DEI: A Triumph of Human Progress

Trump’s score-settling opposition to DEI reflects his desire for a white male-dominant society.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the Super Bowl!

Harrison Butker is the field goal kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, who lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl yesterday. Last May, Butker gave the commencement speech to graduates of Benedictine College, a small Catholic college in Atchison, Kansas, in which he warned against the “tyranny of diversity, equity, and inclusion,” just one of his many conservative talking points.

At his Super Bowl press conference in New Orleans, NFL Roger Goodell pushed back against recent rumblings from the Trump administration to reject DEI. “I believe that our diversity efforts have led to making the NFL better,” Goodell explained. “It’s attracted better talent. We think we’re better when we get different perspectives, people with different backgrounds. We make ourselves stronger…when we have that.”

This culture war skirmish passed without fanfare save for lingering links between DEI and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (it’s not what you think).

Patrick Mahomes

Patrick Mahomes is one of the best quarterbacks in pro football. He’s a two-time MVP. His team has won three Super Bowls in the last six years. Anyone who has observed Mahomes work his magic in the backfield will testify that Mahomes, a Black man, needed no special dispensation from above to climb to the top of the heap.

Ah, but people of a certain age should remember when Black starting quarterbacks in the NFL were a rare breed. James Harris of the Buffalo Bills became the first Black quarterback to start a season opener…in 1969. Compare that to the 2024 season, when Black quarterbacks were under center for half of all NFL teams.

What changed? The NFL read the tea leaves and was no longer comfortable being a whites-only sports league (see the Rooney Rule). The NFL chose to practice DEI. Patrick Mahomes is but one amazing result.

The Roots of DEI

According to Forbes magazine, there is a consensus among DEI supporters that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 laid the groundwork for DEI to be embedded in civil society. LBJ’s achievement made illegal discrimination in hiring and accommodation based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Affirmative Action policies were adopted by educational institutions to address the historic neglect of certain minority groups.

Over time, the anti-discrimination movement expanded to include women’s and LGBTQ rights. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act of 1973 opened the workplace door for many qualified people with disabilities.

It was the right thing to do. It wouldn’t take long for corporate America to hop on board.

It’s Good for Business

In the ’60s, Xerox Corp. pioneered a forerunner to DEI, the Employee Resource Group. Concerned about racial tensions in the aftermath of the 1964 race riots in his native Rochester, New York, Xerox CEO Joseph C. Wilson started a voluntary forum with Xerox’s Black employees to address the issue of discrimination and develop a welcoming corporate space.

In due course, ERGs fostered the collective wisdom of a company’s many diverse groups to create a win-win workplace environment. For the employee, meeting casually with peers of different backgrounds cultivated networking and a sense of belonging, which in turn encouraged personal and professional development.

For the company, gains in employee satisfaction led to increased productivity. When employees feel good about going to work, they develop a stake in the success of the company. Win-win.

By 2011, 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies reported having ERGs.

Fighting Workplace Bias

ERGs helped embed DEI values in corporate culture. The overall goal is to have all employees be given full opportunities to contribute and succeed in the workplace, and that the workplace reflects the demographics of society.

Critics of diversity claim that DEI is a solution in search of a problem. They seem to ignore that workplace bias still rears its ugly head. According to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it received 81,055 complaints of employment discrimination in FY 2023. Charges of retaliation were the most cited complaints, followed by discrimination based on disability, age, sex, and race.

DEI Success Stories

According to HR Executive, studies show that diverse companies are more productive, more innovative, and more profitable. They are 70 percent more likely to capture new markets. HR Executive:

Diversity is no longer a matter of regulatory compliance or even social justice. Organizations that lag behind their competitors in diversity will find it more difficult to attract top talent, break into new markets, innovate, and build a good reputation among employees, customers, and outside stakeholders.

Apple

Despite visiting President-elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago last December, Apple CEO Tim Cook won’t be joining other tech billionaires in abandoning his company’s DEI program. In fact, Cook has spoken out against a conservative group’s anti-DEI proposal to Apple’s board of directors. Cook’s commitment to diversity runs deep.

Apple’s 67 employee groups, called “diversity network associations,” were established in 1986. Its supplier diversity program was launched in 1993. Apple hired its first vice president of inclusion and diversity in 2017. Other large companies have followed Apple’s lead because it must be doing something right.

Apple was the first company in the world to reach the $1 trillion, $2 trillion, and $3 trillion market capitalization milestones. It currently competes with chip maker Nvidia and Microsoft for the world’s most valuable company.

With Trump in office, the backlash to Apple’s DEI programs is ongoing. Meanwhile, the company keeps printing money.

Coda

DEI has long been a conservative scapegoat. Trump has of course embraced its demonization. It’s not hard to understand why: This is a man whose reality show, The Apprentice, ended each episode with the star delighting in the epithet, “You’re fired!”

Trump does not hide his obsession with race. This is a man who: cavorted with White Supremacists and sent them into battle on Jan. 6…urged the death penalty for five Black and Latino teenagers after they had been exonerated…called Mexican immigrants “criminals” and “rapists”…called Barack Obama’s birth certificate a “fraud” and claimed Obama was born in Kenya…Taunted Sen. Elizabeth Warren with a nickname, “Pocahontas”…Suggested that four minority Democratic congresswomen, all of whom were American citizens, should “go back to the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came”…said a federal judge was biased against him because of the judge’s Mexican heritage…called for a complete shutdown of Muslims entering the US.

Add DEI to the list.