The Wall St. Journal’s Callum Borchers wrote about the new moves among corporations to end their DEI programs. It seems like it’s coming in an avalanche — McDonalds, Walmart, Meta and many others have announced in recent days that their commitment to making their workplaces more diverse and equitable is over.
But that means mediocre white guys no longer have any excuse:
I wondered how these self-described DEI casualties are feeling. So, I spoke this week with the aggrieved engineer and seven others who contacted me with stories about doors allegedly closed on them because they were the wrong race or gender. Most feared for their jobs and insisted I not name them publicly.
They generally believe they’re more likely to get hired or promoted in an environment where Donald Trump is president, Robby Starbuck’s name-and-shame threats loom over corporate America, and Mark Zuckerberg heralds “masculine energy” on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Their optimism isn’t unbridled, however. Some told me they worry about a bro renaissance going too far and harming women and people of color.
And a few are mulling an ego-rattling possibility: What if I’ve pinned my failures on diversity, only to discover that the stumbling block is…me?
They say the retreat of corporate DEI removes a barrier for them—or, perhaps, an excuse they’ve used to rationalize life’s losses.
A 26-year-old chief of staff at a New York software startup suspects his college and career prospects were dimmed because he doesn’t advance diversity goals as a straight, white man. He remembers his high-school guidance counselor telling him he wouldn’t get into the Ivy League for this reason, and in subsequent years he has chalked up professional disappointments to the effects of DEI.
Now he’s considering whether diversity was a boogeyman.
“I’m sure there have been times that I attributed too much to DEI when I didn’t get an opportunity,” he says. “Maybe I didn’t come across well in an interview and I could do more introspection.”
Somehow I doubt there’s going to be much introspection among most white bros who aren’t making it. Long before there was anything called DEI, they were finding ways to blame others for their shortcomings.
I’d start looking for another three letter acronym Boogeyman now that CRT and DEI have done their work. There must be some other program designed to help women, LGBT and people of color they can demonize. I guess there’s always the disabled.