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Bill Ackman scored a victory in his campaign against Harvard University when the university’s president, Claudia Gay, resigned on Monday following allegations that she failed to adequately address anti-Semitism on campus. Ackman has been working tirelessly to expand his reach and now take aim at Harvard’s overall approach, as the university has become known for what he calls a “political advocacy movement” and DEI that is anti-meritocracy to the core. He accuses them of falling prey to “ideology” that .
According to the billionaire hedge fund manager, the anti-Semitism he previously accused Harvard of was “not the heart of the problem,” but simply an obsession with DEI (diversity, equity). It was just a troubling warning sign. and inclusion, which has grown into something entirely different from his three concepts built into that acronym. he said this in x on tuesday.
In a 4,000-word post, Ackman portrayed DEI as a “movement” as opposed to any merit-based program, including capitalism itself. Ackman’s letter appears to be the first mainstream critique of DEI as “anti-capitalist,” expanding the scope of a long-standing debate about DEI initiatives that has roiled the business community. Now, rather than DEI being part of a new view of “stakeholder capitalism,” Ackman is denouncing it as an “ideology” that is harmful to the functioning of capitalist economies.
“Under DEI ideology, every policy, program, education system, economic system, grading system, admissions policy (and even climate change due to geography and its disparate impact on the people who live there), etc., is based on skin color. Unequal outcomes between different people are considered racist.” According to this standard, he continued, “capitalism is racist, and advanced exams are It’s speciesist, IQ tests are racist, corporations are racist…” Zooming out of the analysis and using the lens of “oppression” means eliminating any benefit. Then he said. Under the ideology of DEI, “a program, system, or organization that results in or produces results for different races that differ from the proportion of these different races in the overall population is by definition racist.” He is a man of principle.”
Ackman then accused diversity advocates of censoring dissenting voices, akin to the Red Scares of the 1920s and 1950s, designed to root out suspected communist sympathizers in American industry. culminated in a Congressional hearing. Except for what Ackman said, DEI advocates control the system and hold power, while those who disagree with DEI principles “ [themselves] Being unemployed, being shunned by co-workers, being canceled, and/or [they] Otherwise put [their] Your career and social acceptance are at risk. ”
“The methods DEI has used to crush opposition can be seen in the Red Scares and McCarthyism of the past few decades,” Ackman wrote. A few lines later, he said DEI efforts are a step on the “road to socialism” and are “inherently inconsistent with fundamental American values.”
If capitalism is racist, is DEI anti-capitalist?
Ackman’s screed is far from the first attack on DEI in recent years. Diversity efforts are lumped in with other liberal-sounding corporate programs, such as an emphasis on ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing, with claims that such efforts are racist against white Americans. This has led to increasing criticism from conservatives. These programs have been rebranded as “anti-white racism” or, in the case of ESG, discrimination against fossil fuels.
The effort, which culminated last year in the Supreme Court’s decision to ban affirmative action in college admissions, has been brewing for years. Former President Donald Trump famously banned diversity and sensitivity training in a 2020 executive order, calling it a “vicious ideology” akin to stereotypes. States such as Florida and Texas have passed laws to suppress discussion of diversity in higher education. Last summer, Republican attorneys general notified all Fortune 100 companies of their corporate diversity programs, which observers believe will be the conservative high court’s next target.
Various versions of corporate diversity efforts have existed since the 1970s, when the federal government formally prohibited workplace discrimination based on gender, race, and national origin. But his DEI as branding has truly flourished over the past decade, gaining momentum after the 2020 killing of George Floyd and the social protests for racial justice it fueled. In the late 2010s, the transition to a more holistic and benign form of capitalism meant that companies needed to consider all stakeholders when acting, including employees, communities, and customers.
“Each and every one of our stakeholders is essential. We are committed to delivering value to everyone for the future success of our companies, communities and countries.” In 2019, a Business Roundtable said in a statement detailing its members’ commitment to paying fair wages, embracing diversity, and paying fair wages. We promote sustainable business and deal ethically with our suppliers. This is a striking repudiation of the shareholder-first dogma of the past 40 years, which holds that a company’s only responsibility is to provide profits to its shareholders, a view that critics have described as bordering on psychotic.
But recent legal and cultural attacks by the right have put these goals at risk. And companies are responding to the backlash. Last month, Reuters reported that six major companies, including American Airlines, BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase and Lowe’s, have watered down their statements regarding diversity policies.
Ironically, while DEI initiatives have received much criticism from conservatives, they have also been criticized for being ineffective at closing racial disparities, perpetuating stereotypes, and allowing companies to launder their reputations. It has also been criticized by liberals and leftists for even doing things like this. In the latter extreme example, intercept reported on the private prison company CoreCivic, touting the company’s support for “principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Data shows that in many cases, employees themselves are skeptical of these efforts. A Catalyst survey conducted last year in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US found that 75% of respondents believed their company’s racial equality policies were disingenuous.
Through all of this, the fundamental problems that DEI was ostensibly supposed to solve remain stubbornly present. Approximately 1 in 6 Americans is black, but only 4% of executives at large companies are black, and by some measures, the income gap between white and black workers is the same as in the 1950s. It has not changed since.
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