As of late, there have been many updates to legislation that will greatly impact the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). DEI, which has been dubbed by some as the diversity-equity-inclusion industrial complex, has seen a powerful resurgence since the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Although there was a community of practitioners that had been engaging in DEI work for decades, in the last few years, throngs of new practitioners have emerged, as the willingness to finance corporate DEI programs skyrocketed.
What we’re seeing now could be categorized as DEI backlash. But this backlash is not new; anytime there has been progress made towards racial equity and justice in America, resistance and backlash, or what has been called white backlash has ensued. White backlash is defined by Merriam-Webster.com as “the hostile reaction of white Americans to the advances of the civil rights movement.” There are several examples of white backlash throughout history.
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which was supposed to mark the end of enslavement, although many enslaved people weren’t free in Confederate-controlled states until June 19, 1865. Shortly thereafter, the Ku Klux Klan, an organization created to terrorize freed Black people, was founded. There are several examples of white backlash throughout the 20th and 21st century. In the early 1900s, Black residents in the Black-built Tulsa Oklahoma neighborhood of Greenwood were experiencing great success and prosperity. But this ease and enjoyment was short-lived; in 1921, the Tulsa Race Massacre took place and over 1,250 homes of Black residents were burned down and hundreds of residents were killed by an angry white mob.
After the first Black president, Barack Obama was elected, a CNN/ORC poll indicated that a majority of Americans felt that race relations between white and Black Americans had worsened, with reports indicating a spike in hate crimes following Obama’s win in 2008. Fast forward to 2020; after over three years of heavy focus on DEI, Black Lives Matter and anti-racism, fatigue, backlash and resistance has set in. There are now more ongoing and concerted efforts to redact Black history in America, repress conversations about critical race theory, remove bodily autonomy from birthing people, and reverse the strides that racially marginalized and other historically excluded communities have achieved.
Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to ban Affirmative Action and to severely limit LGBTQIA+ protections. It seems that any incremental progress made towards equity and justice is currently under siege. Although DEI is far from new, the growing movement against it seems to be gaining traction. The future of DEI (or whatever it will be called years from now), requires practitioners to understand the cyclical nature of change while anticipating the inevitable resistance that always seems to follow societal progress.
The DEI space may see several shifts and iterations in the upcoming years. As climate-related disasters become more prevalent, there will be an increased focus on environmental justice and how it intersects with racial justice. Despite efforts to defund DEI, younger generations of workers will continue to prioritize workplaces that center DEI. Though the language and terminology of DEI will change, the main objective will remain the same: creating environments that help members of the most marginalized communities to thrive. We should prepare for and expect more DEI backlash over the coming years.
DEI practitioners must remain steadfast, while remembering a few things. First of all, everyone is not needed for change to happen. A successful revolution requires enough people who are sick and tired of the status quo, who are willing to engage in some action (or a series of actions) to catalyze change. Second, although progress will be slow, we cannot forget to monitor the small strides made towards equity and justice. And third, it’s important to organize and build community with other change-makers to strategize how to combat repeated attempts to suppress, stymie, and stifle DEI.
Many ancestors have laid the groundwork to ensure that the most marginalized populations are able to survive and thrive. It is important that those invested in DEI to recognize that whenever the public consciousness shifts and evolves, there is always backlash. Resistance seems to be a precursor to societal advancement and progression. Though it can feel like the world is on the precipice of calamity and disaster, change may be just beyond the horizon.
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