Will DEI Trigger a White Male ‘Diaspora’?

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September 1, 2022

A “diaspora” is a population that has been displaced and separated from their place of origin, sometimes by force.

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Today in America, white males are feeling negative effects from DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives impacting promotions, hiring, and terminations and forcing some to consider career changes. Some feel compelled to seek job opportunities at variance from their current career aspirations and in unfamiliar segments of the economy.  As a 30+ year veteran of one of the largest multinational financial services companies expressed it, “I’d reached the second row of C suite executives. The 65-year-old CEO would be handing the reins to someone soon. But as a white male looking at the latest occupants of the first row, it wasn’t going to me.” He resigned to join a small technology company.

The definition of “diversity” has evolved. What was once an effort to overlook differences has become a prescription for accentuating them. DEI promotes deliberately taking race, gender, and other factors such as sexual orientation into account when deciding who is hired, and promoted, or terminated in a cutback. In the rush to implement DEI initiatives, employees or potential employees are seen as members of some “group” first and as individuals second.  

Several of the larger money managers that invest in public companies are not only embracing DEI themselves but push the firms they invest in to accelerate their DEI efforts. There are about 4000 publicly traded U.S. companies employing one third of U.S. non-farm employees.

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The realization that significant and visible job opportunities would more likely be going to female or minority employees is being felt across America. While this may be a correction to past discrimination against women, people of color and other populations, it’s becoming a ceiling or barrier for another significant population.

If you do a back of the envelope calculation of 25- to 65-year-old white heterosexual males in the workforce, you arrive at an estimate of 50-60 million potentially frustrated Americans, many of whom are highly competent and unwilling to wait to be gently exited or to finish their career in a dead-end, meaningless position like senior director of pencils, pens, and paperclips.

DEI consultants often assert that to achieve fairness in the workplace, women, persons of color, and LGBTQ individuals should be treated more favorably in order to create “equity” and correct discrimination.

Some studies found diversity training not only tends to divide people into categories, but also can generate conflict, has triggered employee lawsuits, and may even fuel prejudice. It seems diversity trainers often promote negative stereotypes of white males and needlessly underscore differences. Coca-Cola made headlines for allegedly providing DEI training t that encouraged employees to be “less white.”

One survey of White Americans show they now believe anti-White bias is more prevalent than anti-Black bias. Organizations excluding white males to match today’s definition of “diversity” will not only trigger resignations and fewer applicants for new positions, but will spawn lawsuits.

There are few segments of the American economy that haven’t been touched by DEI.

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Academia was among the first on the DEI bandwagon. While most are more subtle about applying a discriminatory yardstick, Minneapolis Public Schools openly declared white teachers would be laid off first during cutbacks.  Philadelphia Schools paid $2.9 million to four white, male senior staff members for race discrimination and retaliation.  Two white male Stanford professors filed charges the university’s DEI training created a hostile work environment. They alleged being pressured into racially segregated “whiteness accountability groups” and that the training maligned them as contributing to systemic racism.

There are early signs the transportation industry has been affected by DEI.  One airline’s employees complained of disparate treatment that has divided the company into distinct camps favoring those with “desired” personal characteristics. Another airline, United, promised 50% of their pilots will be women or people of color.

The military, which is descending into “wokeness” with physical and mental standards falling, may no longer represent an attractive opportunity for white males.  Because 86% of Air Force pilots are white men: the head of recruiting, has identified this as a major crisis. 

Health care is also being impacted by DEI.  A $10 million payment by a major Southeastern health care network was ordered by a court that found the plaintiff’s race (white) and sex (male) motivated his termination.

A Tennessee court ruled that a utility discriminated against a white male employee based on his race and must give him his job back plus thousands of dollars in damages. 

In my long career I’ve been deeply involved with a half-dozen nonprofits. I am unaware of any of them grooming a white male to lead their organization.

Arts and entertainment rushed to support an organization with the view that accused every white person of being racist. A Midwest publication recently featured eight women of various races leading major arts organizations as “artfully diverse.” Not a single white male was included.

The technology world has adopted DEI related measures in hiring and promotion. Google was sued for “policies that discriminate against Caucasian males.”

Government is plagued with DEI hurdles. Hiring air traffic controllers moved away from merit-based factors to attract candidates from racial and other minorities. Federal and many state contractors are subject to affirmative action requirements to hire and promote women and minorities.

In recent lawsuits, female and non-white employees were found to experience more leeway or second chances before termination, while compared to white, male counterparts being abruptly terminated at the first sign of a performance issue. “The use of practices like progressive discipline aren’t used as much when it comes to white males…” an employment practices attorney observed, adding employers are less concerned about the optics of a subsequent lawsuit by a white male.

Apart from moving to smaller and less publicly visible organizations, the members of this new diaspora will likely consider forming their own companies, potentially fueling an entrepreneurial renaissance.

Most disgruntled white heterosexual males are likely to quietly leave and hope for some level of positive references from their former employer. But more are taking their grievances to court. Others don’t bother to apply for positions where they sense their race and gender might put them at a disadvantage. A few even game the system.  One Indian-American didn’t think he had the grades for medical school so he checked African-American on the application and was accepted at St. Louis University’s med school.

Failure to hire, promote, and terminate on the basis of merit will not just trigger resignations, fewer job applicants and legal action, but in the long run prove destructive to morale and dampen productivity. Most jobs involve interacting with others with diverse skills, in different professions, on more than one continent and encourages confidence and respect for each other.  Cohesion among employees fosters a sense of personal commitment, affirmation and appreciation.

To paraphrase Chief Justice John Roberts, we can dampen this “diaspora” by following his suggestion: “The way to stop discrimination is to stop discriminating.”

Tom Harvey recently retired from the business faculty of a Midwestern university.  His prior experience included being an executive in the insurance industry. [email protected]

Image: RawPixel

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