The DEI Regime | City Journal
Three factors drive corporate executives to adopt DEI programs. First, these initiatives serve as an insurance policy against frivolous race- and sex-discrimination lawsuits. The legal department can point to mandatory trainings and policies as evidence that the company is doing something to prevent discrimination. Second, executives create these programs to appease internal activist groups that want to use the corporation as a platform for left-wing race and gender activism. Third, splashy DEI initiatives, such as Wal-Mart s $100 million Center for Racial Equity, form part of a reputation-laundering strategy, improving a company s public image and preempting Black Lives Matter-style protests through fashionable philanthropy. As a bonus, corporate executives, most of whom are rich but not famous, can use the associated galas, events, and junkets to boost their social status and hobnob with celebrities and political figures.
Some conservative commentators have pointed out the internal contradiction of corporate DEI policies: they don t reflect the values of customers and don t serve the bottom line; the political meaning of the word equity, for example, is predicated on an anti-capitalist worldview. But this assessment misses the broader point that, given the current political, social, and legal incentive structure, executives are making a rational decision to adopt DEI policies, even if they are doing so in bad faith.
Christopher Rufo.