What do you think of companies dropping DEI initiatives?

[AviatorTom]

In the past few years, in response to LGBTQ+, many US companies established initiatives emphasizing Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in their products, sales and marketing. More recently, many companies including Ford and Target, have dropped DEI initiatives, due to consumer input that affects their business and profitability. A specific example is Budweiser dropping DEI when consumers boycotted Bud Light after a promotion featuring a transgender social-media influencer led to a drop in sales and dropped Bud Light from its traditional #1 spot as America's beer.

What do you think?

Should companies emphasize DEI?

[CrazyGirl2]

I think it’s a VERY good thing, DEI not only has been a disaster, it’s a disaster in the waiting! I’m not going to concentrate on the visible social effects, like a hispanic “Snow White” even though it’s a Polish fairytale about a princess who was so named that because her skin was "white as snow", or a black Little Mermaid, because who cares what race of actress plays a fairytale princess or a mythical creature is? Literally, who cares? It’s so trivial, I cannot believe that such a big deal has been made of over it. Also, who cares that you almost never see all-white couples/families in commercials anymore, how does that affect any part of anyone's life, FFS? I’m referring to the very real world detrimental effects, like unqualified doctors, whom we all need to be the very best to save our lives, and engineers who design things like bridges that we all drive across, and we need them to be the very best engineers possible, so that the bridge does not collapse and kill possibly hundreds of people, or unqualified pilots, and air traffic controllers, responsible for the nations commercial (and private) air traffic!

I watched several TikTok videos by new African American female doctors who were bragging that they had low “C” averages in high school, and college, never even took the MCAT, but were still admitted to medical school, and graduated with low “c” averages. Sadly I couldn't find them again to link as sources. I DID see them, however, I could not in all good conscience site them as anything other than anecdotal examples.

However, a recent spate of news articles has appeared citing examples of highly unqualified applicants being admitted to medical schools across the nation, including top tier schools like UCLA. At UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, where more than 50 percent of students failed basic standardized tests on emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics since the implementation of DEI in admissions at the university! "I have students on their rotations who literally don't know anything," a professor and member of the admissions committee told the Free Beacon. "People get in and they really struggle.” This is despite the fact that nationally, only 5% of students fail. Source below*

I could go on, citing multiple examples from multiple schools across the nation, but this is already too long for most readers on GAG. We are not talking about peoples fragile feelings being hurt because their favorite beer hired a transgender spokesperson, or that their favorite motorcycle company will be hiring more minorities and management positions. We're talking about peoples lives here! When an unqualified beer company executive doesn't understand their consumer base, and hires the wrong spokesperson, literally nothing of any consequence happens, except maybe their stock goes down! But when a hospital hires, an unqualified doctor to work in their emergency room, or their pediatrics department… People will die! When an engineering firm hires, an unqualified engineer to design a bridge, and that bridge collapses (and in the past few years several bridges have). People die! Now we are being told that airlines are implementing DEI hiring practices when it comes to pilots ffs! The FAA LITERALLY specified that they were actively looking to hire air traffic controllers with "severe psychiatric disabilities” on their own website (Source: https://www.faa.gov/jobs/diversity_inclusion ) They state, quite clearly "The FAA actively recruits, hires, promotes, retains, develops and advances (promotes) people with disabilities."

They continue "The FAA meets the goals of the PWD Program through a variety of practices: Targeted Disabilities.
Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring. They include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.

On-the-Spot Hiring
A non-competitive hiring method for filling vacancies with Veterans and/or individuals with disabilities. Managers can choose to fill an open position through the On-the-Spot hiring process given they provide the required documentation for doing so.”

This means that not only is the FAA actively looking to hire vision impaired people, (meaning including legally blind people), people who are completely paralyzed, epileptics, who could have a seizure at any moment, and people with severe intellectual disabilities (meaning mental retardation), and severe psychiatric disabilities, but people who meet these criteria don't even have to go through a rigorous hiring process, they are hired "on the spot"! I don't know about you, but I personally do not want to have the take-off, or landing of a plane I'm on to fall under the responsibility of a person who cannot see, a person who might have a seizure a mentally retarded person, or a person with a SEVERE psychiatric disability, who might just decide "screw it, the plane is full of demons anyway, let it crash!”!

DEI is not about equal opportunity, if it was, I would fully support it. DEI is about EQUAL OUTCOME! Any adult with even a modicum of common sense, who does not understand that not all human beings are equal in terms of intellectual ability, or their ability to handle severe stress, and therefore not all human beings are capable of performing ALL jobs (like being a physician, an engineer, a pilot, or an air traffic controller) is completely fucking delusional, and has allowed their personal ideology to overtake their own common sense, or even their own sense of self preservation! I don't give a shit who advertises beer, I couldn't care less who stars in the role of a mermaid, and I don't give a crap who plays Snow White. But I do care very strongly who operates on me after I've been in a car crash, I care a LOT who is responsible for landing the plane that I'm traveling on, I REALLY care who is flying that fckn’ plane, I also really care whether our nations bridges are designed by the most qualified people possible, and not by unqualified people who just happened to fill a specific minority quota! To my mother, who is an Emergency Physician and Trauma Surgeon, that in their hospital, DEI means “Didn’t Earn It”! Who could ever be happy in their job knowing that all of their coworkers believe they did not earn their job, or even their qualifications to hold that job? This is not good for anyone, including the doctors, pilots, air traffic controllers, and engineers who benefit from DEI. It’s definitely not good for the patients, passengers on the planes, or the people who are unfortunate enough to be driving over, (or under) that bridge when it collapses!

I’m sure this won’t be a popular post, but it’s how I feel.
Laura. 🤗 🥰

Sources:
https://freebeacon.com/campus/a-failed-medical-school-how-racial-preferences-supposedly-outlawed-in-california-have-persisted-at-ucla/

https://www.thepublica.com/almost-half-of-ucla-medical-students-fail-basic-competency-tests-aggressive-dei-policies-to-blame/

https://www.faa.gov/jobs/diversity_inclusion

[CrazyGirl2]

@AviatorTom Thank you so much for the MHO, Tom. 🙏

[purplepoppy]

I think it's been a disaster for minorities. All it's done is draw negative attention and hostility towards them. I don't know what it's like in America but in the UK you'll rarely see a couple in an advert that are the same race and if it contains several people your guaranteed to have a tranny and someone hobbling on one leg.

People are going to have a rant about the leftwing on this but in reality the majority on the left just wanted everyone to have a fair shot bases on ability and not be discarded purely on race gender etc. As long as companies follow recruitment regs and your application isn't going in the bin because you've the wrong post code or an Irish name etc most people will be happy.

[exitseven]

it is when they are given preferences because of race is when it becomes unfair.

[PenіsSizeMatters]

@exitseven As long as you over 7" that all that matters

[Troll_Hater]

@PenіsSizeMatters man, I hate you, bd your goofy ass fetish.

[PenіsSizeMatters]

@Troll_Hater When a woman says "Stop harassing women and stop treating women as your personal sex toys", what she really means is "I got pissed off because you said you're not my property and you know you are my property to sexually abuse in any way I want to."

[Troll_Hater]

Wow, @mandyfire, I thought you were a good person. You're an abuser, aren't you?

[DJB72]

The law in most countries seems to support making sure those traditionally underrepresented in certain areas are given equal opportunities to advance now - discrimination based on race, religion or chromosomes (XX/XY) and "disability" - usually referring to someone in a wheelchair in an employer's mind.

DEI is actually a social construct forced on a vast majority to give preferential treatment to a minor percentage of the population over the rights and preferences of the majority. That's why Bud Light was a disaster and Disney is currently producing movies of utter shit quality. Most people are more conservative than they're prepared to admit. The same majority don't want porn in the primary school library and don't object to Mark Twain's vocabulary because they understand that it was a product of the time it was written, when a word was just a word.

Governments telling us we're immoral for using certain words, but supporting wars using our money they've ripped from us and causing thousands of deaths as a result is somehow "necessary". DEI is a similar policy. It excludes the majority, claiming to be somehow morally superior to the masses.

Hopefully this will pass and sanity can be restored. Probably not this election cycle, but soon.

[FunkyMonkee]

If you mean, they're stopping it, HELL FUCKING YEAH!!
If I was in the position to hire someone, I couldn't give a flying fuck what they wear, look like, identify as, what colour they are, what they've got dangling between their legs or what they WANT dangling between their legs or if they've got physical "blocks" (birth defects, amputations, etc.), as long as they can do the job and do it well, that's what's important!!

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fiwSlbdpk5w

Now, if they're one of these people that's covered in tattoos and piercings and trying to look like a dragon or an alien, I MIGHT think twice about that because I don't want them scaring people away. If they're working in a place where no one's gonna see them, like a print shop or some other factory, fine but, waiting on customers might NOT be a good idea!
But, just to hire someone to meet a DEI quota, ESPECIALLY if they don't even know HOW to do the job, that's utter BULLSHIT!!

[jennifer_bloom]

I think they should use the term, “gentle sensitivity havens,” as opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion. My university was a paradise for people with mental health issues, they had safe zones where you could sit on a couch and relax, sleeping areas for those who needed a tug in between class, therapy dogs every exam season, cultural festivals with specialized foods and occasional free meals too, all types of social groups, study rooms you could book, quiet areas in the library, as well as comfort areas for those with sore backs where you could lounge on a couch hidden behind book sgelves.

[MicroJ]

I know I'm going to offend some with my answer, but it is good for companies to drop or get away from DEI and it's for the best. People need to be hired based on their "qualifications", who is best for that job not based, on race, sex, religion, disability. When get away from that performance and job quality goes down. I want doctors based on their intelligence not all the other bullshit. DEI in fact actually stands for "Discrimination, Exclusion, and Indoctrination". DEI is offensive and will hurt not only minorities but everyone in the long run.

[WindAtMyBack]

Better if they never did it in the first place. Both Budweiser and Target deserve every bit of the negative reaction and boycotting they got. The fact that they gave into the alphabet pressure in the first place is cause for continued boycotting for years to come.

[imfreeze95]

I think people should be hired based on merits. I’m personally very conservative but if a person came in who can do the job and is professional I would hire them. Even if I disapproved of their lifestyle. It’s business not a popularity contest. Also none of my business what people do in their personal life as long as they show up and do their job.

[jshm2]

You're confused. There is a legal requirement for DEI in the USA; hence your "source" is wrong.

But corporations have interpreted it their own way, and most have made a mess of it.

You cannot openly discriminate against certain people, but it does not mean you "must have a gay co-worker" to meet DEI requirements. Corporations were cashing in tax breaks and grants for "being inclusive". When in fact they were just giving it lip service.

[AviatorTom]

@jshm2 There is no legal requirement for DEI, at the federal level or at any state's level. There are anti-discrimination laws, which is what you refer to, but nothing that requires encouraging DEI.

[SixFootSexy]

When you have an artificial currency, you create artificial values. That's all DEI is, the money system (even the fake one we have) has started to turn the tide on stupid policies. The truth is powerful.

[V_Injector]

Good thing. Go back to meritocracy. Just saying. ... and if I get called racist for that, they can suck my big fat dick.

[katiesmuff]

Their company there choice! Budweiser learned a good lesson and it appears much of the business world has paid attention. Sometimes it's best just to stay neutral.

[MrOracle]

Ironically, that's not the case. Between the Civil Rights Amendment and the EEOC, medium and large companies are not allowed to discriminate based on race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. But that wasn't good enough for the Left - they pushed for ESG and DEI which is implicit discrimination - but, they said, that's okay because we are pushing mostly for discrimination against straight white males, and they are all horrible and deserve it. Ibram X Kendi's book is quite specific: "the solution to past discrimination is present discrimination, and the solution to present discrimination is future discrimination." That is exactly what they want.

Unfortunately for them, the law of the land does not allow for this, and companies and governments that are doing this (nearly all of them) are being sued in droves, and are losing every case. And that's why companies are either abandoning DEI or trying to rebrand it (which isn't going to fly, and there are already lawsuits in the works).

The ONLY criteria that should be used for hiring is MERIT. If you can do the job well, and you aren't a management problem, I don't care what color your skin is, what sex you are, or who you like to sleep with. It's really that simple.

[katiesmuff]

@MrOracle I operate a restaurant and bar in Florida where before Bud did what they did with bud lite was a top seller. We had it in cans, bottles, and on our tower, today we have maybe two cases in bottles in our coolers that is down to once was ordering 20 cases of bottles every week and always a spare barrel of draft. And we are just one small location in the US so guess what it did to Busch products as a whole from a corporate view. Nobody is required by any of the silly laws to have a representative of a product if it isn't going to market well. I do know that the person who was behind that add doesn't receive a paycheck from budweiser any longer. Just my place alone our sales of Bud products has dropped about 70%. Lesson is keep your corporate Icon's or Sponsors of a perception of what the great majority likes. Everyone has the right to be whatever they want which is fine, but trying to push something not that popular into your business style or down your customer throats is never going to work in America. Busch did nothing that they could get sued for, they simply tried a gimmick that totally backfired and are now still trying to recover from that error. I can also tell you that if you think for one minute that this stuff isn't abused in the simple hiring process as well you are sadly mistaken.

[MrOracle]

I'm well aware of the Bud Light/Dylan issue and my local pizza place got rid of Bud entirely over it. I'm still not fully convinced that they REALLY learned the lesson, but at least they got to enjoy the consequences of a permanent 25% loss of BL sales (and that's what they admit to - I suspect in the real world they are much lower than that).

But at least a few OTHER companies DID learn from that, and have reevaluated their commitment to DEI.

And, yes, there will always be abuses - people are people - but at least abuses are usually at a small level rather than systematic, and can be sued over. The big problem is that DEI and ESG was being pushed by Larry Fink (CEO of BlackRock) and his buddies at StateStreet and Vanguard, among others. THAT absolutely makes it systemic, and that not only should be stopped, but Larry Fink should be in prison over it. That won't happen, but it SHOULD happen.

[ManInChains]

I think they’re finally coming to their senses and realizing that it’s harming their companies/businesses and not improving anything for anyone.

[ManInChains]

I can assure you of one thing I know for a fact won’t be woke. The books I get published. 😁

[thearchjoker]

DEI is why boing has caused any people to DIE

[Anonymous]

It was retarded to do in the first place. Surgeons and airline pilots who aren't qualified just because they fit a category.

[exitseven]

They are finally catching on that if you go woke you go broke. I have a long list of companies that I boycott.

[Anonymous]

The brutal reality is that in almost any corporation today, you could fire at LEAST 30% of the people there with little to no negative impact. Most of the HR department would fit into that group, by the way, and ALL of the DEI staff.

[buzzword]

It doesn't really matter. Once they went woke it exposed their allegiances. Now they are seen as the enemy. It doesn't matter what they do now. They are permanently stained.

[DrPepper12]

Yes. As a core value, not window dressing. Besides, which dei are we talking about? The real dei or Trump dei?

Trumps:
Didn't
Earn
It

[shortster]

DEI is a violation of EEOC; so they never should have adopted them in the first place.

[ManInChains]

Apparently no one I’d forcing EEOC because companies keep adding woke DEI policies to their own detriment

[shortster]

Typically you have to file an EEOC complaint before the Feds look into it and you would have to know that the company is imploying it to know that you can file a complaint.

[Cubus]

I think it's just a trend that it's passing. It's not fashionable anymore.

[Reijen]

Good on them. Companies shouldn't be engaging in discriminatory practices.

[BCRanger10]

Good. Get rid of all that and focus on having good workforces and serving you customers well.

[Polorateher]

Just concentrate on making good products and treating people with respect.

[normalice]

I don't think they really meant it in the first place

[JonCobretti]

It's great, DEI is racist and sexist

DEI= Didn't earn it

[JonCobretti]

JD Vance is gonna put an end to that soon

[gatixek710]

hell yeah. It’s time for the cultural Marxists to die in the ashes of history.

[Ladsin2]

I'm big on only making hiring and firing decisions for meritocratic reasons.

[paledreams]

It sounds disappointing, in short. Somehow.

[Eight_Ball]

Good idea.

[msc545]

It will eventually get them in trouble.

[exitseven]

@msc545 Why, because people won't boycott their products?

[msc545]

@exitseven Mostly because they will get sued a lot for discrimination.

[exitseven]

@msc545 Is it discrimination if you discriminate against white, heterosexual American citizens?

[msc545]

@exitseven Yes it is

[exitseven]

@msc545 Not in Obama's America it isn't