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Is diversity and inclusion dead?

Elon Musk recently declared that "DEI must DIE". Is he right?

17 Jan 2024

Catherine Ngo

Content writer, presenter and podcaster

To no surprise, Elon Musk recently made bold statements about the field of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In a post, Musk stated, "DEI must DIE. The point was to end discrimination, not replace it with different discrimination." In a follow-up post, Musk wrote that DEI was "just another word for racism".

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who stars in Shark Tank US, has hit back at Musk's comments, saying that DEI is good for business.

On X (formerly Twitter), Cuban writes:

"Let me help you out and give you my thoughts on DEI

1. Diversity

Good businesses look where others don't, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed. You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration. By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified. The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain.

1a. We live in a country with very diverse demographics. In this era where trust of businesses can be hard to come by, people tend to connect more easily to people who are like them. Having a workforce that is diverse and representative of your stakeholders is good for business."

Musk's comments are blunt and have no filter, but could there be some truth to it?

Although each workplace is unique, and what is effective in one setting may not be in another, there will always be a need for DEI in the workplace. As long as people from different communities with diverse needs, values, identities, and beliefs come together, there will naturally be discord, conflict, and strife. Therefore, we will need interventions to remedy this friction and support systems that address everyone's unique needs.

A healthy level of scepticism is expected and is needed to help any field grow and evolve. However, we must be wary of those seeking to divide without supporting evidence.

Employers must assess DEI legal risks

Most of us inherently know that DEI is good for business; however, Musk's post echoed the sentiments of DEI sceptics who have stated that the field has failed and caused more discrimination. How could this be?

Many opponents of DEI argue that DEI causes discrimination. For example, in September 2023, a workplace diversity program at Meta (parent company of Facebook) was accused of discriminating against 'white people' and attracted 'reverse discrimination' lawsuits.

Another DEI backlash example was in 2020: after the murder of George Floyd, corporations rushed to make pledges and promises declaring their commitments to anti-racism work and DEI. Many companies posted black squares on their Instagram accounts to show solidarity. Organisations were pouring exorbitant amounts of money into these efforts. Ironically, the spotlight on DEI by some corporations has been performative to gain public favour.

Businesses can mitigate DEI backlash by assessing the potential legal risks. A Harvard Business Review article points out that a DEI program is most risky when it meets three criteria:

It has preferential treatment, meaning some individuals are treated more favourably than others.
The preference is given to members of a protected group, for example, based on race, colour, religion, national origin, and sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity).
The preference relates to a palpable benefit, such as a job, a promotion, a pay raise, a work assignment, or access to training and development opportunities.

An example where a DEI program would be deemed 'risky' is having hiring quotas with preference over one or more groups.

The HBR article states that rather than giving "preference" to one or more groups, organisations can explore identity-neutral DEI actions. An example is creating structured recruitment and promotion processes with clear, transparent, merit-based criteria. Also, remove stereotypical language from employee evaluation processes and review employee benefits policies to ensure they are being applied equally.

These approaches do not "lift" certain groups above others but rather attempt to "level" the playing field for everybody.

DEI to become the way we work

Consulting firm Garner believes that DEI will continue in 2024 but rather become how we work.

In recent years, there has been a growing sense of dissatisfaction with DEI, and there has even been some opposition. However, the need for diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforces still remains.

Gartner believes that in 2024 and beyond, companies will move away from DEI being solely a siloed function and instead embed it throughout the organisation. In this new model, DEI will become a shared way of working as organisations fully integrate DEI values into business objectives, daily operations, and culture.