Small Businesses In America

Televisions showed horrifying images of a police officer’s knee pressed into the neck of an unarmed African-American man on May 25, 2020. The victim was George Floyd. The police officers who contributed to his death were charged to varying degrees based on their participation in the event. This moment alerted the United States and the rest of the world to call for racial justice and equality. The public was understandably upset by what they saw and wanted to see a change in the country’s police forces and workplaces. 

One offshoot from this was the rise of the Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) movement in workplaces. These programs technically existed before 2020, but they gained a big momentum boost because of the murder of George Floyd. Three years after this historic event, we must look at how these programs function in today’s society. 

Why DEI Became So Popular?

The corporate world looked at the landscape in 2020 and realized that some changes would be necessary. The history of DEI programs stretches back to the 1960s and the civil rights movement. Before these programs came around, many companies had openly racist policies related to hiring and so much more. The proponents of DEI programs believed that these programs could help corporate America see the injustices of the policies they had in place before and make changes. 

Plenty of companies had DEI policies in place before 2020. However, the country’s uprising for racial justice highlighted the need for these programs to exist everywhere possible. Many companies adopted policies that allowed them to reach out and right wrongs with those they had dismissed so easily before. In many ways, these programs test a company’s ability and willingness to adapt to the changing world around them. Many people decided where they would like to establish their careers at this time based on what a particular company was or was not doing regarding DEI programs. 

Research Shows Companies Should Pursue DEI Programs

There was always going to be some backlash to the introduction of something like a DEI program on a large scale, and there has been plenty of that. However, when surveyed, the majority of respondents feel that a company pursuing a DEI program is a good thing. Pew Research conducted a poll on the matter and found the following statistics about people’s opinions of DEI programs: 

• 56% stated that these programs are a good thing
• 28% stated that they were neither good nor bad
• 16% stated that they were a bad thing

As you can see, the majority feel that DEI programs are a worthwhile cause. Not only that, but only a small minority believe that such programs are an outright bad thing. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that plenty of companies will continue to invest heavily in developing DEI programs and promoting the fact that these programs exist within their four walls. People generally like them, and companies will gravitate towards continuing to provide them for that reason. 

Besides the fact that public sentiment is on the side of continuing these programs, it also happens to be true that a sizeable portion of the up-and-coming workforce is from racial minority groups. It turns out that almost half of Gen Z individuals are racial or ethnic minorities. Companies want to hire the workers of the future, and that means adapting to the workforce that is about to exist in the coming years and decades. Considering the racial makeup of much of Gen Z, it is hardly any surprise that plenty of companies are looking at how they can cater to the needs of those individuals. 

Many DEI Programs Are Faltering

One of the unfortunate realities for proponents of DEI programs is the fact that many of these programs aren’t working as designed. There is a growing amount of evidence that the way that DEI programs are currently set up doesn’t allow for them to achieve all that they are designed to achieve. 

Reworked. co explains that the good intentions of DEI programs don’t always translate to the kind of results that many have hoped for. They state the following: 

Researchers have studied the effects of diversity training for years, and they’ve found a resounding theme: most DEI programs don’t work. Positive effects, the research shows, don’t last beyond a day or two. And some training can have the opposite effect, causing backlash and activating biases.

All of the hope and desire to make these programs work simply isn’t enough to truly achieve the results that proponents would like to see from these programs. Instead, these programs often create additional resentment among those who are forced to go through them. This can lead some people who have gone through the program to resent that they had to go through it, and they might lash out against the program and even against the concept of DEI as a whole. That is the last possible type of result that proponents of these programs want to see, but it is what has happened in many cases. 

Where Does Corporate America Stand Three Years After George Floyd? 

A full three years after the tragic murder of George Floyd, people want to know where Corporate America stands with DEI and other programs put in place to try to address racial injustices. The answer is mixed. 

Many companies have at least taken it upon themselves to put some kind of DEI program in place. They recognize that they can’t ignore the issue or hope it will fade. At the same time, it is crucial to see that the way DEI programs are designed today is not good enough to accomplish everything we might hope they could do for us. There is still more work to do.