Even though diversity, equity and inclusion jobs increased by 55% following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, a recent study has showed that the vast majority of them have dried up. Across the country, DEI layoffs have been fast and unrelenting.

A study conducted by LinkedIn showed that chief diversity and inclusion officer positions expanded by 168.9% from 2019 to 2022.

Companies like X/Twitter, Amazon and Applebees have experienced significant layoffs since July 2022, according to New York-based data company Revelio Labs. A different survey revealed that Black employees account for only 3.8% of chief diversity officers in all, while white people make up 76.1% of the positions.

In addition, those with Hispanic and Latino heritage account for 7.8% and those who identify as Asian make up 7.7% Revelio Labs’s senior economist Reyhan Ayas stated that calls for equality in the workplace back in 2020 were promising but never taken seriously.

“I always say that it is so easy to make public statements and commitments because no one will eventually check if you’re committed to the things that you committed to,” she explained. “I can say: ‘I will be fully vegan by 2025’ because no one will ever call me in 2025 and ask me if I’m actually fully vegan.

“And that’s really what is going on here. In 2020, a lot of companies made big commitments, big statements around the DEI roles and goals. And as we are observing a turning of that tide, I think it’s very timely that we actually look into companies to see if they have kept up with those big statements they made.”

The fact that the Supreme Court banned affirmative action in college admissions has only exacerbated the problem.

  • eran_morad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This was the obvious outcome. Those DEI jobs are pure bullshit. Downvote me if you feel like it, but they’re counterproductive.

      • JDubbleu@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        I work as a software engineer for AWS, and as awful of a company as Amazon is, they do diversity in a pretty unique way that feels very natural, and you’d honestly not notice it if you didn’t pay attention.

        The 13 diversity groups we have (Glamazon, Black Employee Network, etc) were not created by the company, but space and budget was provided for them to be created by employees. You’re made aware of them when you start and can choose to participate or not, and the groups themselves each orchestrate the diversity emails and events around the company. They also make it pretty fun by giving out phonetool awards (basically badges on your employee profile) for completing the optional trainings they design, and the Glamazon ones are always stupidly cool looking.

        It’s not some giant fake, “we give a shit” charade that most companies do, but it’s around you enough to normalize and promote acceptance of the differences we all have. I’ve personally found it broke down a few or my own minor internal biases I didn’t realize I had.

        With all that said Amazon is still a super shitty company.

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Then said that race, gender, and whatever else don’t factor in to hiring decisions (as it should be).

        Then problem solved!

        The hiring process should be race-blind, so anything a DEI department does runs counter to being unbiased. If they a promoting one group over others, then that right there is racists or sexist, etc. Hire people on merit. Period.

    • sylver_dragon@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      DEI jobs were just marketing. It’s the same sort of performative marketing seen during LGBTQ+ Month. Companies put rainbows on everything for a month, and then go back to business as usual the following month. DEI jobs were the same, while society was focused on diversity, companies hired someone to be the public face of “look at us, we care!” With less media focus on it and with budgets tightening, that wing of marketing is being axed. The companies don’t care now, didn’t care then and won’t care in the future. It’s all about the money.

    • const_void@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      100%. We had one at my company before 2020 and the hiring somehow got less diverse after they were brought in.

    • snooggums@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Conservstices: Designated Ethnic Invertebrates

      Everyone else: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          hard to keep up with all these new acryonyms

          Especially the ones from foreign countries.

  • nxfsi@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Affirmative action was banned because it was found to disadvantage Asian people, especially the Hmong, Laotian and other SEA people who are not stereotyped as “good at math”. On average an Asian applicant needs a SAT score 250 points higher than a Black applicant to have the same chance to be admitted under affirmative action.

    Edit: did some further reading on the subject since then, apparently it’s so bad that experts (college admissions counselors) actively encourage Asian applicants to hide their race to get better chances of admission. Also it is not unknown for darker-skinned Asians to simply declare their race as Black.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “… filled mostly by white people”

    Yeah. And? What kind of racist bullshit is this?

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      On the one side, it’s nice if the demographics match society at large, which these do.

      On the other, we white people are on the whole underqualified to understand the needs of minority communities and how we can be more inclusive. Lived experience is an important part of being effective in these roles.

      Given that, it’s surprising that so many white people qualify. Perhaps they went above and beyond to study and dedicate themselves to overcoming the lack of experience. If so, good for them! Is amazing they care so much about this cause. But is that really the most likely scenario?

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        white people are on the whole under qualified to understand

        This is complete false. If these type of positions even try to pretend to be anything other than a token gesture by the marketing department have some kind of training and certification and possibly even a degree behind them that quantifies whatever they are trying to teach. That means exams and reports and presentations. That means reading textbooks and doing research. So someone saying that the color of one’s skin makes them innately better at taking a DEI-related exam and being a better DEI worker is about as racist as you can get.

        If someone said that the color of one’s skin would dictate if they could solve a partial differential equation, or the sex organs they have between their legs determined whether they could design a 5 story building, then they’d be called sexists or racist. Claiming that a white person automagically can’t be disadvantaged and/or can’t be as good in a DEI curriculum or work position is incredibly racist.

      • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        This.

        And it’s so difficult to even suggest it to people who desparately need the professional help, such as those deeply trapped by their personal hardship to the extent where it affects their worldview or has them contemplating suicide

            • mriormro@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              No, I think it’s extremely beneficial to all humans to be able to have a neutral, professional party to help them assess and evaluate all of life’s problems that can be thrown at you. Oftentimes your friends, family, or third social space are great resources for this but there are a lot of things that we may be uncomfortable with or unable to discuss with them and they will all be fairly biased. They also may not know effective, positive coping strategies.

              You don’t just need therapy if you’re mentally ill. That’s a stigma that needs to be done away with.