“Sometimes the facts don’t matter”: Attacks on DEI are an anti-capitalist war on American prosperity

Since the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, several phrases associated with helping Black people have come under heavy criticism, such as “woke” and “Black Lives Matter.” “DEI” is no exception, even though statistics in many areas show that non-Black people have benefited more from DEI programs than Black people. Sometimes the facts don’t matter. Research shows that America would be much better off economically if racist barriers against Black people were removed. Sometimes even money doesn’t matter.

But words matter. Words trigger emotional meaning because of their associations. Think of the person who hates Obamacare but loves the Affordable Care Act, or who tells the government to keep its hands off their money but is happy about their monthly welfare check.

They say if you want people to listen to you, you have to speak their language. The language of American corporate governance and national prosperity is capitalism. DEI is a capitalist tool for increasing income and wealth through fairness. More fairness leads to more employee engagement. More employee engagement leads to more innovation, productivity, and profitability.

Unfortunately for America, DEI attackers have fallen victim to the paradoxically seductive and fear-inducing power of oppression psychology—tactics designed to protect superiority by erecting and maintaining racially based barriers to opportunity under the false assumption of a zero-sum world. Dehumanization is one of the earliest racially based tactics used effectively to this end.

The dehumanization inherent in slavery was necessary to justify its oppression and brutality to those who benefited from it. Although slavery was abolished, the goals of dehumanizing black people lived on in Jim Crow laws and state-sponsored domestic terrorism.

Dehumanization is a sophisticated, persuasive, and polarizing tool because it instills racial pride, which can greatly increase self-esteem even among non-elite members of a racial group. At the same time, research by Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker suggests, the tendency of non-elite whites to internalize this superiority causes them to go on the defensive when it is threatened. This defensiveness leads to resentment and hatred so strong that people are willing to sacrifice their economic self-interest to maintain the racially motivated oppression of blacks.

Paradoxically, non-elite whites and blacks have more in common than non-elite whites have with their elites. Race aside, they face many of the same socioeconomic challenges.

The idea that Black people could benefit from DEI programs has created anxiety, controversy, conflict, fear, and resentment. When you are used to believing you deserve the whole pie, even a crumb going to the hungry can bring on the pain of loss.

The word “fairness” has never been associated with Black people in America. American business has a chance at self-serving redemption by moving from the demonized “DEI” to basic fairness for all of humanity, not just an isolated group. Instead of abolishing DEI departments based on the false narrative that DEI only helps Black people, American business should demonstrate leadership and fiduciary duty to its stakeholders by declaring that DEI is a framework designed to help advance the all-too-often elusive concept of fairness that will improve America’s business engagement, productivity, profitability, and economic prosperity.

Racial barriers to equal opportunity have cost the U.S. economy over $50 trillion since 1990. Removing them could generate $5 trillion in just a few years. Improving employee engagement unleashes innovation and productivity that can generate $550 billion in corporate profits annually. The gains that fairness can bring to businesses and the U.S. GDP should receive the full attention of corporate boards, CEOs, CFOs, elected officials and policymakers.

Fairness is a matter of prosperity and national security that cannot and should not be ignored. It is the most patriotic form of capitalism – but it is obscured by semantics and linguistic nuances. If we are able to speak the same language and agree on the same line, the path forward is right in front of us.

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