If DEI Is DIE-ing, I Call DIBS

Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed legislation in Florida defunding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in Florida’s state universities, and while the diversicrats will probably go to ground by embedding themselves with bureaucratic workarounds, it is already paying dividends. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports:

Statehouses’ Targeting of Diversity and Tenure Is Starting to Scare Away Faculty Job Candidates

Recently proposed and passed legislation that targets tenure and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts is having a chilling effect on the recruitment of faculty members and administrators in Florida and Texas, where some of the highest profile laws and bills of that type have been undertaken. . .

In Florida, some candidates’ concerns are so profound that they’re turning down job offers in the state — despite not having other offers, said Andrew Gothard, president of the United Faculty of Florida, a union representing faculty at all 12 of the state’s public universities, a private one, and community colleges. . .

Candidates for administrative jobs are expressing hesitation, too, said Zachary A. Smith, a managing partner at WittKieffer and the search firm’s education-practice leader. “There are definitely candidates who tell us they will not look in Texas or Florida because of what’s going on around diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Smith said. WittKieffer, he said, is following its clients’ lead; at least one Texas institution has already asked the firm to remove DEI-related language in its job postings.

Here’s a simple rule: any prospective faculty member or administrator who is reluctant to take a job because of a lack of a DEI program is someone you don’t want to hire in the first place. I call this a win-win situation for Florida (and I’m usually against “win-win situations,” which ranks right below “public-private partnership” in the lexicon of soft-headed, goo-goo euphemisms).

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that some precincts of corporate America seem to be looking for a way out by re-branding DEI:

Why Some Companies Are Saying ‘Diversity and Belonging’ Instead of ‘Diversity and Inclusion’

The changing terminology reflects new thinking among some consultants, who say traditional D.E.I. strategies haven’t worked out as planned.

The question of belonging has become the latest focus in the evolving world of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programming.

Interest in creating more inclusive workplaces exploded after George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Many corporations turned their attention to addressing systemic racism and power imbalances — the things that had kept boardrooms white and employees of color feeling excluded from office life.

Now, nearly three years since that moment, some companies are amending their approach to D.E.I., even renaming their departments to include “belonging.” It’s the age of D.E.I.-B.

Some critics worry it’s about making white people comfortable rather than addressing systemic inequality, or that it simply allows companies to prioritize getting along over necessary change.

Naturally, this expanding terminology has been thought up by outside consultants who were brought in to help fix the damage by the previous consultants.

This passage is especially revealing about the larger stupidity of this domain:

Irshad Manji, founder of the consultancy Moral Courage College, says an “almost offensive focus on group labels” is a big problem with mainstream diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. “It all but compels people to stereotype each other. I happen to be Muslim and a faithful Muslim,” she said. “But that does not mean I interpret Islam like every other Muslim out there.”

Ms. Manji believes that people now use “belonging” as a “tacit acknowledgment that traditional D.E.I. hasn’t worked well.”

So what approach does work? In 2018, Autodesk, a software company with 13,700 employees, began planning a culture shake-up.

Some employees were afraid to offend one another, so they defaulted to being “fake nice” and “passive aggressive,” said Autodesk’s president and chief executive, Andrew Anagnost. Others felt unsupported and would not speak up in meetings.

Autodesk renamed its “Diversity and Inclusion” team the “Diversity and Belonging” team. Managers learned strategies for recognizing — and then counteracting — their own defensive thinking.

Good luck with that. I doubt re-arranging the deck chairs on the identity politics Titanic is going to work.