racism, 50 top U.S. corporations quickly jumped in to partake in this “racial reckoning,” making broad claims and (ultimately short-lived) pledges to do their part to address the persistent inequalities wrought by racism. These companies — including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Pepsi, Facebook, Google, and Apple — made an estimated $50 billion commitment, mostly in loans and grants, with many vowing to integrate racial justice initiatives in the way they do business day to day. WalMart proclaimed “Black Lives Matter; football players put pithy social justice slogans on the backs of their helmets. A year after Floyd’s murder, job postings with DEI in the title or description increased 29%, according to the job site Indeed.

Then, last June the Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, struck down affirmative action in college admissions (an outcome that conservatives had been pushing for many years). With their decision, the Court effectively sent up a Bat-signal to conservative opponents of affirmative action. Those opponents took the signal and ran wild, fanning out and pressuring private employers to fall in line, even though the court’s decision didn’t apply to corporations at all.  

Fast and furious backlash

“By late-2023 DEI-related job postings had declined 23% from the same time a year prior. ”

The impact of this backlash has been fast and furious. By late-2023 DEI-related job postings had declined 23% from the same time a year prior. This year, companies continued to slash teams dedicated to DEI. On the academia and government front, every day brings fresh news that opponents of DEI are all in to win this battle. In the current legislative session, Republicans in more than 30 states, including Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, have introduced or passed more than 100 bills to restrict or regulate DEI initiatives.

Earlier this year, in January, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who led the call for the ousting of Claudine Gay, Harvard’s first Black president, penned a 4,000-word diatribe stating that, “DEI is racist because reverse racism is racism, even if it is against white people.” In a billionaire pile on, Musk, in a retweet of Ackman’s tirade, wrote, “DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it.” (This after he tweeted last December, “DEI must die.”) 

DEI and U.S. history of racism

Well, no, DEI isn’t another word for racism, but setting that aside for the moment, what about racism itself? What’s the plan for dealing with that? And where are the angry tweets and 4,000-word diatribes against racism? 

Attacks on measures to address systemic racism in this country are not new. They go back as far as the 1776 Continental Congress when representatives of Southern states struck down words condemning slavery from the Declaration of Independence, the country’s founding document. Abraham Lincoln’s interest in healing the wounds caused by hundreds of years of chattel slavery was attacked by the Ackmans of his day, accusing Lincoln of kowtowing to abolitionist political leaders “who had Negro on the brain.”

One can’t help but wonder where Ackman and Musk and their ilk would have stood at prior pivotal points in our nation’s history. Though the truth is, we probably don’t have to wonder too hard, even if Musk, in his interview, claimed that “if you study history broadly, everyone was a slave…we are all descended from slaves.” (Oh really, Elon? Does that mean I might run into you at the next family reunion?)

“Negro on the brain”

Ackman’s lament that “the Harvard board should not have run a search process which had a predetermined objective of only hiring a DEI-approved candidate” sounds suspiciously similar to saying that the Harvard board had modern-day Negro on the brain.

If societal problems that gave birth to DEI persist, then the opponents of reform measures like affirmative action and DEI must either not know or care about these deeper ills plaguing our nation. It’s hard to believe they don’t know. So it must be that they don’t care.

The more damning question is, do we care? Do we, collectively as a nation, care more about remedying centuries-long systemic racism that created and continues to perpetuate a massive racial wealth gap than the false narrative of “reverse racism” that white billionaires are shouting from the Twitter tops?

And by “we,” I am specifically wondering about progressive and even some moderate whites in this country who make up a significant portion of this “we.”

“Vision to see that injustice”

I am reminded at this time of the words Dr. Martin Luther King expressed in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” After encountering backlash to his era’s remedies for racism, including nonviolent protests and civil disobedience, King wrote, “First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. . . I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action.”

Our nation’s failure to stay the course after the end of the Civil War led to the destruction of Reconstruction and handing back nearly half the country to Southern slaveholders who, along with many of their descendants, went on to foster and defend legalized white supremacy for the next nearly 100 years.

Ending the status quo

In his interview, Musk said, “We as a country should move beyond questions of race and gender. We should treat people as individuals and base our opinion of them on their characters and skills.”

“I don’t think anyone would disagree with that,” Lemon said. “All I’m saying is that that’s not happening.”

Without sustained, focused, intentional, and even controversial action, memories fade, commitments recede, and the status quo endures. Lest we repeat the mistakes of the past, we would do well to stop and ask, if not DEI, then what are we going to do to address long-standing systemic racism and discrimination?