As a Black woman born into poverty in rural Virginia, I benefited tremendously from the Civil Rights Movement. But today’s DEI policies are not advancing that cause.
The end of affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs through executive orders brings us back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. That’s a good thing. It means a return to an emphasis on nondiscrimination, equal opportunity, and merit-based advancement where more individuals get a shot at attaining the American Dream — the very conditions we achieved 60 years ago, which DEI and affirmative action have since undone. Despite the turmoil of the 1960s, Congress passed three major civil rights acts that made us equal under the law, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Open Housing Act of 1968.
I benefited tremendously from the achievements of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s that culminated with those legislative actions that made us equal under the law. As a Black woman born into abject poverty in rural Virginia, a high school dropout, and a single mother, I worked hard and went on to earn five degrees. These laws opened doors that gave people like me a fair chance to succeed or fail depending on our individual actions and abilities — and not the color of our skin.
But in recent years, DEI and affirmative action ensured the color of our skin rendered us unequal under the law. Thankfully, these racial and gender spoils systems died when President Donald J. Trump issued an eight-page directive titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” His directive reminded Americans that every major institution in society was handicapped by “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences” that came in the form of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” It noted that DEI efforts could violate the existing civil rights laws I mentioned previously, and undermined both our national unity and “traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement.” Instead of distinction yielded from merit, DEI policies left Americans with an “unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.” Moreover, it devalued “individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination” even in critical fields like medicine, aviation, and law enforcement — impacting public safety by lowering employment standards.
As I argue in my book, The Adversity of Diversity, DEI programs and policies were doomed to fail because they violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Just like the race-based affirmative action that skewed college admissions did.
I’ve long argued that affirmative action needed to be race-neutral and that DEI policies created conflict and turmoil in the workplace and on college and university campuses. Affirmative action and DEI could devolve into reverse discrimination against non-protected groups (such as white males, Christians, conservatives, Asians, etc.).
After George Floyd’s death in police custody, we witnessed numerous large corporations pouring millions of dollars into organizations such as Black Lives Matter and DEI initiatives meant to aid social justice. The social activists’ demands for corporate social accountability resulted in companies creating spaces for chief diversity officers. It quickly became a billion-dollar industry. By August 2020, corporate America made over $50 billion in pledges of loans and grants to fight racial injustice after Floyd’s death. In 2021, 94 percent of over 300,000 jobs within S&P 100 companies went to people of color.
By 2023, however, corporate America began scaling back and eliminating many DEI jobs. There was a 44 percent decline in DEI-related job postings compared to previous years, with a 23 percent year-over-year drop in November 2023. As that proverb goes, hasty plans come to poverty.
Corporate America was bamboozled by social justice warriors who wanted more than the law required. McKinsey and Company, a prestigious international consulting firm, produced four major studies between 2015 and 2023 that advocated for DEI. Their studies told companies that there was a positive correlation between DEI in the C-Suite and increased profits. DEI was touted as a value present in successful corporations. One article of theirs stated: “Companies that are diverse, equitable, and inclusive are better able to respond to challenges, win top talent, and meet the needs of different customer bases. With DEI in mind, companies are considering how to better support employees. Over the past few years, many organizations have taken strides to build diversity, equity, and inclusion into their policies and hiring practices.”
But in 2024, professors Jeremiah Green and John Hand discovered the McKinsey data was unreliable and unreproducible. In a report for Econ Watch Journal, Green and Hand concluded: “[McKinsey’s studies] should not be relied on to support the view that U.S. publicly traded firms can expect to deliver improved financial performance if they increase the racial/ethnic diversity of their executives.”
For all the vehemence and assurances of activists and experts alike, DEI never proved its worth in the workplace or society as a whole. It could never seem to deliver on its promise of diversifying and improving group interaction through sensitivity training. After the Supreme Court struck down race-based college admissions, the corporate sloughing of DEI initiatives only quickened.
Does the end of DEI and affirmative action mean colleges and universities, workplaces, and all other institutions will lose their diversity and end up being dominated by privileged white males? Absolutely not. Our preexisting anti-discrimination laws established 60 years ago will ensure a healthy diversity of bodies, minds, and talents. Even with DEI and affirmative action gone, nothing prevents outreach efforts to vulnerable populations — so long as opportunities are offered on a race- and gender-neutral basis.
Dr. Carol M. Swain is the author of The Adversity of Diversity: How the Supreme Court’s Decision to Remove Race from College Admissions Criteria Will Doom Diversity Programs (co-authored with Mike Towle) and founder of Real Unity Training Solutions. She is a tenured former professor at Vanderbilt and Princeton Universities. Follow her on X at @carolmswain and Facebook and Instagram at @drcarolmswain.
