In reaction to conservative criticism and backlash, some major corporations fired their diversity, equity, and inclusion advisors. Racial equality advocates are furious by this decision.
An article from the LA Times that mentioned the departures of DEI specialists from Disney, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Discovery provided documentation of the uproar.
Vic Bulluck of the NAACP Hollywood Bureau remarked, “This is alarming, but I strive every day not to turn into a cynic. Hollywood appears to be implying that the initiatives created to increase access for African Americans are in fact no longer necessary.”
All of the DEI leaders that were fired were black women, according to the study.
According to business expert Kim Crayton, she foresaw that corporate backing for DEI initiatives would end quickly.
“Although there was no strategy or plan,” she said, “2020 was the year that we had been certainly making strides.”
She said, “Corporate blackface was actually a PR moment. At the time, I told people that white guilt wouldn’t last.”
The LA Times was informed by Disney, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Discovery that these allegations were unfounded and that they were dedicated to the cause of fairness and diversity.
Crayton continued by asserting that DEI consultants were too preoccupied with managing the emotions of white people to effect any long-term change on injustice.
“It won’t work,” she added, “if you do not have the independence, the resources, or the power to make changes. Many of these women devote a great deal of their time managing the emotions of white people, and if you’ve got to do that, you can’t do the work,”
Paula Madison, formerly the NBCUniversal diversity chair, explained it another way.
“The individual in those jobs frequently has little power,” according to Madison. “These DEI personnel are occasionally drowning while barely keeping afloat. These weren’t ever intended to be successful things.”
DEI proponents’ frustration was matched by that of LGBTQ activists, who lamented that businesses had stopped supporting the far-left cause during the incredibly lucrative Pride Month.
