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We're doing DEI wrong Let's be honest: Diversity programs aren't working. Here's how to fix them.
Business Insider ^ | Feb 27, 2024 | Steve Pemberton

Posted on 02/27/2024 3:27:06 AM PST by ro_dreaming

My first lesson on diversity came when I was about 7 years old. I was several years into the foster-care system, and the agency was struggling to find me a permanent home. After one of what felt like dozens of home visits, I asked my social worker why this was so hard.

"It's because we don't know if you belong with a white family or a Black family," she said, matter-of-factly.

This tidy explanation was a reference to my biological parents: my mother, who was white, and my father, who was Black. To her, it was a simple, even clinical, matter. But to me, a young boy unschooled on matters of race, it unleashed silent questions: "Is she referring to the color of the house? Why would that matter?" Back then, I never found the answers to those questions, and I never found a safe home. Rather, I would fall through the cracks of a well intended but burdened foster-care system, struggling to be seen, heard, and valued. Today, I wonder what those turbulent years would have been like had those entrusted with my care been less concerned with what I was and more concerned with who I was: just a young boy in need of a safe home.

In foster care, I experienced what happens when a diverse society gets immersed in labels. It led me to professions where I could create equitable and accessible environments, first in higher education, then in corporate America. In 2007, I became Monster.com's first chief diversity officer, then Walgreens' in 2012. Most recently I served as chief human-resources officer at Workhuman.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Philosophy
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But there is a way forward for DEI. When done right, DEI programs not only give companies a competitive edge but also can be the very means of mending a broken America.

That's part of what drives these folks - their believe that America is broken.

And it is.

But it's not because of our past.

It's because of, (to coopt a phrase used by the left to describe the right), the bitter clingers of our past. Those who cling to the notion that America is a racist country. That the opportunity to better oneself is not found in America without help from the government. That the government is the reason America is great (it's not because of government, it's in SPITE of government).

I hear news reports (opinions, really), about how the slaves of yesteryear were "ripped from their country, sold, and transported around the world". These stories forget to mention that it was their own countrymen who sold them into slavery then, and many still do today, if they don't outright murder them instead.

1 posted on 02/27/2024 3:27:06 AM PST by ro_dreaming
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To: ro_dreaming
The ironic thing about many of these corporations, is that they will talk about diversity, but when you look at their tech departments, they are either mostly housed in one of two countries, or their staff are mostly from one or two countries.

I feel bad for the young generations of today, of all races. We basically sold out their futures for the promise (or what we now know was a lie) of cheaper prices. Is it any wonder they're angry and rioting?

I shouldn't have to keep saying this. Not all of us, but you know who you are.

2 posted on 02/27/2024 3:46:46 AM PST by TwelveOfTwenty (Will whoever keeps asking if this country can get any more insane please stop?)
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To: ro_dreaming
Half white and half Black.
3 posted on 02/27/2024 3:55:07 AM PST by Rastus
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To: ro_dreaming

DEI and AA both involve the lowering of standards, but there are no substitutes for intelligence. None.


4 posted on 02/27/2024 3:55:38 AM PST by ComputerGuy (Heavily-medicated for your protection)
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To: ro_dreaming

You “fix” affirmative action by ENDING it.

You “fix” diversity programs by ENDING them.


5 posted on 02/27/2024 4:00:50 AM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
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To: ro_dreaming

Change it by ending it. Then you move on with life. Simple.


6 posted on 02/27/2024 4:06:43 AM PST by vpintheak (Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. )
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To: ro_dreaming

Don’t mend them, end them.


7 posted on 02/27/2024 4:21:55 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: ro_dreaming
"...We're doing DEI wrong Let's be honest: Diversity programs aren't working. Here's how to fix them..."

ELIMINATE THEM.

What a passel of ignorant douchebags at the Leftist Business Insider. And the Left in general.

8 posted on 02/27/2024 4:25:19 AM PST by rlmorel ("The stigma for being wrong is gone, as long as you're wrong for the right side." (Clarice Feldman))
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To: ro_dreaming

Do not divide The People.

Unify them.

America is a melting pot.

Never forget that basic premise.


9 posted on 02/27/2024 4:26:46 AM PST by Candor7 (Ask not for whom Trump Trolls,He trolls for thee!),<img src="" width=500</img><a href="">tag</a>)
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To: ro_dreaming
One major problem is that whenever the government gets involved, there is abuse and malfeasance...and failure.

Government is a bureaucracy and bureaucracies are seldom driven first and foremost by their desire to achieve their agenda. The first rule of bureaucracies is survival by accumulating power, not the achievement of an agenda. Agendas are secondary at best.

And even when bureaucracies do focus on their agendas, their performance is substandard because bureaucracies lack a clear means for defining merit and achievement--the way businesses do, for example.

In business, merit is judged by the customer and performance is subjected to competition. Please the customer and you "might" succeed (unless a competitor pleases the customer better than you).

Bureaucracies are not accountable to customers and, not living in a competitive environment, they are prone to laziness and complacency..and failure.

10 posted on 02/27/2024 4:28:25 AM PST by RoosterRedux (A person who seeks the truth with a closed mind will never find it. He will only confirm his bias.)
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To: ro_dreaming
The way to "fix" diversity is for minority boys to put as much effort into schoolwork as they do into basketball,"rapping" and hanging out on street corners and malls.If they did there'd be a lot more minority accountants,engineers,etc and a lot fewer gang bangers and drug dealers.

And as for minority girls if they put as much effort into schoolwork as they do into hairstyles,etc there'd be a lot more minority nurses,X-ray techs,etc and a lot fewer welfare queens with 5 kids from 5 different unnamed fathers.

11 posted on 02/27/2024 4:38:52 AM PST by Gay State Conservative (Proudly Clinging To My Guns And My Religion)
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To: ro_dreaming

DEI programs will never work and can’t be fixed.

The best course of action is to eliminate them.


12 posted on 02/27/2024 4:39:54 AM PST by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: ro_dreaming

DEI is a flawed concept, the mistaken belief that government can solve social problems, if only the “right persons” are administering the programs.

Socialism reduces to a “command-and-control” regime, no matter where it is attempted in the world. Somehow, the “right persons” either never come to the fore, or if a real reformer comes along, he or she is despised and broken by the ruling oligarchy.


13 posted on 02/27/2024 4:41:19 AM PST by alloysteel (Most people slog through life without ever knowing the wonders of true insanity.)
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To: ro_dreaming
Go by merit, not color.
Works every time.

14 posted on 02/27/2024 5:01:12 AM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: NorthMountain

+1


15 posted on 02/27/2024 5:01:32 AM PST by sauropod (Ne supra crepidam.)
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To: ro_dreaming

D.I.E. is Marxist evil and promoting it gives aid and comfort to the domestic and foreign enemies of the United States.


16 posted on 02/27/2024 5:07:22 AM PST by Carl Vehse
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To: ro_dreaming

Companies are giving up on DEI programs because after having them in place for years, they still have no idea how the hell a “successful” DEI program is defined and measured.


17 posted on 02/27/2024 5:23:25 AM PST by Alberta's Child (If something in government doesn’t make sense, you can be sure it makes dollars.)
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To: ro_dreaming
Rachel Dolezal has entered the chat.



18 posted on 02/27/2024 5:36:10 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: T.B. Yoits
Shaun King, aka "Talcum X", has entered the chat.



19 posted on 02/27/2024 5:37:25 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: T.B. Yoits
Elizabeth "Lie-a-watha" Warren has entered the chat.



20 posted on 02/27/2024 5:40:01 AM PST by T.B. Yoits
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