Spike O’Neill: The dangers of vilifying DEI
Jul 25, 2024, 10:25 AM | Updated: Jul 30, 2024, 7:15 am
A stock photo of a workplace meeting. (Photo: Cecilie Arcurs, Getty Images)
(Photo: Cecilie Arcurs, Getty Images)
I feel like I need to say something about the growing vilification of the DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion.
Maybe I’m looking at the world through rainbow-colored glasses, but I’d like to think that diversity is a good thing. Equity is a good thing. Inclusion is a good thing. Remember not getting picked for the team? Not getting asked to the dance?
When did DEI become an implied synonym for unqualified?
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Many people argue against the very concept of DEI with the arguments that it discourages meritocracy. That it advances mediocrity. That it puts people in positions merely because of their gender or the color of their skin. DEI is far from perfect, but the goal was never to advance the unqualified. Its goal is to provide more opportunities for everyone because, historically, that hasn’t been the case.
Others argue that DEI only benefits certain groups while harming others. Again, to buy into that argument, you have to first believe that organizations that pursue DEI policies do so with a willingness to sabotage their own success. I don’t know of any business or organization that would put their own survival at risk just to do the right thing regarding DEI.
It’s like DEI is being used as a club by a certain segment of the political, business and cultural spectrum to defend themselves against what are understandably scary changes in the country and world that we live in.
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But I fear that the weaponization of DEI might be being used to accomplish something else — something darker in our culture and in ourselves.
It seems to many that the concepts and policies of DEI are far too often being used in place of the things some in our society and our politicians aren’t allowed to say. At least out loud. Is it that those words together have too much power when you string them together?
Questioning a person’s qualifications or ability to do a job is valid and even necessary. But asking those questions should be based on their actual qualifications and ability to do the job, not the false and prejudiced narrative that DEI is a synonym for unqualified.
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