Recently, we at i4cp hosted over 40 HR executives at the White House for a meeting with the administration on the state of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in corporations today. With some of America’s best-known organizations taking part, we had a productive and engaging dialogue on how companies are viewing their diversity-related initiatives in the wake of recent backlash. We didn’t publicize the gathering—or who attended—because we didn’t want anyone’s company to experience a Bud Light moment.

Which is, in my opinion, a sad statement on today’s environment.

It’s amazing how quickly things have changed. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, many organizations issued statements lamenting his killing and pledged support. One estimate claimed that more than 1,100 organizations committed a total of $200 billion to racial justice initiatives between June 2020 and May 2021. Forty-four of America’s 50 largest public companies made public statements about those investments. If organizations didn’t have a chief diversity officer, they quickly hired or promoted one.

At the time, almost no organization expressed fear of repercussions for embracing the benefits of diversity.

Today, just a few short years later, it’s a different story. Instead of unabashed support for DE&I, we are now in an era where Elon Musk, the CEO of one of the world’s most valuable companies (and one of the richest people on the planet), believes “DEI must DIE.” Musk claims that diversity, equity and inclusion are “propaganda words” and said, “the point was to end discrimination, not replace it with different discrimination.” After the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, another billionaire, Bill Ackman, claimed DEI is “inherently a racist and illegal movement in its implementation even if it purports to work on behalf of the so-called oppressed.”  

This sentiment is widespread and has negatively affected diversity professionals. Zoom recently laid off its entire diversity & inclusion team, and unsurprisingly, Twitter (now X) reduced its D&I team from 30 to two after Musk acquired the company. In the last couple of years, attrition rates for DE&I roles are about double those of non-DEI roles in an analysis of more than 600 U.S. companies. In the last six months, this has only accelerated.  

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