If we do not slay the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) monster, and soon, this menace will soon embroil our country in constant identity-based discord and strife.
For example, should housing loans be determined by race?
Decades ago, America reached a consensus on that question. We prohibited the oppressive “red-lining” practices that enforced arbitrary discriminatory neighborhood boundaries by allocating financing based on race.
But guess what? A new red-lining emerges, including in Atlanta, where the Federal Home Loan Bank unabashedly pledges racial bias in real estate lending.
Chris Rufo of the Manhattan Institute broke this story about how the Georgia FHLB literally scores applicants according to DEI, giving the highest application points to those claiming preferred identity-group status. Adding to this particular injustice, this overtly anti-white, anti-male commercial bigotry is funded by our federal tax dollars!
But there is good news, too.
First, across America, people start to recognize the wordsmithing and slight-of-hand perpetrated by the left in shifting from “equality” to “equity,” the sordid middle initial of the insidious DEI scam. Equality of opportunity remains, of course, a laudable goal and an American aspiration. But equity of outcomes… represents a Marxist tenant and should be thoroughly rejected by all Americans.
Patriotic citizens in the swing state of Georgia understand this crucial difference as citizens there revolt against these bigoted policies, especially in the workplace. Large employers, especially giant corporate multinationals, increasingly align hand-in-glove with the radical political left to inflict policies that harm millions of hard-working American employees and applicants for immutable characteristics they cannot control, such as white skin.
So, my advocacy organization, the League of American Workers, polled the voters of Georgia, who may well determine the outcome of the 2024 elections. We found a massive, and growing, backlash against the discriminatory alliance of Big Business melding with the permanent political class.
Specifically, North Star Opinion Research sampled 600 likely Georgia voters, split evenly between Trump vs. Biden 2020 supporters, and asked: “Do you think corporations should or should not make hiring and promotion decisions on the basis of race and sexual identity?” A large supermajority said “should not,” with 72% of Georgians rejecting corporate race preferences. Only 20% supported such business DEI programs, and 8% did not know.
In fact, the revolt against corporate DEI discrimination crossed ideological and demographic lines. For example, 60% of black citizens in Georgia reject corporate preferences in hiring and promotions, as do 67% of Hispanics. Impressively, even among self-described liberals, a 53% majority reject corporate DEI in the Peach State.
Despite this broad agreement that skills and performance should drive hiring and promotions, some household-name Atlanta conglomerates continue to acquiesce to the woke mob and cater to the discriminatory whims of the Biden administration.
For example, in 2021, the iconic Coca-Cola Corporation, founded and headquartered in Atlanta, demanded that all outside law firms designate 30% of Coke-related legal work for minority attorneys only. The firm that coined the phrase “have a Coke and a smile” put a frown upon lawyers who committed the “sin” of having pale white melanin.
But Coca-Cola is hardly alone among the Georgia behemoths. Atlanta-based Home Depot caught tremendous flak for a memo that was posted for employees in one of its stores in Canada titled “Leading Practices: Unpacking Privilege.” The missive urged Home Depot workers to “check their privilege,” especially if they happened to be any combination of white, Christian, able-bodied, or heterosexual.
Just last week, conservative activist Robby Starbuck posted an “inclusive language guide” allegedly from Atlanta’s Delta Airlines, advising employees to “capitalize ‘Black’ and ‘Brown’ in Delta communications” but to continue to use “white” in lowercase.
Delta has not yet commented on Starbuck’s post, but the divisive directive seems consistent with the tenor of the airline’s super-woke management. Delta CEO Ed Bastian wrote that “a focus on championing diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and within our personal lives will play a healing role to help us keep climbing.”
Again, the key distinction here is “equity.” Ensuring the same outcomes is totalitarian, Marxist, anti-competitive, and totally un-American.
2024 presents a fulcrum moment for America. Our country had largely succeeded in banishing the racist practices of past eras, only to now institute a new, equally pernicious form of institutional bigotry.
Will we allow this artificial quest for identity-based, fake diversity to throw Americans into Balkanized silos?
Or, will we toss aside the pursuit of equity and instead insist on real equality in the fearless pursuit of excellence as a guiding principle for our nation?
Steve Cortes is former senior advisor to President Trump, former commentator for Fox News and CNN, and president of the League of American Workers, a populist right pro-laborer advocacy group.