With attacks on all things considered “woke,” there have been persistent assaults on the field of DEI. Florida governor Ron DeSantis recently stated that the acronym DEI, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion, should actually stand for “discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination.” Some have even gone as far as to call DEI “anti-white.” This article explores this claim in more detail.
The “great replacement theory” stems from the idea that white people are being outnumbered by different non-white populations and that there is a plot to “replace” the white community with non-white groups. This racist conspiracy theory has been the root of several white domestic terrorist attacks including the 2015 Charleston church shooting, the violence that erupted in Charlottesville in 2017, and the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol. Since the popularity of anti-racism ballooned in 2020, there has been a backlash, or what some might describe as a whitelash, against policies and practices designed to rectify past harms and inequities.
Critics of DEI have claimed that it disadvantages white people. But when you break it down, does this assertion hold true? Affirmative Action, for example, was a policy created to prohibit discrimination in employment and college admissions processes, to ensure that everyone had an equal opportunity and access. Historically though, white people and more specifically, white women, have been the greatest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action programs.
A 2018 research study by Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer found that racial resentment among whites increased in 2008—the year that Barack Obama was elected as the first Black U.S. president. One of the consequences of this racial resentment is the zero-sum ideology that paints minoritized populations as the hoarders of “unearned” privileges to the detriment of the white community. Many Americans, for example, falsely believe that government assistance programs overwhelmingly benefit Black Americans when in actuality, social welfare programs benefit white Americans more than any other group.
It’s important that we consistently lead with the numbers; having an understanding of the data provides clear evidence that racial disparities exist and persist. If DEI is anti-white, this would be reflected in employment rates. Research suggests that many of the largest companies engage in racist hiring practices. A 2019 study of over 83,000 fake job applications at more than 100 companies, many of which were Fortune 500 companies, revealed that racial bias, particularly against Black job seekers, is a pervasive issue. In 2022, Wells Fargo was exposed for conducting fake job interviews of “diverse” candidates, when the job openings had already been filled; in 2020 the company had to pay $7.8 million in back wages for discrimination against over 34,000 Black applicants.
If DEI is anti-white, when examining advancement and promotions rates among different racial groups, there should be swarms of non-white employees being advanced and promoted at significantly higher rates than their white counterparts. A 2010 study by the Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) found that Black marines had “substantially lower-than-average promotion rates” within different ranks. According to a 2021 McKinsey study on the Black experience in the U.S. private sector, for Black employees that are hired in frontline and entry-level jobs, there is “a significant drop-off in representation at management levels.”
DEI involves the creation of different programs and policies to address societal inequities. These programs and policies are increasingly being weaponized against marginalized communities, and are being framed as undeserved benefits unfairly being given to minoritized communities. By fighting against and defunding DEI, those in opposition are fighting against their own best interests, dismantling programs that actually benefit them the most.
It is important to continuously debunk the myth that DEI is anti-white. When you interrogate hiring rates, promotion and advancement rates, and access to opportunities, there is an abundance of evidence, research and data that highlights how non-white groups continue to be disadvantaged. Closing the racial wealth gap, for example, could add $1 trillion to the 2028 U.S. economy according to a 2019 McKinsey report. Everyone, including the white community, benefits from a society that has systems in place to support the most marginalized. We cannot forget that all oppressions are intertwined and interconnected—when one community is hurting, it has reverberating impacts for us all.
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