Over the last few weeks, several corporations — McDonalds, Walmart, Ford, Meta, Amazon and more — have announced intentions to kill their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements, programs, initiatives, etc., in hopes of winning over the hearts and minds of the frothing bigot babies who elected Donald Trump president of the United States of America for a second time.
DEI, of course, is just the latest in an endless series of moral panics over poorly understood civil rights-related terms and ideas and likely would have blown right over as soon as these creeps latched onto something new. Especially because, again, they don’t really know what it is. Most of them think it’s the same thing as affirmative action, which it is not. The people who start these hysterias, like Christopher Rufo, have openly admitted that they just want these terms to be a stand-in for everything that makes ignorant right-wingers mad.
When you consider why it’s happening, of course, it really is horrifying. It’s because enough people have said “We would very much like to go back to living in a blatantly racist and segregated society” that corporations have decided they ought to be appeased.
Meta announced several new developments last week, mostly centered on becoming more hostile to transgender workers and customers. They not only eliminated DEI, but got rid of tampons in the men’s room, deleted trans and non-binary themes from Messenger and announced they will no longer bar hate speech against transgender people or calling women “property,” the latter of which feels unsettlingly specific.
Naturally, all the worst people in the world are rejoicing over this, thinking they’ve finally won the culture war against other kinds of people who insist on existing and having jobs where they don’t have to deal with rampant discrimination and harassment.
Except the thing is, DEI was never about simply hurting the delicate feelings of insecure heterosexual white men who earnestly believe they are innately more qualified to do everything than any other kind of person in existence. These programs weren’t implemented simply because these corporations actually gave a damn, or because they were virtue-signaling or even because they wanted to appease the Left. They were implemented because they helped the companies’ bottom lines in a variety of ways, including by helping them avoid discrimination lawsuits.
I know, it’s truly shocking. Big, soulless corporations were not earnestly fighting the good fight for minorities, but rather trying to make and keep more money. Just like they always are.
As Costco board member Jeff Raikes has explained, “Attacks on DEI aren’t just bad for business—they hurt our economy. A diverse workforce drives innovation, expands markets, and fuels growth.”
That’s not bullshit, actually. According to several studies cited by LinkedIn:
60% of respondents in a LinkedIn study said that diversity within their sales team has contributed to their teams’ success.
Organizations in the top quartile for gender diversity have a +25% likelihood of financially outperforming their peers.
Organizations in the top quartile for ethnic diversity have a +36% likelihood of financial outperformance.
Diverse companies earn 2.5x higher cash flow per employee.
Inclusive teams are over 35% more productive.
Employers that posted about diversity saw 26% more applications from women than employers who posted less.
None of this should be especially surprising. Obviously diverse workplaces are going to come up with more diverse ideas and obviously people are going to perform better when they feel included and appreciated and don’t feel lonely or discriminated against. I can tell you right now that when I worked at a place where I was the only woman and found out that I was making $8,000 a year less than all of the men who had the exact same job as I did, I pretty much checked out until I was able to get another job and get the hell out of there. It was really hard to try hard in that situation.
Then there are the lawsuits. Now, granted, there has been an increase in so-called “reverse discrimination” lawsuits in the wake of the DEI hysteria, but the vast majority of them have been deemed unfounded and were not successful. The fact is, even with DEI initiatives, many of these companies have been successfully sued for sexual harassment, gender discrimination, LGBTQ+ discrimination and racial discrimination.
Amazon, in particular, has a truly startling number and variety of discrimination and harassment lawsuits against it. Ford had to settle a $10 million racial and gender discrimination lawsuit in 2017.
McDonald’s, which announced last week that it would be ending its use of DEI programs, initially implemented them in response to sexual harassment and racial discrimination lawsuits from both employees and franchisees.
Diversity in and of itself actually reduces the likelihood that discrimination or harassment will occur. Think about it — which office is likely to have more sexual harassment? An office with one woman working there or an office where half of the people working there are women? Which office is more likely to have a culture of racial discrimination? An office of nearly all white people and one or two racial or ethnic minorities, or one that is more balanced? The answer is obvious. They’re also less likely to create a hostile work environment in which people feel like the odd one out or don’t feel included.
The things that make people angry about DEI are the reasons these programs need to exist to begin with. The main thing this whole venture has proven is that a whole lot of people truly believe heterosexual white men are the only people who are actually qualified for any job. So what does that mean for people who aren’t white men who apply for them?
One of the most common forms DEI efforts take is requiring that companies interview a diverse slate of applicants — which makes sense, given the fact that it remains true that people with white-sounding names are more likely to be called in for interviews than those with Black-sounding names. Without that requirement, who are people who believe that white men are inherently more qualified for jobs going to be calling in for interviews? Ironically, this will mean that companies will not only open themselves up to discrimination lawsuits, but that they will miss out on a lot of great, qualified workers, because of that ingrained prejudice. You see, while the anti-DEI crowd cries about “merit,” these programs actually ensure that merit is what matters. They also ensure that companies don’t lose good workers because those workers don’t want to deal with harassment or discrimination.
On the bright side, corporations eliminating DEI initiatives will really help out those who are suing their employers for discrimination or harassment, as doing so is blatant evidence that the company actively does not want to create a workplace culture that is diverse, inclusive and in which people are treated equally and fairly. So let’s hope they all gouge the absolute shit out of these cowardly bastards.
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