Ending DEI And Shifting To Merit-Based Inclusion
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Because I use a cane and struggle with steps when I climb onto a rental car-bus, train, etc. if it is full, someone often gives me their seat; this is an act of kindness I appreciate. {Never Happens When I Walk By First Class on planes!}
The above gesture is voluntary. But when elite universities, Police and Fire Departments, Airlines, and Medical Schools openly acknowledge using different standards to judge African American performance, someone is involuntarily giving up their earned seat. This is discrimination.
Recently, I learned two of my friends lost their jobs due to DEI. Their performance and results were above standards, but they were the wrong color. Some tell me this is fair because of the discrimination I and generations before me faced. I disagree. A wrong is a wrong if it takes place in the days of 1824, 1924, or 2025.
On January 21, 2025, the White House Ordered: “ENDING ILLEGAL DISCRIMINATION {DEI} AND RESTORING MERIT-BASED OPPORTUNITY.”
The order stated, “These illegal DEI and DEIA policies also threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities.”
The order also stated: “Longstanding Federal civil-rights laws protect individual Americans from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. These civil rights protections serve as a bedrock supporting equality of opportunity for all Americans. As President, I have a solemn duty to ensure that these laws are enforced for the benefit of all Americans.“
The Cancelling of DEI Happened Before the January 20th Swearing-In Ceremony.
For decades, the US has fought for diversity and equality. Shortly after George Floyd’s death, the focus shifted to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. I believe it was an error to change the goal from equality to equity.
“While equality assumes that all people should be treated the same, equity considers a person’s unique circumstances and adjusts treatment accordingly so that the result is equal.“
How do you adjust treatment so that the result is equal when two or more candidates come from vastly different backgrounds? One was coached, mentored, and prepared, while the other faced sink or swim and was lucky not to drown.
DEI is offensive to and opposed by not only some white Americans but many black Americans as well because of their fear of being painted with the brush of “quotas” vs. “competence.” VP Harris was often referred to as a DEI VP. This reduced her chances of winning the presidency.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion {DEI} policies swept the U.S. (Universities, Governments, Corporations, Military, Etc.) shortly after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. Over the past 12 months, many of these programs have been canceled, and staff has been laid off or reassigned. {See below Appendix}. Unfortunately, DEI is joining a long list of failed affirmative action programs.
DEI is Joining a List of Failed Affirmative Action Programs.
Past Affirmative Action Efforts That Have Failed To Move the Averages
- Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty- Reminds me of the Vietnam and Afghanistan wars.
- Busing Kids to Achieve School Integration. It was incorrectly assumed black kids would do better when enrolled with white kids.
- Quotas for College Admission to increase minority students where standards were lowered. Lowering standards was expected to be a short-term (decades) solution.
- Minority hiring quotas in corporations.
- Defunding the Police so fewer blacks are arrested.
- Electing DAs who refuse to prosecute criminals so blacks with a population of 13% would not comprise ~50% of prison inmates.
- Allow the theft of less than $1,000.00 to reduce black arrests. Who cares about Mom and Pop Owned Stores?
- Canceling k-12 standardized tests because blacks do poorly.
- Lowering state standards for public school teachers in New Jersey and other states.
- Electing candidates simply because they are black/brown/female/triple winners, even if less qualified.
- DEI programs, where some universities hired dozens of DEI staff. Ohio State University spends~ $90 million annually. Can anyone calculate the ROI?
- Pretty Sure I Missed a Few
The Cost of DEI And the Results
The U.S. has struggled with equality since the Founders wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yet, these constitutional authors supported or tolerated slavery. Following slavery, Jim Crow, and other discrimination against blacks, including lynchings, several affirmative action programs were implemented to close the education and wealth gaps between races. Most failed to close the gaps significantly.
In recent months, an unsurprising trend has emerged in the corporate world: companies are canceling their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Thomas Sowell’s concept of stage one thinking is that “Liberal politicians propose expensive policy solutions and never ask the only questions that matter: long-term costs and consequences. In other words, what happens beyond stage one? When these costs and consequences fully manifest themselves and are usually disastrous, the politicians and administrators who initially set the policies are long gone. They’ve derived all the political benefit and paid none of the cost”.
The Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision, “Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.”
Most companies cite the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, for rolling back DEI efforts. The court ruled that race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Court found that a school could not establish racial quotas, insulate members of certain races from the normal admission processes, or otherwise seek to admit a specific percentage of a racial group simply because of its race.
“It is not even theoretically possible to ‘help’ a certain racial group by lowering qualifications standards for that one group without causing harm to members of other racial groups.”
I Had To Lose My Fear Of Not Being Good Enough!
Too many accept lower standards for test scores, and fewer black students will become successful STEM graduates. For some, it may be driven by the same fear I had as a teenager. When I went to college and decided to be in the early classes where blacks were finally accepted at NC State, I was fearful I would fail. I believed, after years of segregation and doubts expressed by others, that I was not good enough. So, I did not try, as I figured it better to get poor grades by not trying than to work and fail. A REALLY DUMB IDEA!! But then Dad (my safety net and rock) died unexpectedly at 60. I knew I had to grow up and get my ass out of college, so I studied and steadily increased my performance. With hard work, I learned that I could get A’s. I realized I did not need special consideration because of my skin color; I needed to work my ASS off!
Maybe others fear they cannot make it in STEM studies or will not make the minimum test scores for admittance to MIT, Yale, etc. Believe in yourself. Look in that mirror and say:
I will not only do this, I will kick ass.
Everybody has a will to win. What is far more important is having the will to prepare to win. Bobby Knight
Our Youth Needs More and Better Role Models
“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college; it starts YOUNG,” “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” Vivek Ramaswamy – December 2025
Unfortunately, Vivek’s words ring too true in America today. Black youths must stop idolizing ONLY entertainers and athletes and find role models they can emulate! Unless you are one of the rare superstars to make it to the NBA, dribbling a basketball is an entirely useless skill set. Only 0.03% of high school basketball players advance to the NBA. By the way, I loved playing basketball but recognized I would never earn a living playing a game!
A strong basis in math and science will serve you much better than your dribbling skills!
We had an opportunity to watch the state and city “leaders” on TV following the disasters in New Orleans and the Los Angeles fires. These leaders have been so busy pointing fingers that it appears no one has the time to step forward and competently lead. Poor hire decisions matter in jobs critical to life safety.
The focus and intent of Diversity were to ensure all groups are represented in the selection process and that the most qualified person is fairly selected, regardless of race and sex. We cannot and should not promote/ elect people underqualified into life safety-critical positions such as Politicians, Fire and Police Chiefs, Pilots, Surgeons, Doctors, etc. In the long term, doing so will cause more harm to diversity objectives and our country at large than good.
We should hire and promote the best candidates regardless of who they look like!
I love seeing black Police Officers, Pilots, Firefighters, Surgeons, etc., BUT I want the same level of competency that has been set as a minimum.
“I Have A Dream Today”
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character. I have a dream today.” We made progress towards his dream. To make Dr. King’s dream a reality, we must not give preference to skin color but judge each person by their character and competency. While blacks are 13 percent of the U.S. population, for various reasons, including past discrimination, we are NOT 13 percent of STEM grads, engineers, pilots, doctors, etc. If we want to push our percentage upwards, and I hope we do, we must do the work in our community to propel more young black kids forward. They can do it!
Conclusion: Let’s Make His Dream REALITY!!
In the New Orleans Terrorist Attack and LA Fires, we saw leaders’ with questionable competencies refusing to accept accountability from Mayors, Fire Chiefs, Police Chiefs, and others. We saw three prominent university presidents perform poorly testifying before Congress, and all three were demoted or terminated. They could not bring themselves to condemn students shouting for the genocide of Jews.
We cannot afford to continue to sit back and wait for the next government program that is going to fix our ills magically.
The government and/or corporate DEI programs have had poorly defined goals and objectives and few, if any, metrics. It is time for us to retake ownership of our needs, as we essentially did before the big (and largely failed) government programs of the 1960s and 1970s.
If DEI aimed to impose “equality of outcomes,” it went about it backward. The “outcome” is the end of the game. We need more emphasis on the beginning of the game – the early education years. Imposing an artificial outcome is a recipe for failure because it may insert improperly prepared individuals into positions they cannot handle. And possibly worse, cast a cloud of doubt over well-qualified minorities.
“Racial discrimination cannot (forever) be used as a blanket explanation for disparities in employment, education, and income. A racial or ethnic group’s self-development, acquiring certain attitudes and behaviors, has far more bearing on economic advancement than how a group is treated by society.” Thomas Sowell
APPENDIX
Companies that have announced rollbacks of their DEI programs:
Jan. 17- The FBI confirmed in a statement to Forbes it had closed its DEI office—
Jan. 10 – Amazon said it would roll back what it called “outdated programs and materials” in an internal memo, citing employee programs that were established to address a “specific disparity,” though it did not specify what would be discontinued
Jan. 10- Meta said in a memo the company ended several programs intended to increase its hiring of diverse candidates, including its equity and inclusion training programs, after Janelle Gale, Meta’s vice president of people, said the “legal and policy landscape” surrounding DEI efforts in the U.S. is “changing.”
Jan. 6- McDonald’s announced it would abandon specific diversity targets, cease participation in external surveys that measure company demographics, and rename its diversity team to “Global Inclusion Team,” citing the Supreme Court decision that ended affirmative action at universities and similar DEIwalkbacks by other corporations. However, it said it would continue to report demographic information in its annual report.
Nov. 25, 2024- Walmart said it would abandon its DEI commitments, including winding down a Center for Racial Equity nonprofit it had founded in 2020 with a $100 million, 5-year commitment, ceasing third-party sellers from offering certain LGBTQ-themed products on its website, no longer participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s external surveys and phasing out the term “diversity, equity and inclusion” in company documents.
On Nov. 1, 2024, Boeing dismantled its global Diversity, equity, and inclusion department and redirected its staff to its human resources department to focus on talent acquisition and employee experience.
Sept. 4, 2024- Molson Coors, which had in 2023 defended a feminist-themed ad that sparked conservative backlash, said it would abandon supplier diversity quotas, shift DEItraining sessions to focus on business objectives, and stop participating in external diversity surveys despite previously receiving a perfect 100 from the Human Rights Campaign for its LGBTQ policies.
Aug. 28, 2024- Lowe’s said in an internal memo it would combine its employee resource groups into one umbrella organization, cease participating in HRC surveys, and stop participating in external events like Pride parades.
Aug. 28, 2024- Ford Motor Co. informed employees it would stop participating in external diversity surveys and would evolve its employee resource groups to focus on networking and mentorship to all employees, citing the evolving “external and legal environment related to political and social issues.”
Aug. 22, 2024- Jack Daniel’s manufacturer Brown-Forman told employees it would no longer tie executive compensation to DEI progress, remove workforce and supplier diversity goals, and cease participating in the HRC index, citing the shifting “legal and external landscape.”
Aug. 19, 2024- Harley-Davidson said it abandoned its “DEI function” in April. It said it does not utilize diversity quotas for hiring or suppliers. It would no longer participate in HRC surveys or partner with sponsors that do not focus on its “loyal riding community.”
July 16, 2024– John Deere said it would no longer support “cultural awareness” events like Pride parades and would audit company documents to remove “socially-motivated messages,” adding that diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been company policy. However, it said it would continue to track employee diversity internally.
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I am a proud nerd (as my beautiful wife and daughter have told me) investment and finance blogger with an NC. State, Chemical Engineering, University Rutgers, MBA and Harvard University, Advanced Management education.
I left a corporate career because I desired to make a difference as a speaker and writer. I was blessed to be coached and mentored by strong women and men in my family and professional life. It is my time to serve and give back.
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