US corps. sack-rifice DEI execs
After ’20 surge, 1 in 3 diversity hires laid off
Corporate America’s rush to hire diversity, equity and inclusion executives is slowing to a standstill, with chief diversity officers exiting at Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and other corporations.
“They’re starting to see the emperor has no clothes,” Tabia Lee, herself a former DEI professional, told The Post.
“It’s important that company structures don’t include these kinds of positions whose sole role is to promote divisions instead of unity; who turn the company or corporate mission into something that is focused on critical social justice instead of what the mission of the organization is to begin with,” Lee, who is black, added.
According to LinkedIn, DEI job openings exploded by almost 170% between 2019 and 2022.
Jason Hanold, CEO and managing partner of executive search advisory company Hanold Associates, said 2020 — when demand outstripped supply — triggered a “frenetic time” for chief diversity officer hiring.
“There was an urgency and a national narrative driving that demand,” said Hanold, referencing George Floyd’s death, social-justice marches, and increased donations to Black Lives Matter.
State schools, for-profit colleges and even the Ivy League flooded the market with graduates of DEI certificate programs.
But after a 55% increase in DEI roles in 2020, job attrition rates have been high. In fact, a third of diversity professionals found themselves out of a job in the 2022 calendar year.
“The demand has leveled,” Hanold reported. He says he’s noticed more and more companies folding diversity officers’ roles into general HR positions, cutting down on costs and bureaucracy.
In part, Hanold says it’s because diversity officers’ responsibilities were unclear: “Some companies were well prepared and ready. Many companies were not.”
Lee agrees, but says there is more to it.
“The default here in America especially is [a type of DEI] that focuses on racial division and perpetual strife around racialized identity,” she said. “I think that that’s something that’s very toxic for everyone. I don’t think anyone benefits from that.”
Only one vision allowed
Lee — who formerly served as faculty director of the Office of Equity, Social Justice and Education at De Anza College in Cupertino, Calif. — said the industry squeezes out those who disagree with a singular, politicized vision of what diversity, equity and inclusion are supposed to look like.
In a recent lawsuit filed against De Anza, Lee alleges she was wrongfully denied tenure and her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were abridged after she pushed back against DEI messaging she saw as divisive.
She says her vision of true diversity — one which includes promoting diversity of opinion — made her an “instant pariah” on campus.
Questioning land acknowledgement practices and suggesting the school capitalize both “black” and “white” in official communications saw Lee accused of being a white supremacist.
And ultimately, she claims, asking those questions left her out of a job. De Anza did not respond to a request for comment.
“The companies are starting to notice that there’s not much accountability in the field,” Lee said. “They’ve allowed consultants to come in without any accountability measures attached to the work that they’re doing.”
Hanold expects more corporations to adopt a unifying model of DEI.
At his firm, he has noticed a “growing demand to balance towards true inclusion” among clients still hunting for diversity executives: “Belonging is achieved when every employee feels as comfortable, welcome and included at work as they do in their own living room at home.”