What’s The Problem with Diversity
For as long as I can remember, conservatives have extoled the virtues of free enterprise and free markets and praised the ability of business owners to operate in their own best interests based on the realities they encounter in the marketplace. Similarly, I’ve heard Republicans decry government regulations, or external constrains imposed by Democrats based on theories conjured up by liberal intellectuals with no real-world experience. But that was in the before times — the before Trump times that is.
The sound you hear is the screech of tires as Conservatives hit the brakes, flip the wheel, and do a 180.
Conservatives are outraged by “DEI” (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs and are now trying to end them. President Trump is working to eliminating them from the Federal Government (to the extent that there are any), and Republicans in conservative states are eliminating these programs in their states. More troubling, some conservative politicians, including Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, are trying to force private companies to eliminate these programs. In January, Coleman and Republican Attorneys General from 18 other states sent a letter to Costco urging them to discontinue their DEI policies.
Conservatives act like these policies are a form of namby-pamby liberalism imposed by cry-baby activists. But they’re not.
The Free Market In Action
The reality is that DEI polices were created and adopted by businesses. In the 1990s, many large consumer companies realized that the nation was diversifying rapidly, which meant that the consumer base was changing. These companies wanted to sell to these consumers, and it’s a huge market. Roughly 13% of the U.S. population is black, 20% Hispanic, 6% Asian/Pacific Islander, and about 6% LGBTQ (approximately 10% of adult males and 4% of females are gay, and about 0.3% Transgender).
Successful companies want to reach as many of these consumers as possible. Over years of trial and error, companies found that the best way reach diverse customers was by having employees with personal experience in those markets. So companies began to diversify their workforce to reflect our demographically changing nation. This was purely a business decision, driven by market forces. It was the free market in action.
Companies also found that employees and potential employees in certain career fields, like computer programming, want to work in diverse, open, and tolerant environments. Gen-Z also wants to work in these types of settings. This incentivized many companies to institute workplace policies to promote equity and inclusion to better attract and retain these employees. These programs were initially referred to as anti-discrimination polices, but over the years they became known as diversity, equity, and inclusiveness policies.
Many of the companies that led the way in adopting these policies were industry leaders, and studies show that more diverse companies are more creative, productive, and profitable. Other companies followed suit, simply to compete. Investment banks realized the economic benefits of these programs and began to favor companies with these policies. Some large state pension funds, notably California’s, specifically focused on investing in companies with strong DEI policies, because of their financial track record. And then a few states began to promote these programs in their hiring decisions.
After the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020, and the subsequent social justice protests that swept the nation, many companies adopted these policies in an effort to either address, or gain media attention from the appearance of attempting to address, issues of systemic inequality. Many adopted DEI policies, and many others highlighted their existing policies. This heightened public awareness of these policies, and when conservatives began to take notice.
Something about these DEI policies really stoked their ire. I think it’s because conservatives have long believed that businesses are naturally conservative, and so they were shocked — deeply and personally hurt — that companies adopted these purportedly liberal policy. But it’s also indisputable that DEI programs are a free market solution to our changing nation, which puts the lie to the idea that free market are inherently conservative.
Conservatives say the issue is “discrimination,” that policies meant to diversify the workforce are, in themselves, discriminatory. But it seems clear that the real issue is that some people — I’m obviously talking about Kentucky Attorney General Coleman and frankly most conservatives — are not comfortable with our diverse society. Why else would they so easily abandon their long-held belief in the free market, and seek to impose a government mandate on business?
