J. Pharoah Doss: Confusing DEI with actual diversity

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established in 1965 to eliminate job discrimination.& Guaranteeing equal opportunity for historically discriminated-against groups became the nation’s top priority.& The nation implemented affirmative action policies in the 1970s to rapidly diversify American workplaces. Affirmative action was used in the hiring process, but diversity training programs were required to ensure that American companies maximized the benefits of having a diverse workforce. Dominique Hollis, who started a DEI consulting firm, explained that Ronald Reagan’s deregulation policies in the 1980s made it clear that corporations should address discrimination internally, and the federal push for diversity lost momentum. However, corporate America had already realized the importance of diversity by this point. In the 1990s and 2000s, diversity specialists and consultants emerged to assist businesses in tailoring their diversity programs to meet their specific needs. Numerous studies, however, began to reveal that diversity training did not make individuals more tolerant, as many employees resented having to go through training unrelated to the job they were paid to do. When Democrat Barack Obama became America’s first Black president in 2008, many people believed that the country had finally moved past its discriminatory past. During the Obama administration, businesses began to...