Inequality and privilege continue to be an American reality. Policies and initiatives to maintain and support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion continue to be a necessity and must not be abolished.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump and other Republican politicians have taken aim at DEI efforts, policies, programs and related discourse in the U.S. with a flurry of executive orders.
The Trump administration has gone after DEI initiatives among the federal government, universities and colleges, the military, and other settings, while baselessly accusing DEI policies as to blame for the airplane crash over the Potomac River last month. Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker declared that statement proved Trump was “unfit to lead.”
But Trump is not alone in his anti-DEI comments; Vice President Tim Vance and many other mainstream Republicans have made similar statements disparaging DEI. The irony of Trump’s presence at the recent Super Bowl where Kendrick Lamar’s half-time performance celebrated Black art, culture and history, is not lost.
In response to Trump’s anti-DEI efforts, several large U.S. companies including Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Walmart, McDonald’s Corp, Google, Meta, Ford, Lowe’s, John Deere and Harley-Davidson, have repealed, eliminated or reduced their DEI programs and initiatives.
Yet, in this country, many colleges, corporations, and other sectors continue to have serious issues with under-representation of racial minorities, women, disabled workers, and other marginalized groups historically and in the present.
In the 2024 book, Diversity in the Power Elite: Ironies and Unfulfilled Promises, the authors describe diversity among America’s “power elite,” as the collection of high-level decision makers in business, education, and government who wield a great deal of influence in American society. While diversity has increased in these upper-level positions, the playing field remains far from level for non-white Americans and women, as visible across many sectors of American society.
Even though colleges are characterized of bastions of liberalism, diversity is lacking among college professors, as described in research by Inside Higher Education, The National Center For Education Statistics, and US News & World Report.
Men continue to be over-represented among college faculty. Despite making up approximately 15% of the U.S. population, Black faculty are estimated at 7% of full-time faculty; similarly, Hispanics are approximately 19% of the U.S. population but comprise only 6% of full-time faculty. These disparities are even worse among tenured, full-professors.
Racial diversity is severely lacking in governmental staff, and retention continues to be low for POC staff at upper-levels of leadership. In spite of efforts to diversify, new research shows in the tech industry, the majority of programmers and developers are white and male. This corresponds with overall data from the larger tech industry.
While corporate boardrooms have become more diverse in the last few years, that momentum has stalled, as shown by recent research from The Conference Board. The growth in 2023 and 2024 among corporate board diversity actually decreased in comparison to 2022 and earlier. Even though corporate board diversity is higher than in the past, people of color and women continue to be under-represented in these positions.
Baseless partisan claims that DEI initiatives are net-negatives, is untrue. Research has shown that diversity is good for colleges, corporations, and other settings. Diversity initiatives boost productivity and profits.
A diverse student body and diversity among faculty can positively impact student graduation and helps students learn about different experiences and backgrounds. A diverse workforce allows companies to better collaborate with clients, customers, and other businesses.
As a university professor in sociology, I witness and study the ways that privileged groups benefit from cultural advantages and social networks that favor whites and men in the processes of admissions, hiring, and advancement in many settings.
Sociologists use the term “cultural capital” to describe how racial and gender hierarchies define whose cultural mannerisms—such as speech, accent, body language, and clothing—are rewarded and favored in colleges and corporations.
Research finds that white Americans are often the beneficiaries of “cultural matching,” wherein processes of hiring and admissions favor their identities and cultural background.
To be sure, many sociologists and other academics have critiqued diversity discourse and DEI policies. Many of these initiatives have been guilty of simply doing lip-service to their goals with diversity statements that do not translate into concrete action.
Research has found that the presence of these endeavors and initiatives does not necessarily guarantee that an institution will bolster its diversity and address inequalities. Sometimes, these initiatives place undue burden on marginalized groups to do diversity work, and many diversity professionals have to navigate their work without adequate material and inter-personal support.
But despite these issues, tearing it all down is not the answer. The current “scorched-earth” approach to DEI will not work; it is not possible to simply burn these initiatives to the ground. Issues of underrepresentation, inequality, and privilege continue to define many sectors of American society.
In spite of the latest proclamations of the harms of diversity, DEI initiatives are an ongoing necessity in the United States, and we must begin from that fundamental truth as we move forward.
