Why DEI Matters for Everyone

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are on the chopping block, which should concern everyone. One by one, DEI programs at some of the country’s biggest companies began falling apart in 2024, and efforts to reverse DEI initiatives are ramping up in 2025. Major companies, including Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, Ford, Toyota, Meta, and Amazon, heeded the calls and dialed back their DEI programs, particularly after social media-driven campaigns by conservative influencers. This means ending racial training programs for staff and evaluations designed to boost supplier diversity and withdrawing from the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index. 

Myths About DEI

The current narrative misrepresents what DEI programs are and what they help to achieve. Let’s start by dispelling some of the myths about what DEI programs are:

Diversity, equity, and inclusion only benefit minority groups. Although minorities stand to gain the most immediate results from successful diversity programs, DEI benefits everyone, especially those working in an organization or team. 

DEI is about hiring less qualified candidates. Diversity is about welcoming people in, not keeping people out. It’s about removing unconscious and sometimes conscious biases towards different people. 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are all the same things. These topics are closely related; they are not the same. Diversity and equity are both outcomes. Inclusion is a noble goal. On top of that, some people feel “inclusion” is insufficient and therefore want to add “belonging” into the equation. 

Training solves everything. While training programs are a great way to increase targeted awareness and results among individuals, research shows that the best DEI organizations are led by C-suite executives who prioritize DEI instead of making it an afterthought. 

Diversity is the goal. While that might seem obvious, long-term inclusivity is the goal; diversity is the healthy result of effective and ongoing inclusivity. In other words, diversity only thrives in an inclusive environment. 

What DEI Is

DEI is being used to criticize and discredit high-ranking lawmakers and local officials. Most recently, in the wake of the deadly Los Angeles County wildfires, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley came under attack for her focus on DEI efforts in the department. She is accused of hiring unqualified people, which is not the purpose of DEI.

Diversity is embracing the differences everyone brings to the table, whether those are someone’s race, age, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, or other aspects of social identity. 

Equity is treating everyone fairly and providing equal opportunities.

Inclusion is respecting everyone’s voice and creating a culture where people from all backgrounds feel encouraged to express their ideas and perspectives.

Benefits of DEI

DEI was created because marginalized communities have not always had equal opportunities for jobs or felt a sense of belonging in majority-White corporate settings. DEI initiatives such as pay equity analyses, employee resource groups, and DEI training can create a truly inclusive work environment. While DEI isn’t a new concept, it’s taken on greater urgency in recent years. In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, countless companies pledged sweeping support for diversity in conjunction with a national social justice movement.

Organizations with higher rates of diversity, for example, enjoy better employee engagement and less turnover. Those are two key metrics of more satisfied employees, which results in higher productivity and profitability. On top of that, a diverse workforce leads to less groupthink, which is a serious inhibitor of innovation and performance. 

Some Americans are shocked to learn that Black people are not the primary beneficiaries of DEI programs. For many, these policies are synonymous with discussions about race. White women have benefitted the most from DEI programs. While women remain underrepresented “at every stage of the corporate pipeline,” a McKinsey study estimated it would take 48 years for women of color to achieve gender parity, while only 22 years for White women to reach this milestone. Who else benefits from DEI initiatives? Veterans, disabled workers, small business owners, LGBTQ+ employees, and neurodivergent workers.

The Bottom Line

The benefits of DEI in the workplace include improved collaboration, innovation, recruitment, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and retention. These benefits help employees stay motivated and help companies achieve their long-term financial goals. The rhetoric around banning DEI programs in corporate and academic settings ignores the reality that such programs are designed not to “lower standards” but to raise them by ensuring that everyone — regardless of background — has an equal opportunity to contribute and succeed. So long as the door is open for everyone to have an opportunity, may the best, most qualified candidate win.