Instead of sympathising with the families affected by the horrific mid-air collision of a commercial plane with the United States’ defence Blackhawk helicopter this Wednesday, President Donald Trump blamed it on his two favourite punching bags, the Democrats and the DEI practices.
The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) framework, accepted and implemented by a wide range of leaders in the political, business, academic and cultural domains across the world, is a deliberate policy to set right the skewed representation of certain select groups in them, such as the whites and upper class, or in India, the upper castes and urban class.
It has made space for race, caste, religious minorities as well as women and LGBTQ communities at the high tables. However, it has seen a concerted and vicious attack from the far-right groups, especially in the US, as a “woke virus”, with Trump and his acolytes laying social ills and economic stagnation, and now mid-air collisions, at its door.
In one of the first orders he signed on January 21, a day after his inauguration, President Trump states: “…critical and influential institutions of American society, including the Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively used dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’ (DEI) or ‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility’ (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation.”
Nothing could be farther from the truth, but the discourse that he and his MAGA-loving people set more than a year ago was turned into law. DEI has got a bad name, and how.
Yet, Trump and his followers need to look within to see what the research shows. McKinsey, the beacon of status quoism on free market enterprise hardly known for its wokeness or social concerns, has been publishing research reports for nearly a decade. In its fourth report in December 2023, McKinsey made the strongest case ever for DEI in business.
With research spanning 1,265 companies, 23 countries in six global regions, it stated, “There have been far-reaching changes in the business environment over the past few years, yet companies with diverse leadership teams continue to be associated with higher financial returns. Our expanded dataset shows this is true across industries and regions, despite differing challenges, stakeholder expectations, and ambitions.”
However, Trump and his followers are unlikely to tune in to the ground realities and the gains of DEI. This is most unfortunate because it threatens to roll back the social advances, even in little islands, across the world.
