Corporate America Booting DEI to Bring Back Meritocracy

The Manhattan Institute that has been exposing abuses by “diversity,

equity, and inclusion” bureaucracies at universities, recently released a

model policy to assist corporate leaders reestablish meritocracy standards.

A LinkedIn study found that after the 2020 riots over the death of George

Floyd that CNN called “Fiery but mostly peaceful protests”, corporations

grew the number of Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officers by 169% and

added almost 500,000 staff members to cultivate inclusive work cultures to

foster trust, engagement, innovation, and build competitive advantages.

But DEI initiatives have been seen by employees as ineffective corporate

virtue signaling that divisively married critical race theory and affirmative

action to discriminate against supposed “oppressor” groups.

After the Supreme Court's decision last year overturned the use of

affirmative action in universities, the new commandment from corporate

and government human resource officers is “quotas are out.”

Governor Ron DeSantis crafted legislation last year to abolish public-

university DEI programs that were enacted in Florida, have now been

passed in Texas and Tennessee, and 17 states are now moving or

considering eliminating DEI this year.

University of Florida announced in late February that it had dissolved its

DEI department and terminated all DEI officials and employees. UF

President Ben Sasse revealed that they intend to spend the $5 million per

year savings on enhanced faculty recruitment.

UF President Ben Sasse announced that part of that freed-up cash will

fund recruitment of conservative scholars to launch Hamilton Center to

achieve “universal human dignity” as a positive alternative to DEI.

Big corporations including Google, Meta, Zoom and many others that are

slashing ideologically driven DEI budgets, are now focusing on hiring for

socioeconomic diversity without targeting a specific race or ethnicity.