Corporate DEI May Rebrand, But It’s Not Going Away

A quote was buried in the last paragraph of the Associated Press' Aug. 28 account of a decision by Lowe's, the home improvement retail giant, to scale back its DEI policies. But it speaks volumes about how the next manifestation of so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” will work in corporate America as the 2020 Summer of George Floyd hysteria fades to mist. A stealth approach will be key.

“We could see potentially a resurgence of DEI-related efforts or retrenchment,” stated Jen Stark, co-director of the Center for Business and Social Justice at BSR, a progressive “consulting network” made up of more than 300 brand-name companies. She further said that "companies will continue again to do this work in practice or in name – (but) the degree to which they show up publicly will be dependent on the landscape.”

Lowe’s and US auto goliath Ford recently announced they are moving away from pronounced DEI corporate policies. A renewed sense of fair play for all employees likely has little to do with it. Fear of falling victim to crushing consumer boycotts like those that buckled the financial bottom lines of Target and Bud Light has sparked a public relations panic in executive suites across America.

Chastened Corporations?

“We will continue to put our effort and resources into taking care of our customers, our team, and our communities versus publicly commenting on the many polarizing issues of the day,” Ford CEO Jim Farley wrote in an Aug. 28 memo to employees.

That’s as far a cry from 2020 as one can get.

“There are no easy answers. We are not interested in superficial actions. This is our moment to lead from the front and fully commit to creating the fair, just and inclusive culture that our employees deserve,” read a letter to employees from Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and then-CEO Jim Hackett in the immediate wake of Floyd’s death.

It would appear this is the main lesson being learned by big-brand companies today: Don’t be so public about it. But does that really mean DEI will be rooted out of corporate America?

Lowe’s, at this very moment, still has a “Diversity and Inclusion” page on its corporate website boasting of numerous DEI honors the company has received over the past year. “We strive to promote diversity in every facet of our business. Our supplier diversity program helps underrepresented businesses succeed and create more local jobs. We are a member of 9 national and regional supplier diversity councils that help us push towards a more inclusive business,” Lowe’s gushed.

DEI Radicalism With a Smiley Face

BSR activist Stark, in an Aug. 30 blog post, encouraged companies to redefine DEI in positive terms, as opposed to the judgmentalism of the previous few years. “It's essential for existing DEI programs to evolve and that stakeholders – including employees, consumers, investors, and communities – understand how these initiatives can benefit everyone,” she wrote.

Is that hard to do when you are berating hapless employees for their “privilege”?

Fear not, however. Another DEI “expert” says pleasant word substitutes can get around this nettlesome problem.

Forbes writer Julie Kratz described Latasha Morrison as a DEI “thought leader.” Morrison, author of the new book Brown Faces, White Spaces, wants to put a softer hue on racial scapegoating in the workplace.

“As DEI practitioners, we're not married to the current terminology,” Morrison told Kratz. “Our goal is to create a culture of belonging for every employee, regardless of race, gender or disability.”

“Regardless of the name we choose for the work, the work does not change,” Kratz stressed. “Morrison found in her research that words do matter. For example, instead of white fragility, she uses racial literacy. They both have similar impacts on people learning more about how to talk about race, but the term racial literacy creates less-polarizing responses.”

Congratulations, white people. You’re not fragile anymore; you’re just uneducated. It’s a step up, one supposes, from whiteness being a pathogen, as a University of Minnesota professor asserted in 2022, to no significant blowback whatsoever.

Morrison is not without influence. The “certified trainer in cultural intelligence and unconscious bias,” through her Be the Bridge organization, “hosts more than 2,000 Be the Bridge groups in America, and the Be the Bridge curriculum is used in more than a dozen countries,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Her latest work “breaks down nine aspects of American life where the author believes racism endures: education, health care, the justice system, the economy, the military, property ownership, entertainment, sports and the church,” the paper noted.

This is the all-encompassing ideology now seeking to hide behind a fresh coat of paint. The proponents of DEI fully understand that they get the best results from captive audiences. They retain leverage from implied or directly stated threats of employment loss dangled over the heads of everyday working Americans. But they’re going to be a lot nicer about it from now on, really.