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Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) became Corporate America’s new buzzwords or should I say it’s hot new acronym of choice in 2020. But almost three years later, massive layoffs are revealing that some CEOs were never committed and the honest truth – the policies were smoke screens. To understand DEI in Corporate America one has to know it’s history. What many have failed to realize is DEI work has been around for decades. Before it became wildly popular, diversity, equity and inclusion was nestled somewhere in the folds of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), where many leaders are trying to return it as they endure major budget cuts. It wasn’t until the world exploded in the summer of 2020 and somewhere in the midst of people protesting the senseless killings of Black men, that our attention shifted to the inequalities that make up Corporate America. Minorities began to speak out against companies that looked like allies to the outside world, but their inner workings were filled with racism and discrimination against various groups including the disable and LGBTQ+. It was also during this time that we saw major companies like Facebook (now known as Meta), Google, and Twitter come forward pledging to change for the better, rewriting their mission statements and creating more opportunities for vendors from diverse backgrounds.
To ensure they were showing good faith in their efforts, every employer began to hire a DEI officer and create a DEI department. Job openings ranged from procurement, recruitment and education, to healthcare and technology. Yet when one read these job descriptions and took a long hard look at some of these companies, you’d scratch your head while pondering; did leaders really understand the work DEI officers should have be doing or did they simply not care. Well the the harsh reality is beginning to surface; some companies really didn’t want to change and diversity officers have become their sacrificial lamb.
With states like Florida swiftly approving white discomfort legislation that bans companies and institutions of learning from discussing or teaching topics about race and other subjects that make people feel uncomfortable, and everyone up in arms with misinformation about critical race theory, when I originally wrote these article in January, 2022, I paused and considered, “Was the DEI era coming to an end?” And the hunch that I had, was right. But to be fair, DEI was never given a fair chance. Corporate America never embraced the idea of diversity, equity or inclusion, they simply tolerated it.
Many corporate leaders responded to the pushback from the Summer of 2020 by hiring naive, unqualified individuals with melanated skin and giving them mission impossible checklists without providing proper training, resources or support. These same leaders also failed to do their part by encouraging a culture of change and psychologically safe workspaces before bringing in these new diversity officers. Tasked with having to train and educate co-workers who felt excluded because they were not involved in this ‘change initiative,’ on top of having their own unresolved biases, makes for a hot ass mess behind closed doors. To put it mildly, the diversity team was catching hell as they tried to do their jobs while dodging micro-aggressions and insults that were being hurled at them daily. Yes, they were literally trying to hold it all together both physically and mentally.
Meanwhile, company leaders were sitting back watching the disaster unfold, waiting patiently for their diversity officers to fail. Yes, some organizations allowed their DEI initiatives to fall apart on purpose so they could say “see…we tired,” before now happily handing their emotionally exhausted diversity department a severance package and a short goodbye. We are currently witnessing the peak of the shift I spoke of a year ago and the focus shifting to the hot new acronym – ESG which stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. This has been unfolding before our eyes over the last year, but everyone ignored it until now. And unlike DEI, ESG will survive because it doesn’t make people who don’t care, feel uncomfortable.
We have to understand that the executive suite in Corporate America is still a good ole boys system. It is a tight circle filled with white, heterosexual men who attended Ivy League schools, came from families that accumulated generational wealth from the ownership of slaves, and only see women and minorities as a means to an end- valuable for a certain amount of time before discarding us all like broken office furniture found at the Goodwill store.
I thought about ending this piece with a laundry list of action steps that managers and executive leaders could implement for successful DEI initiatives and outcomes, but then I stopped, “Would it even matter?” Unfortunately, the answer is no because for many, DEIs time is up. The honest answer is that Corporate America is tired of appeasing us. Executives are ready to tuck DEI and all of its uncomfortableness back into its corporate corner, hidden beneath CSR, ESG or whatever new acronym that will make us forget the many promises they made during the summer of 2020 and they are using these layoffs to carry out their plan. Because at the end of the day we still live in a society were comfort and greed will always be more important than inclusion and equality for all people.
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Dr. Carey Yazeed is a behavioral scientist who specializes in psychological safety in the workplace. She is the author of Shut’em Down: Black Women, Racism, and Corporate America, Everyday Struggle: How Toxic Workplaces Impact Black Women (both were bestsellers on Amazon in the category of business conflict), and Unbreak My Soul: How Black Women Can Begin To Heal From Workplace Trauma. Interested in having Dr. Yazeed speak at your next event, Click here to learn more.
