As we all know, the MAGAs have turned against the implementation of DEI — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. They say that having a diverse workforce, participating in fairness and equity, which is done in a way that favors inclusion — is wrong.
For some reason we shouldn’t do that.
We should just let inertia control everything. We should ignore the tendency for majority and monopoly factions to gain the benefit of network effects.
According to the online course Economics for Managers, the term network effect refers to any situation in which the value of a product, service, or platform depends on the number of buyers, sellers, or users who leverage it. Typically, the greater the number of buyers, sellers, or users, the greater the network effect—and the greater the value created by the offering.
“In other words, the willingness to pay, for a buyer, increases as the number of buyers or sellers for the business grows,” says Harvard Business School Professor Bharat Anand in the course.
Normally “network effects” is a term of art within economics. It’s an established axiom that when there is a monopoly of a particular item or service within a market, the market tends to contort itself to favor that monopoly. We trust that competition is “fair” and that all services have an equal chance to display their “merit” in order to gain market share, but in reality that isn’t the case.
A minority product or service is challenged by barriers to entry in the market. In other words, everything tends to cater to the majority and that places roadblocks in front of every other potential service. A market is considered “monopolized” when a single product or service reaches 70% saturation or better.
We understand this, we accept this when it comes to services and products with a market.
But for some reason we don’t seem to understand a social or cultural monopoly when it comes to people.
- In 2022, 88.8% of CEOs, CFOs and COOs were White.
- In 2024, only 12% of global CEO appointments were Women.
- 67% of Business Owners are White.
- 51.4% of Business Owners are Male.
- 67.8% of Corporate Management is White.
- 59.8% of Corporate Management is Male.
- 63% of Doctorate Graduates are White.
- 52% of Doctorate Graduates are Male.
- 55% of Masters Graduates are White.
- 62% of Masters Graduates are Women.
Why is it that when 62% of Masters Graduates are Women, they somehow aren’t making the same inroads into Corporate Management, Business Ownership or CEO positions? They have the qualifications, but they still aren’t getting the jobs.
We all know that this country suffered under centuries of racial and gender discrimination that didn’t allow certain groups to accelerate through the ranks of education and business. We all know how that discrimination only allowed a certain group to rise to the top for centuries.
Does anyone think that inertia created by centuries of discrimination would just magically evaporate, that the network effects of a racial & gender monopoly at the top of the corporate chain would just vanish all on its own?
Solving that problem is what DEI is for.
DEI is an effort to broaden the pool of qualified applicants for a job or position. Rather than relying on connections, inertia and legacy DEI requires not just fishing from the nearest pier but looking for candidates that might be far afield.
It doesn’t require that unqualified candidates be selected. It doesn't affect the hiring process at all, it just increases and broadens the pool of candidates and allows the best qualified to rise from that widened pool.
DEI itself is not “Discrimination.”
Critics argue that DEI efforts amount to reverse discrimination and unnecessary social engineering. Their attacks have taken various forms, including legislative actions, policy changes, and public campaigns aimed at discrediting DEI practices. “These attacks undermine the gains of DEI to reduce racial bias in hiring, to destigmatize mental illness in the workplace, to provide equal benefits to same sex couples, and many more” adds Henderson.
Conservative attacks on DEI often ignore the empirical evidence supporting the benefits of DEI initiatives, such as improved employee engagement, innovation, and overall organizational performance. To clarify the reality behind DEI efforts, it’s important to address and debunk the most common myths surrounding them:
Myth: DEI is reverse discrimination
Reality: DEI levels the playing field
DEI is characterized as “reverse discrimination” in situations where white people believe they are negatively stereotyped or discriminated against because of their whiteness – or treated less favorably than people of color. This claim ignores a core ingredient of racism and discrimination: power. DEI seeks to rebalance that power and ensure that those who have been historically disempowered or deprived of equal opportunities simply because of their identities should be given a fair and equitable chance to succeed. This does not equate to discriminating against historically dominant groups.
Myth: DEI is illegal
Reality: It’s not
DEI programs are designed to promote fairness and inclusivity, and they operate within the bounds of existing laws aimed at preventing discrimination. For instance, DEI practices are grounded in federal and state laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, gender, and other protected characteristics. The recent Supreme Court decision to end Affirmative Action in college admissions does not render all DEI efforts illegal; it simply alters how race can be considered in certain contexts. DEI initiatives, which focus on creating equitable opportunities and fostering diverse work environments, do not violate the law but rather seek to align with it by addressing disparities and promoting a more inclusive society.
The SCOTUS banned “quotas” and quotas like systems in Affirmative Action in the 1978 Bakke Decision. This is why DEI only affects the pool of candidates, it doesn’t impact who gets chosen and who doesn’t. As usual, MAGAs don’t know this.
These efforts have mostly benefited women, but also people who are disabled and veterans allowing them to gain access to opportunities and work they’re qualified for, but were simply being previously ignored.
According to current understanding, while DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) aims to benefit a wide range of groups, many argue that women and veterans are often considered to be among the primary beneficiaries of DEI initiatives due to historical underrepresentation in certain fields and unique challenges they face in the workplace, particularly in leadership positions; therefore, the statement that DEI mostly benefits women and veterans holds some validity
[And a lot of MAGAs who’ve lost their jobs recently as a result of DOGE have been both veterans and disabled — because the Federal government employs high percentages of them because of… DEI!]
MAGAs have demonized this idea and this process claiming that it’s an “unnecessary distraction” and that it is “reverse discrimination” against [better qualified they assume] White Male candidates, even when it’s not.
AG Pam Bondi has even ordered the DOJ to open “criminal investigations of DEI.”
On Wednesday evening, newly installed Attorney General Pam Bondi sent staff in several divisions of the Department of Justice more than a dozen memos within a 15-minute span, laying out the agency’s new policies on issues ranging from reviving the death penalty, to targeting sanctuary cities, to enforcing a strict return-to-office policy.
One astonishing memo, seen by Slate, puts the DOJ at the center of President Donald Trump’s widespread efforts to destroy any traces of initiatives that would create inclusive and diverse workspaces, otherwise known as DEIA. The new memo claims that it will target private-sector diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives for potential “criminal investigation.”
Trump and Bondi have suggested that if they catch a university implementing “Illegal DEI” they will fine them for the entire amount of their endowment, which would likely shut that entire school or university down completely.
This is from Trump’s own Agenda 47.
These standards will include defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs incredibly, removing all Marxist diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats, offering options for accelerated and low-cost degrees, providing meaningful job placement and career services, and implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are actually learning and getting their money's worth.
Furthermore, I will direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination. And schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowment taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.
By “racial discrimination” he clearly means DEI.
Because we just can’t have discrimination against white people, can we?
If these efforts were unfairly biased against White Men, they would clearly have their own Civil Rights violation to complain about wouldn’t they? [And if that were the case, I would support them in that effort, we all should.] But if they truly are the “most qualified” then just having a wider pool of candidates that [they automatically assume] aren’t as strong as they are really shouldn’t be a problem, right?
Right?
Trump has been shutting down DEI offices and cancelling DEI contracts all over the government and even pushing corporations such as Target and Warner Bros.
- Feb. 27 Warner Bros. Discovery said in a staff memo it remains committed to building an “inclusive team” but would rename its DEI programs to simply “inclusion,” cease participating in external diversity surveys and implement a “uniform and consistent application process” across all of its development programs, multiple outlets reported (the company still reportedly said: “Our success absolutely depends on having a team that’s truly diverse”).
- Feb. 27 Goldman Sachs, weeks after axing a diversity requirement for companies it takes public, dropped a section about “diversity and inclusion” from an annual filing released Thursday, which CEO David Solomon said was to “reflect developments in the law in the U.S.,” Reuters reported.
- Feb. 26 Paramount will no longer use diversity targets—tied to race or gender—in hiring, and the company has begun removing DEI language from its website, the New York Times and other outlets reported, citing a company memo in which Paramount executives cited Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders.
- Feb. 25 Bank of America will end “aspirational” targets for diversity hiring and replaced the word “diversity” with “talent” and “opportunity” in an annual report, Bloomberg reported.
- Feb. 25 BlackRock cut references to DEI in its latest annual report, three years after the company’s CEO Larry Fink said the company “must embed DEI into everything we do.”
- Feb. 20 Citigroup will rename its “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Talent Management” team to “Talent Management and Engagement,” and it will end its diversity hiring goals, Bloomberg reported.
So, DEI is dead and dying. Trump is killing it, but he’s not stopping there. Not Hardly.
Agencies across the federal government are dismantling offices that enforce civil rights and antidiscrimination laws under a Trump administration push to shrink the workforce, weakening the government’s ability to deliver on legal obligations to protect workers’ rights.
The Social Security Administration this week announced it was closing its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, where about 150 people worked investigating civil rights complaints, preventing harassment and ensuring accommodations for people with disabilities, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Leaders at the Labor Department are planning to cut by 90 percent the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, which for decades has worked to ensure that government contractors took affirmative action to end discrimination at their firms, documents obtained by The Washington Post show. The Federal Trade Commission, meanwhile, has halved its internal equal employment opportunity office to three employees from six, and similar moves have taken place at NASA, where most information about how to file complaints has been removed from its websites.
The moves signal the Trump administration’s intent to deliver on U.S. DOGE Service plans for workforce cuts laid out in a series of documents obtained by The Post, which initially contemplated eliminating the civil rights functions altogether in violation of federal law.
The in-agency equal opportunity offices are mandated by statute to ensure that employees receive equal opportunity “regardless of race, sex, national origin, color, religion, disability or reprisal for engaging in prior protected activity” and have been viewed with skepticism by the administration, which has sought to purge the federal government of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in furtherance of President Donald Trump’s goal “to forge a color-blind and merit-based” society.
And it has long been on some conservatives’ wish list to kneecap the external civil rights work of the Labor Department’s contract compliance office, which for decades has audited the nation’s largest contractors — including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Deloitte — to ensure fair pay and hiring.
The DOJ has all but closed down its Civil Rights Division.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a directive to its Civil Rights Division, freezing all ongoing or new litigation. The specifics of the freeze are not clear; however, it appears to freeze new claims presented to the DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER).
Hidden among a flurry of executive orders, within the first week of President Trump’s second term of office, the media reports the DOJ issued a freeze memorandum to its Civil Rights Division, which is the arm of the DOJ that enforces federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, disability, religion, familial status, military status, or national origin. The memorandum reportedly freezes any ongoing litigation held over from the Biden administration, and it halts the division’s pursuit of any new cases or settlements. The Civil Rights Division is also tasked with enforcing voting and election laws. Although not confirmed, it is believed the action is aimed at freezing Biden administration’s focus on cases and claims involving discrimination and violence within police forces throughout the country, as well as cutting back on enforcement of existing voting rights laws.
The national database that tracks misconduct by Police Officers has been dismantled.
A federal system for doing background checks on law enforcement officers has gone offline — thanks to an executive order signed by President Trump when he returned to the White House on Jan. 20.
The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) was launched in 2023 as a central repository of the professional records of federal law enforcement officers. The main purpose was to allow prospective employers — other federal agencies or local police — to check their backgrounds for misconduct. The system is now offline.
Police misconduct reforms implemented by the Biden Administration have been reversed.
The Trump administration is putting a halt to agreements that require reforms of police departments where the Justice Department found a pattern of misconduct, according to a memo issued Wednesday.
“The new administration may wish to reconsider settlements and consent decrees negotiated and approved by the prior administration,” said the memo issued by acting Associate Attorney General Chad Mizelle.
Mizelle ordered the Justice Department’s civil rights division to “not execute or finalize any settlements or consent decrees approved prior to January 20, 2025, 12:00pm.” The memo also orders civil rights lawyers to notify Mizelle of any settlements or consent decrees finalized in the past 90 days.
“The memo furthers the department’s goal to speak with one voice in pursuing the administration’s priorities,” a Justice Department official said.
The move was widely anticipated with the change of administrations and has the potential to upend police reform efforts in Minneapolis and Louisville, Kentucky, which were announced by the Justice Department in the closing weeks of the Biden administration.
And the Trump Administration is slashing funding to fight Housing Discrimination.
President Donald Trump’s administration has begun terminating grants to organizations that enforce the Fair Housing Act by taking complaints, investigating and litigating housing discrimination cases for Americans across the country, according to documents and information obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.
The grants are disbursed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to private nonprofits, which act as the frontline enforcement of the federal anti-discrimination law passed in 1968. They educate communities on their rights, test whether a landlord is racially discriminating, investigate complaints, resolve disputes and can help with legal counsel.
Civil Rights enforcement has been shut down by the Social Security Administration.
The Social Security Administration closed its Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, charged with managing the agency’s civil rights, equal employment opportunity, harassment prevention and disability services at the agency, on Tuesday.
The day before, the agency shut down its Office of Transformation, set up in 2023 to work on agency-wide initiatives like removing requirements for wet signatures on SSA forms and launching digital signatures and electronic document uploads at the agency. Its closure leaves some with major questions about the future of work to move SSA online — including how the agency website will be updated moving forward.
Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek said in a statement that shuttering the civil rights office “advances the President’s goal to make all of government more efficient in serving the American public.” SSA is moving “statutorily required functions” to other parts of the agency, it said.
Civil Rights enforcement by the Department of Education has been shuttered.
In the three-and-a-half weeks since Donald Trump returned to the presidency, investigations by the agency that handles allegations of civil rights violations in the nation’s schools and colleges have ground to a halt.
At the same time, there’s been a dramatic drop in the number of new cases opened by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights — and the few that attorneys have been directed to investigate reflect some of Trump’s priorities: getting rid of gender-neutral bathrooms, banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports and alleged antisemitism or discrimination against white students.
We have already lost most of the Voting Rights Act due to a decision by the Supreme Court in 2013.
ATLANTA (AP) — Within hours of a U.S. Supreme Court decision dismantling a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, Texas lawmakers announced plans to implement a strict voter ID law that had been blocked by a federal court. Lawmakers in Alabama said they would press forward with a similar law that had been on hold.
The ruling continues to reverberate across the country a decade later, as Republican-led states pass voting restrictions that, in several cases, would have been subject to federal review had the conservative-leaning court left the provision intact. At the same time, the justices have continued to take other cases challenging elements of the landmark 1965 law that was born from the sometimes violent struggle for the right of Black Americans to cast ballots.
The argument made by the SCOTUS in the Voting Rights case was that the “country has changed” and the protections that were implemented in the 60s aren’t really needed anymore. States that participated in Jim Crow and segregation back then simply wouldn’t do that kind of thing anymore.
But they have done exactly that, only under another name. “Voter Integrity.”
Ten years ago, the Supreme Court eviscerated a central component of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. That decision removed the requirement for jurisdictions with histories of racial discrimination in voting to obtain federal approval for new voting policies — a process called “preclearance.” Without this guardrail, voters lost a bulwark against discriminatory voting policies, and states previously subject to preclearance were free to implement discriminatory restrictions on voting access without advance checks. Many states did exactly that.
Along with a prior decision narrowly interpreting constitutional protections for voting rights, Shelby County also sent a message to the nation that the federal courts would no longer play their historic role as a robust protector of voting rights. In the years since, the Court has repeatedly confirmed this, signaling to states that they could pass restrictive voting laws without fear of legal consequence. (The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Allen v. Milligan upholds the Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial gerrymandering, not against voting restrictions.)
Now government and corporations can’t do anything to combat the ongoing inertia of the white-male monopoly in higher education and corporate management that has existed for generations. It will just continue on and on as it has for decades.
Typically MAGAs have ignored this inertia and counter argued that the Civil Rights Act (and Voting Rights Act) enforcement was “more than enough” to discourage direct and deliberate discrimination.
Yeah, because two discrimination lawsuits each were all that was needed to change Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s behavior with their own companies weren’t they?
Or not.
And now, we don’t have even that. Civil Rights enforcement is gutted. The DOJ is standing down. The OFCCP — which handles implementation of Affirmative Action with Federal Contractors — is stunted. Housing Discrimination is defunded. The Voting Rights Act is non-functional. No one is tracking police misconduct when they hop from department to department, and reforms of those departments with documented misconduct have been halted.
All the key legislation and enforcement of the Civil Rights Era have been systematically dismantled.
But with all these protections shut down — as if every civil rights cop was taken off the beat — we’re not going to have any problem with rampant discrimination now are we? We’re not going to have bigots, sexists and assholes running rampant — even those in business and law enforcment — just because there are no more government efforts to deter and stop them anymore right? The existing network effects of the cultural monopoly in business isn’t going to just keep going and going unchecked and unchallenged is it?
Unless, of course, they think you did something to disadvantage a white man — because heaven forfend if that ever happens.
Yeah, I don’t think so either.
Frankly, Civil Rights enforcement was always a weak half-hearted effort of lawsuits that hardly had any impact, effect or deterrence value— now it’s completely nonexistent.
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