A shaky, uncertain economy isn’t the real reason. Nevertheless, it’s being used as the excuse for getting rid of chief diversity officers; significantly reducing DEI budgets and staffs; and pivoting to raceless, all-lives-matter-style workplace culture initiatives. It’s happening across industries, most intensively in larger corporations. But why? And why now, just three years after business leaders made such bold declarations of their commitments to DEI and anti-racism following the murder of George Floyd? Here are 10 explanations:
The Commitment Wasn’t Real
Black employees were rightfully skeptical of what leaders were saying in June 2020 about their organizations’ newfound commitments to DEI. Prior experiences within those workplace contexts made them and other employees of color doubtful of the switch that had been flipped overnight. It felt performative, like the company had merely jumped on a bandwagon to not appear racist. Those leaders weren’t actually committed, at least not for the long haul.
George Floyd Corporate DEI Response Efforts Were Haphazard
Many companies pledged millions of dollars (more than $200 billion altogether) without a clear plan of how they’d invest the funds. Too many others hired their first-ever chief diversity officers with unclear visions of what they wanted those professionals to do. Others created DEI councils comprised of employees whose hearts were in the right place, but they lacked subject-matter expertise and they most certainly weren’t qualified to develop sustainable DEI strategy.
Too Much Anti-Racism At Once
Before Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd forced a national conversation about systemic racism, employees and leaders deliberately avoided discussing race in most workplaces. Moving abruptly from race evasiveness to conversations about uncomfortable racial realities overwhelmed organizations that had maintained longstanding cultures of avoidance. Making all-employee DEI workshops mandatory frustrated people who didn’t want to talk or learn about these topics. Many have been eager to return to pre-2020 workplace norms.
Anti-Blackness
Because the 2020 summer of racial reckoning was in response to a white police officer murdering an unarmed Black man, antiracism was the emphasis of many DEI activities at that time. It’s important to note, however, that gender, accessibility, and LGBTQIA+ programming continued, plus attention was devoted to the important Stop Asian Hate movement and efforts to eradicate antisemitism. Even still, DEI agendas became perceivably too black. Deemphasizing racism and decentering Black employees is what’s happening now. Getting rid of the Black CDO and the largest possible share of the Black professionals that person hired is just one example of how anti-blackness is playing out in many companies.
Whitelash
In his New York Times bestselling book, American Whitelash, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Wesley Lowery compellingly chronicles how white Americans have reacted historically and contemporarily to racial progress that produced gains for people of color. Their resistance yields a seemingly never-ending three steps forward, two steps back outcome for our nation. In most large companies, boards of directors and c-suites, as well as senior- and mid-level leadership ranks are overwhelmingly (in some instances, entirely) comprised of white people. What they view as too much emphasis on race compels many white leaders to behave in defensive and at times staunchly oppositional ways. Collectively, they’re having an allergic reaction to DEI progress.
Transphobia
Few professionals can accurately disentangle sex and gender, or articulate differences between transgender persons, genderqueer people, and drag queens – nor do they care to learn. Trans and genderqueer employees have always been present in workplaces, yet colleagues failed to acknowledge, include, and make companies safe for them. Being expected in recent years to include pronouns in email signatures; attend gender inclusion workshops that conflict with what they learned in their families and churches; and mindfully avoid misgendering co-workers has been disorienting for a lot of employees.
Replacement Theory Fears
There’s tremendous fear that the diversification of the American workforce will put numerous white men out of work and lock them out of leadership opportunities. Even though there’s so little evidence to confirm it’s actually occurring, the mere possibility of a zero-sum game is scary to those who’ve always benefited most. Many also worry that the white, masculine, heterosexist, ableist cultures that were created long ago in companies will no longer exist, and the persons who created those cultures will no longer have a place.
Misinformation And Disinformation
One example of a single DEI facilitator telling white workshop attendees they’re racist gets widely circulated on social media and mischaracterized as what’s happening in all companies. It isn’t. Notwithstanding, one-off examples are used to strategically manufacture stories of widespread DEI ridiculousness and extremism. People therefore become opposed to something they’ve heard about, but never observed firsthand. For instance, how many congresspersons who recently voted to pass a bill that will ban DEI efforts in the military have actually experienced one of those trainings or reviewed the curriculum?
Culture Wars Have Come To Work
DEI is under attack in K-12 schools, at colleges and universities, in our nation’s military, and in communities across the country. Corporations and other workplace organizations aren’t exempt from this highly-organized, well-funded political movement. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who’s running for president of the United States, has declared a “war on wokeness.” Other Republicans are copying and pasting DeSantis’ blueprint, and it’s spreading like wildfire from public educational institutions and state agencies to other organizations, including private companies.
Executives Lack Courage To Fight Back
As politicized attacks on DEI rapidly make their way into workplaces, executives are running scared. Too few are standing up against misinformation and disinformation, defending their DEI initiatives, and refusing to surrender to anti-woke critics who know far too little about what’s really occurring in businesses. The scary letter that 13 Republican Attorneys General recently sent the Fortune 100 CEOs about racial discrimination in hiring will surely have a chilling effect on corporate DEI efforts more broadly — that was its intent. Executives are afraid of lawsuits and becoming the next target on conservative news outlets and social media. Watering down or altogether abandoning DEI efforts is easier, more comfortable, and perceivably less risky for those execs.
This list of explanations isn’t exhaustive, but everything on it is pervasive. As companies continue to walk back the DEI commitments they previously made, these and other rationales will become more deeply understood. Leaders don’t have to continue these trends. Indeed, they could devote themselves and expect all their employees to advance and sustain DEI initiatives. There are enough of them and they collectively have enough power to wage counterattacks on politically-motivated efforts to make American businesses less diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Which leaders will have enough integrity and courage to actually do it? We’ll see. Those who do so with authenticity, bravery, and strategy will play a significant role in saving our democracy.
Shaun Harper is a tenured professor in the Marshall School of Business, Price School of Public Policy, and Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California, where I hold the Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership. I am also founder and executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center. Over the past two decades, I have worked with more than 400 companies, agencies, and institutions spanning an array of industries. My work has included advising executives on DEI strategy and coaching leaders, as well as designing and delivering high-quality professional learning experiences for employees across all levels.
I have published 12 books, over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and academic papers, and more than 125 essays and op-eds in magazines and newspapers. Foundations have invested $22.2 million into my diversity, equity, and inclusion research, and I have procured an additional $18.5 million for my center at USC. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, and hundreds of other news outlets have quoted me and featured my studies. In addition, I have been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, ESPN, and NPR. My bachelor’s degree is from Albany State (an HBCU in Georgia) and my Ph.D. is from Indiana University. I am also recipient of five honorary degrees
