The end of diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) is nigh. But did it ever really take off to begin with? If you ask its fiercest opponents, the answer to that question would be a resounding “yes”.
In the eyes of the likes of President Donald Trump right down to the average conspiratorial right-wing dupe, DEI is to blame for everything from the tragic deaths of 67 people in the Washington air collision this week, to the failure of commercial banking giants. At a press conference on Thursday, Trump suggested the failure of air traffic controllers to stop a helicopter and aeroplane collliding was linked to “a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s [Federal Aviation Authority] program”.
Trump, of course, like many others who’ve jumped on the “wokeness is ruining society” bandwagon, is cloaking himself in policy announcements that either reference pre-existing legislation or further enshrine widespread conservative attitudes in law.
In under two weeks as president, he’s already declared the historically queerphobic, cisgender-normative United States of America a newly “two-gender” nation and scrapped government DEI initiatives in the shadow of already souring opinion towards them in the public and private sectors. According to 2024 research from the Pew Research Center, increasing numbers of people say the companies they work for spend too much time on improving DEI.
The picture isn’t much different in the UK. A recent Opinium poll of 2,000 Brits suggests 53 per cent of people both agree with Trump’s call for a “colour-blind and merit-based” society and with ending “the government policy of trying to socially engineer ethnicity and gender into every aspect of public and private life”.
That’s not to say the right’s hyperfixation on the imagined harms of making workplaces and society more inclusive isn’t damaging. Clearly, it’s swaying people. For the past five years, following a global explosion of DEI policy announcements after the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, those who subscribe to the belief that these interventions are a threat (to white people) have seized on opportunities to demonise them, even against evidence that diverse and inclusive workplaces lead to higher rates of retention and improved financial outcomes for all.
In the UK, just a year after the widespread introduction of anti-discrimination measures in the workplace in 2020, the then-Conservative Government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities reported its results. These echoed the so-called “colour-blind” position Trump has taken since, stating that “the best and fairest way to address disparities” in the workplace “is to make improvements that will benefit everyone, targeting interventions based on need, not ethnicity.” In other words, the recent amplification of anti-DEI views just reflects what’s been happening since the very moment these policies were announced.
In fact, social progression has always historically been followed by backlash. A recent paper in the Current Opinion in Psychology Journal by Seval Gündemir, Rouven Kanitz, Floor Rink, Inga J. Hoever and Michael L. Slepian for example, states: “Research indicates that unfavourable reactions to DEI policies are related to negative stereotypes and prejudice toward minoritised groups, to ethnocentrism, hierarchy-legitimising ideologies, heteronormativity, and to religious intolerance.”An unprecedented rollback of rights this may not be, but it does give those keen to introduce discriminatory policies – or to ignore duties towards improving inclusion in the workplace – a green light to further fail marginalised groups. Not that this is remotely a surprise to those of us at a higher risk of facing discrimination in the workplace.
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Read MoreAmid the rise of, in some cases, performative DEI announcements, I encountered countless conversations in marginalised communities about a widespread lack of faith in employers’ dedication to permanently transforming workplace culture.
It’s in part why, since the work-from-home revolution, so many people of colour are keen on remote roles. Let’s not forget that a mere two years after 2020, 120,000 people left their jobs because of racism.
Unfortunately, the appetite for rolling back social progress – and amplifying extremist conspiracy theories – only seems to be growing. Will the backlash against DEI impact the UK workforce in the same ways that it appears to be impacting America’s? As much as I hope not, I have a feeling this is only the beginning. We had a good run, I suppose.
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