Few three-letter words have polarized our country more than DEI — formerly known as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. DEI has embroiled America in a devastating rhetorical civil war, and it is tearing our nation apart. Fiercely loyal warriors on both sides of the debate passionately assert their case, willing to sacrifice time and effort to preserve or suppress the DEI cause, which in many minds is intended to encourage representation of black Americans.
Since the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, several phrases associated with helping black people have come under heavy criticism, such as: “woke” and “black lives matter.” DEI is no different, although statistics in many areas show this Non-blacks have benefited More DEI programs are black. Sometimes, facts don't matter. Research has shown that America will be better off economically If race-based barriers against blacks were abolished. Sometimes, even money doesn't matter.
But words are important. Words evoke emotional meaning based on their associations. Consider the person who hates Obamacare but loves the Affordable Care Act, or who urges the government to keep its hands off their money but accepts the monthly Social Security check.
It has been said that if you want people to listen, you must speak their language. The language of American business leadership and national prosperity is capitalism. DEI is a capital tool to increase income and wealth through equity. Increased fairness leads to increased employee engagement. Increased employee engagement increases innovation, productivity and profitability.
Sadly, for America, DEI attackers have fallen prey to the seductive and paradoxically disturbing power of the psychology of oppression—tactics designed to protect superiority by erecting and maintaining racially-based barriers to opportunity under the false assumption of a zero-sum world. Dehumanization is one of the oldest race-based tactics that has been effectively applied to this end.
The dehumanization inherent in slavery was necessary to justify its oppression and brutality to those who benefited from it. Although slavery was abolished, the goals of dehumanizing black people continued through government-sponsored Jim Crow laws Domestic terrorism.
Dehumanization is an insidious, persuasive, and polarizing tool because it imparts racial pride that can provide a powerful boost to self-esteem, even for non-elite members of a racial group. At the same time like research Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker suggests that the tendency of non-elite white individuals to internalize this superiority means that they will become defensive if threatened. This defensive posture results in resentment and hatred so strong that individuals are willing to give up their economic self-interest to support race-based oppression of black people.
Ironically, non-elite whites and blacks have more in common with each other than non-elite whites do with the elite. They face many of the same social and economic challenges, except for race.
The idea that Black people might benefit from DEI programs has caused anxiety, controversy, conflict, fear, and resentment. When one is accustomed to the whole pie and feels entitled to it, even a piece of bread that goes to a hungry person can conjure up the pain of loss.
The word “justice” has never been associated with black people in America. American companies have the opportunity to redeem their self-interests by shifting from satanic “artificial intelligence” to basic justice for all of humanity, not just one isolated group. Instead of killing off DEI departments because of the false narrative that DEI only helps Black people, corporate America should demonstrate leadership and fiduciary duty to stakeholders by making clear that DEI is a framework intended to help advance toward the often elusive concept of equity, which It will improve American trade engagement, productivity, profitability, and economic prosperity.
There are race-based barriers to opportunity It has cost the US economy more than $50 trillion since 1990. Demolishing it could generate $5 trillion within a few years. Improving employee engagement unleashes innovation and productivity that can generate $550 billion in corporate profits annually. The dividends that justice can bring to US businesses and GDP should receive the full attention of corporate boards, CEOs, CFOs, elected officials, and policymakers.
Justice is a matter of wealth and national security and cannot and should not be ignored. It is the most national form of capitalism, but it is obscured by semantics and linguistic nuances. If we are able to speak the same language and get on the same page, we still have a way forward.
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