With the current administration, there has been a severe backlash to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. The White House has called them immoral, illegal, discriminatory, and wasteful.  Government DEI programs have been eliminated, and even private programs have been affected. A divide has opened up between companies that have eliminated their DEI programs and the few who have taken a public stand and kept them.

It’s tempting to dismiss this backlash as racist or paternalistic and stop there. But there’s more to it that can be helpful in learning how to understand what’s behind it and therefore address it more productively in conversations.

DEI programs are based on the premise that certain people have been systematically barred from full participation in our society and that systematic exclusion needs to be addressed and reversed. These programs really took off after the death of George Floyd. Unfortunately, these programs were not universally effective and, in some cases, seem to have backfired on some participants, awakening prejudices that had been buried. It’s clear that some people remain prejudiced and that bias has been recently invigorated.

What isn’t obvious is that behind the backlash is a difference in interpretation of fairness.  Although all three interpretations use the word fair, they mean different things. Getting our vocabulary straight is the first order.

• Equality is when everyone gets an equal share, such as an equivalent sized piece of cake, or for a similar job category, the same salary. 
• Merit-based fairness is when you get more when you “deserve” it.  Deserve is the key word here. It’s a loaded word; there can be many ways of deserving more, such as working hard, achieving more or even belonging to a certain group. The salesperson who gets a bonus based on her sales, the student who gets into a selective college because of their SAT scores and runners whose times qualify for a competitive race are all ways we carry out the merit-based flavor of fairness in our society. 

(Belonging to the same group is another factor that can interact with the merit-based flavor of fairness; for example, we’re more likely to hire people who belong to our group. That’s also probably behind why venture capitalists are more likely to fund companies made up of white and Asian men and not women or people of color. Belonging can be what’s underneath discrimination, without us ever realizing it.)

• Equity-based fairness is an attempt to make it up to people who’ve been subject to discrimination when they haven’t had an equal chance before or not received equivalent rewards for hard work. This could be a result of discrimination based on not belonging to the right group. Illustrations of the equity-based flavor of fairness are affirmative action admissions to college and the idea of paying reparations for slavery and discrimination.

The conservative right favors merit-based fairness while the liberal left prefers equality and equity. DEI programs are equity-based programs.  Thus, it’s not surprising that the conservative right hates them.    That’s beyond any prejudice they have; they just don’t like the idea of making up for previous wrongs. They want to believe that everyone can and should earn what they have and believe that just like others, they themselves have earned what they have.

How can you combat this?  It requires a change in language.

When someone you are talking to mentions that a person is a DEI hire in a derogatory way, don’t accuse them of being prejudiced, racist or paternalistic. That’s likely to backfire.

Instead, talk about the qualifications of the person and that they seem to be a good candidate and deserve that position.    Use their form of fairness to reach across the aisle and start to convince them that the person “deserves” the job.

If you want to learn more about fairness, check out my book, Persuade, Don’t Preach, on Amazon or other online booksellers.