Companies remain committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, though how they implement DEI is changing, Axios reported.
First, businesses are using the DEI term less than in the past.
The focus is moving away from "those three words" toward efforts around "wellbeing and inclusion," The Conference Board's Human Capital Center Leader Diana Scott said, Axios reported.
Also, some companies are focusing on hiring for socioeconomic diversity, and on changing job requirements to find more diverse talent without targeting a specific race or ethnicity, Fortune reported.
"Companies are really starting to look at other ways to do the work without saying that they're doing the work," said Cinnamon Clark, co-founder of DEI consulting firm Goodwork Sustainability, Axios reported.
National skepticism toward DEI, the Supreme Court's ruling in June to make affirmative action at institutions of higher learning illegal, and budget cuts all have contributed to companies changing how they look at diversity.
Big tech giants, including Google and Facebook, drastically cut their diversity, equity and inclusion programs this year, in some cases slashing DEI budgets by as much as 90%, CNBC reported.
Major U.S. companies including JPMorgan Chase have modified policies meant to boost racial and ethnic representation that conservative groups threatened to sue over, a Reuters review of corporate statements found last month.
Companies now want to avoid any programs that could draw legal scrutiny.
"Anything that smacks of a quota" is out, Scott said, Axios reported.
The DEI issue also could take more of a back seat as the 2024 elections approach.
"It's hard to imagine with the amped up rhetoric of an election year that people really want to stick out their neck more," said Kevin Delaney, co-founder of media and research company Charter, Axios reported.
DEI was in the news last year, when certain states passed anti-DEI legislation.
In May, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that prohibits institutions from spending federal or state dollars on discriminatory initiatives, such as DEI programs.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also signed into law a ban on DEI offices and initiatives at Texas public universities and colleges, which must provide proof of their compliance to access funding for the next fiscal year.
The recent chain of events involving former Harvard President Claudine Gay, who, while testifying before Congress, refused to say that calling for the genocide of Jews was against the university's conduct code, also put DEI initiatives in the news. Gay was the school's first Black president and DEI proponent.
"Public support for DEI has cratered," Christopher Rufo, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion column.
"Following the outpouring of sympathy on elite campuses for Hamas's war of 'decolonization' against Israel, many Americans — including many center-left liberals —became aware of the ideological rot within academic institutions. They began to question the sweet-sounding euphemisms of DEI and examine what they mean in practice."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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