Few three-letter words have polarized our country greater than DEI—formerly often called diversity, equity, and inclusion. DEI has embroiled America in a ruinous rhetorical civil war that’s tearing our nation apart. On either side of the talk, passionately committed fighters are championing their cause and are willing to sacrifice effort and time to preserve or suppress the reason for DEI, which within the eyes of many is to advance representation for Black Americans.
Since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, several terms related to helping black people have come under heavy criticism, corresponding to “woke” and “Black Lives Matter.” “DEI” isn’t any exception, although statistics in lots of areas show that Non-blacks have benefited more from DEI programs than blacks. Sometimes the facts don’t matter. Studies show that America could be significantly better off economically if racist barriers against black people were abolished. Sometimes even money doesn’t matter.
But words matter. Words trigger emotional meaning due to their associations. Think of the one who hates Obamacare but loves the Affordable Care Act, or who tells the federal government to maintain its hands off their money but is completely happy about their monthly welfare check.
They say should you want people to hearken to you, you could have to talk their language. The language of American corporate governance and national prosperity is capitalism. DEI is a capitalist tool for increasing income and wealth through fairness. More fairness results in more worker engagement. More worker engagement results in more innovation, productivity, and profitability.
Sadly, DEI attackers in America have fallen victim to the paradoxically seductive and fear-inducing power of oppression psychology—tactics designed to guard superiority by erecting and maintaining racially based barriers to opportunity under the false assumption of a zero-sum world. Dehumanization is considered one of the earliest racially based tactics used effectively to this end.
The dehumanization inherent in slavery was crucial to justify its oppression and brutality to those that benefited from it. Although slavery was abolished, the goals of dehumanizing blacks through Jim Crow laws and state-sponsored Domestic terrorism.
Dehumanization is a clever, persuasive, and polarizing tool since it instills a racial pride that may greatly increase self-esteem even amongst non-elite members of a racial group. At the identical time, as Research Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker suggests that the tendency of non-elite whites to internalize this superiority causes them to go on the defensive when it’s threatened. This defensiveness results in resentment and hatred so strong that folks are willing to sacrifice their economic self-interest to take care of the racially motivated oppression of blacks.
Paradoxically, non-elite whites and blacks have more in common than non-elite whites have with their elites. Race aside, they face lots of the same socioeconomic challenges.
The concept that Black people may benefit from DEI programs has created anxiety, controversy, conflict, fear, and resentment. When you’re used to believing you deserve the entire pie, even a crumb going to the hungry can bring on the pain of loss.
The word “fairness” has never been related to Black people in America. American business has a likelihood at self-serving redemption by moving from the demonized “DEI” to basic fairness for all of humanity, not only an isolated group. Instead of abolishing DEI departments based on the false narrative that DEI only helps Black people, American business should display leadership and fiduciary duty to its stakeholders by declaring that DEI is a framework designed to assist advance the all-too-often elusive concept of fairness that may improve America’s business engagement, productivity, profitability, and economic prosperity.
Racial barriers to opportunity has cost the US economy over $50 trillion since 1990. Reducing it may well generate $5 trillion in only a couple of years. Improving worker engagement unleashes innovation and productivity that may generate $550 billion in corporate profits annually. The gains that fairness can bring to businesses and the U.S. GDP should command the complete attention of corporate boards, CEOs, CFOs, elected officials and policymakers.
Fairness is a matter of prosperity and national security that can’t and mustn’t be ignored. It is essentially the most patriotic type of capitalism – however it is obscured by semantics and linguistic nuances. If we’re capable of speak the identical language and agree on the identical line, the trail forward is correct in front of us.
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