White Pill Wednesday #17
The D in DEI stands for DIE
White Pill(s)
The D in DEI stands for DIE
Well no it actually stands for Diversity but it might as well stand for Die considering how many companies have abandoned the initiative. America’s largest private employer, Walmart, announced only a week ago that they would be rolling back their DEI initiatives. They have joined the ranks of Molson Coors, Ford Motors, John Deere, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson, Brown-Forman (they make Jack Daniel’s), and Toyota who have all announced a departure from DEI policies.
It’s hard to visualize the impact of these companies but here’s some numbers that will help.
Keep in mind the Market Share is a percentage of the American market which the company occupies and the Valuation is in Billions. To date, Walmart employs more Americans than any other company in the US. It is the single largest private employer for the strongest economy in the world. Their abandonment of DEI initiatives is not to be taken lightly - this signals a drastic pivot on their part from their previously held position.
But why are we even here? Why has it gotten to the point where multi-national multi-billion dollar companies are weighing in on issues surrounding the diversity, equity, and inclusion of people? And more importantly why is the focus on DEI a problem?
What is DEI?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, DEI stands for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. It is the idea that “all people should have equal rights and treatment and be welcomed and included, so that they do not experience any disadvantage because of belonging to a particular group, and that each person should be given the same opportunities as others according to their needs.”
It’s made up of 3 pillars - Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Each with their own set of principles:
Diversity refers to the presence of differences among people in a group or organization. This includes variations in race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and other characteristics that make individuals unique.
Equity ensures fair opportunities for everyone, taking into account individual needs and circumstances. It aims to provide resources and support that allow all people to achieve similar outcomes, regardless of their starting point.
Inclusion focuses on creating an environment where all individuals feel welcomed, respected, and valued. It involves fostering a sense of belonging and ensuring that diverse voices are heard and incorporated in decision-making processes.
How could anyone possibly argue against any of that? It’s nearly impossible to do so without coming across as a “bigot”.
The problem with DEI arises when one realizes that DEI is simply an idea - an ideology. And like many of humanity’s ideologies, the impulse to create and spread DEI is based on a story that we tell ourselves. One that may not be necessarily true but a story nonetheless.
Stories are the method through which we make sense of the world throughout our entire lives. We learn our first stories by observing our parents and absorbing the family rules and societal norms through what we are told rather than what we experience. A child is instructed not to touch a hot stove or play with dangerous things which informs their story of the world and how they exist within it. And if they don’t learn from being told then they are often quick to learn this lesson for themselves and adapt their story accordingly.
Some of these stories evolve into myths that encode a society’s deepest understanding of the world. And because aspects of the human experience are universal amongst us all (birth, life, death, pain, change, strife) the oldest myths that shaped humanity for centuries share similar building blocks. These myths serve as a culture’s foundational code for what is right and what is wrong.
Now consider for a moment your immediate surroundings. The paved streets upon which you walk. The skyscraper colossi that stand at dizzying heights. The transistors and thousands of lines of written code that allow me to write this newsletter and for anyone around the globe to read it. The piping and plumbing that ensures you have hot water on demand. The rights and freedoms we enjoy today due to the sacrifices of the millions before us. Think of all the wonders of modern civilization that we are quick to take for granted.
Now think about what kind of stories people had to believe in order to envision, invest in, and build all of this. The amount of drive and dedication it took for those that first left civilization to discover and tame these lands upon which we thrive. The sheer perseverance of those that stood on behalf of we the people in advocating for our rights and freedoms. Consider the stories the giants on whose shoulders we stand told themselves so that we may benefit from the fruits of their sacrifices.
The stories we tell ourselves matter. They shape the very fabric of reality when we act upon them.
And the story of DEI goes a little something like this:
We live in a time when racialized minorities are being actively oppressed in North America to the point where the NAACP feels obligated to issue travel advisories to black people looking to visit Florida in 2023.
We live in a time where representation of racial and sexual minorities in mainstream culture is of the utmost importance to the point where Hollywood (the global multi-billion dollar media landscape) releases a yearly Diversity Report covering all of US media.
We live in a time where disagreements with any of the aforementioned statements can get you fired, fined by your own government, or even driven to suicide.
I for one am not a fan of that story in any way, shape, or form. Not only because of the consequences of such a story being adopted en masse but simply because it’s a blatant lie.
North America remains the land of opportunity for millions of people that reside here or are actively working on moving here - that should tell you everything.
If we are to believe the rhetoric of corporate journalists and narcissistic sycophants in saying that North America is a deeply racist, sexist, homophobic, patriarchal society then why are millions upon millions of people clamouring over the border just for the chance to live here?
Why would we see record high rates of legal and illegal immigration to a place that is apparently discriminatory to its roots? Why would anyone risk their lives and that of their families for such a seemingly awful place?
Does that mean North America is immune from discrimination entirely? Of course not and to say anything to that effect is straight up retarded. Human beings will exclude one another for a seemingly infinite amount of reasons, it’s what we do. It is quite literally in our nature to perceive an in-group and an out-group - it’s integral to how we make sense of the world. For fuck’s the nerds are still beefing over Playstation VS Xbox bullshit on forums with a fervor that may or may not surprise you.
Discrimination is a part of life - so what now? Well DEI would have you believe that the right course of action involves the righting of past wrongs from upon high. That instead of letting our Western-Liberal-Democracy naturally evolve into a more open and free society we must will it into reality by force.
That the implementation and dissemination of DEI ideology and initiatives must continuously grow and expand into every sphere of public and private life. Because otherwise without DEI we would remain a deeply sexist, racist, homophobic and patriarchal society like we were before 2010.
What I’m saying may sound like hyperbole but consider the following examples of DEI programs:
In 2021 the government of Canada announced a new nationwide initiative to address “long-standing issues of discrimination and racism within the federal public service.” The aim was to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment for the entirety of the federal government that better reflects the population it serves.
This initiative demanded self-assessments from all government organizations based on a series of questions to assess how they are supporting the Indigenous, Black, and LGBTQ staff.
Example: Have you, as head of your organization, and/or your executive teams sponsored at least two Indigenous employees and Black and other racialized employees to prepare them for leadership roles?
It also demanded that all government organizations dictate and follow a plan to correct any perceived injustice through multi-year goals. Thereby ensuring plans were laid in the long-term to implement these policies over several years.
Now why exactly would it be important to have at least 2 racialized employees be trained for leadership roles? Why not at least 3? Why not at least 4? Who decides on this arbitrary number and why?
But more importantly - why does the race of an individual have any impact on their ability to work for the government or receive promotions? Aren’t we supposed to be hiring based on aptitude and ability to complete the tasks assigned to the role? What does the colour of one’s skin have to do with one’s ability to function within a bureaucracy? And why is there an insinuation that racial minority and LGBTQ workers are unable to succeed without government intervention?
How can that story exist within a nation that is globally infamous for being open to immigrants? How can one justify such an initiative in a country where the LGBTQ community has been celebrated every June for years? How can it be true that there is an insurmountable amount of discrimination across Canada when our national flag flies next to the Pride flag in nationally-televised ceremonies?
In 2021 Coca Cola held a training session in association with Robin DiAngelo (famous DEI grifter) where presentation slides associated being white with racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. It instructed trainees to “be less white”. Don’t believe me? See for yourself:
Because whiteness is presented as the discriminatory status-quo for the majority of North America’s bigoted and exclusionary existence it makes sense using DEI logic to not only define what it means to be white but to openly argue that it is an inherently negative quality at best and violently dangerous at worst.
I don’t think there’s any need to remind anyone just how big of a brand Coca Cola is and the monumental influence its products have. The totality of Coca Cola brands make up 35% of the US soft drink market alone and it’s not slowing down anytime soon.
In 2022 Biden’s Scientific Integrity Taskforce released a report stating that:
Activities counter to DEI values are disruptive to the conduct of science. These issues further align with the Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce, which affirms that “advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our Government.”
What does one’s identity have to do with scientific progress? Of all the fields to inject DEI with you would think science would be the last to go. Mind you, the following is among the stated goals of the Scientific Integrity Taskforce:
Provide a multi-agency forum for discussing scientific integrity issues.
Facilitate improvement of policies and practices that promote scientifically informed, evidence-based decision making at the Federal level.
Identify promising opportunities to address gaps in current scientific integrity policies related to emerging technologies and evolving scientific practices.
What the hell does any of that have to do with the skin colour or sexual preferences of people? How does diversity of race or sexual preference have any bearing on the integrity of scientific practices? More importantly, why is the US government openly stating that any activity that disagrees with DEI methodology is disruptive to science?
The one that takes the cake for me personally is the initiative by United Airlines to ensure that by 2030 half of all flight school students are made up of either women or people of colour.
Now I don’t know about you but personally when I get on an airplane my first thought is “Oh God I really hope my pilot is both female and black.” instead of “I hope my pilot knows what the fuck they’re doing and does their job properly.”
What on God’s green earth does being non-white or a woman have to do with being a pilot? Why are we considering race for a position where hundreds if not potentially thousands of lives can be at risk if mistakes were made?
Does it mean that just because someone is hired from DEI criteria that they are less skilled? Not necessarily. There’s plenty of non-white experts and skilled people in just about every field of work. The problem however is when the standards of an organization’s hiring practices are adjusted to accommodate more of the “desired” peoples.
Here’s a handful of examples of just this:
Medical schools across US lowering standards for students in order to accommodate certain groups.
Portland Public School system changed its grading standards for so that cheating/failing would result in at least a 50% grade among other initiatives that sought to make grading more equitable.
New Jersey Board of Education decided to lower the minimum passing score of the state’s highschool graduation test because it was “unfair to Black and Latino students to require underperforming students to demonstrate a higher level of proficiency in reading and math before graduating.”
Hull University in the UK told its instructors to overlook students’ grammatical errors as part of an inclusive marking policy.
NYC paid $1.8 BILLION to former teachers who failed a certification test. Why? The test was deemed racially biased since a disproportionate number of failures came from minority teachers.
Canadian universities openly discriminating against straight white males by excluding them from the hiring process within their departments.
If you want any more examples I recommend checking out this Substack article or honestly just turning on the news long enough and waiting for another one of these stories to pop up.
My point with all these examples is to illustrate that the DEI ideology and its resulting initiatives are widespread and far-reaching in their influence. And though I used examples based in North America for the most part - ideologies are not geographic in nature. Ideas have a tendency to spread like a virus and DEI is no different.
Think about the implications of every story that I have thus mentioned. You have entire swaths of both the public and private sector, in every feasible market, in every institution from public schools to government - just about every single one of these organizations is in some way, shape, or form committing to DEI practices.
In order to enable these practices the standards of the organizations in question have had to shift in order to accommodate the new hires they desire to fill their ranks. This will in turn have a downstream effect on the quality of service that these organizations provide for each and every one of us.
Ask yourself this.
What happens to the quality of education in 10 years time if more students are allowed to fail just so schoolboards can say they’re not racist?
What happens to the quality of national healthcare in 10 years time when the medical schools have relaxed their requirements when it comes to the students’ ability to graduate and eventually become practitioners?
What happens to the quality and efficiency of the legal system if the exam standards of law students are lowered to accommodate for certain identity groups?
What happens to our society as a whole when we begin to prioritize personal identity over personal ability just so we don’t offend people?
I may not be able to predict the future but lowering standards for public and private services that we all rely on daily just to appease the soft bigotry of low expectations seems like a pretty fucking terrible idea. If you have some perceived guilt to work through, by all means take a leave of absence and spend a week sweating in a yurt huffing your own farts. Just don’t involve the rest of us in your bullshit.
See the thing with the private market is that at least you have a choice between Bud Light and Stella if you’re not a fan of Dylan Mulvaney. But you don’t have as much of a choice when it comes to who flies your planes, conducts your medical procedures, teaches your kids, or deals with your taxes. You might have some wiggle room here and there if you can afford it but at the end of the day if DEI is as pervasive as I think it is - we’re all just waiting for the other shoe to drop at this point.
Luckily, the move by Walmart that I mentioned at the beginning is among the strongest of indicators that DEI is Dying with a capital D. It’s yet another signal, just like Trump’s victory, that the tide is turning on the masturbatory self-serving virtue-signaling way of life we’ve unfortunately grown accustomed to.
This ideology was never going to be sustainable in the long-term, plain and simple. For the sole reason that the story that had to be told in order to push this narrative was so blatantly removed from reality that it would only be a matter of time until the public caught on to the deception. You can’t build a lasting legacy on the basis of a story that begins in victimhood and self-pity.
Our ancestors were undoubtedly prejudiced and exclusionary in ways we will hopefully never live to experience. This is a part of our history that we must reconcile with if we are to aspire towards something greater than ourselves. If we keep tripping over every past act of injustice we will never progress as a culture let alone as a species. More importantly the reconciliation of the past cannot result in the kneecapping of our potential for goodness in the present moment.
The challenges we will face in the coming decades are far too great to be left to diversity hires. We must put aptitude and excellence above all if we are to rise to the occasion. We must do away with guilt-stricken narcissistic sycophants. Anything short of that and we risk losing everything that generations past worked so hard to build. Luckily, the tide is turning while DEI is Dying - and I for one am excited.
As always, I will be streaming this week’s White Pill Wednesday podcast on 𝕏 which you can find the link for here.