DEI

DEI has become the target of the new administration since taking office the last couple of weeks. Nearly every major tech company has eliminated their DEI programs. Of course there’s a lot of people for and against these initiatives.

My stance on the touchy subject is that DEI initiatives were implemented with the best of intentions but things just went too far over the last 5 years or so. At what I believe to be the core concept of DEI initiatives is that we should ensure that underprivileged individuals get a fair shot at jobs in order to address systematic racism.

The reality is that I’ve lived a privileged life. I was able to go to great university out of state in which my parents provided for. Maybe I didn’t have the resources as some of those that are very wealthy, but I consider myself lucky and privileged.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case for many Americans. Individuals may be born into more difficult situations and perhaps were not afforded the luxury of going to a great school. Some may have been able to attend some of the better schools through merit, but may have had to go to the junior college route and settled for a state school which gets overlooked. These individuals may be more than qualified for roles but just may not have been given the opportunity.

If that’s what DEI is addressing, I’m all for it. Give everyone an equal chance if they are qualified for the position and ensure that racism does not hinder individuals.

Unfortunately, I do believe that DEI initiatives went too far. The idea is to give everyone qualified an equal opportunity, not hire or promote individuals solely because they were of a certain race, orientation, etc. Quite frankly when things like that happen, you just stray into racism in a different form.

All that said, I believe this war on DEI once again has gone too far the other way. I’m in favor at eliminating some of these DEI initiatives, but the rhetoric from this administration going as far to blame a plane crash on DEI is just absurd. I hope we can get back to common sense approaches to address our issues in this country. For now though, we just have to buckle up.