DEI is nothing more than a participation trophy. If you want to fairly include everyone who is qualified then you need to target the root cause for a segment's exclusion. It’s not fair to anyone included through exclusion, rather a set up for failure.
Liberals and DEI advocates promote DEI because they have failed at meaningful attempts to solve the problem. When a segment of the population is not found in particular jobs, clubs, professions, etc. the most likely cause is lack of actual qualifications or lack of a history of achieving meaningful results. Discrimination (racism, feminism, genderism, sexism, etc) by white men is nearly as extinct as the measles, though the media and liberal activists would like you to believe it’s as prevalent as the common cold.
The most widespread cause of exclusion is the failure of our education system to educate and motivate with a vision for success. I am retired (2006) but as a manager of IT, primarily hardware/communications support at a large Midwestern university, I was responsible for success of customers, growth, budget requirements, quality, profit, etc. To be successful I needed to hire qualified employees who could solve problems or could be trained to do so. All departments, faculty and students had to pay for services and I needed to generate 0 to 10% profit to maintain/reduce prices.
Over 20-plus years, I only hired one female (student) and no Black person. Because of the nature of employment at a university, turnover was high from semester to semester. I often had 10 to 15 applications for three to five part-time positions each fall.
Why did I only hire one female and no Black students? They never applied. When I asked to determine why, I found they were not interested. Why did I hire one female with no specific hardware experience? She was very smart and demonstrated a past history of hands-on problem-solving. I looked for that quality in all my hires but preferred successful candidates with IT backgrounds. Should I have taken more chances with individuals who lack a past history of success, lacked interest, lack motivation?
Recently I had surgery at Banner Boswell. Except for a male aid who helped me to and from the surgery area all surgery prep, OR and post op nurses were female (multi-ethnic). Is this exclusion or just where individuals excel?
Everyone deserves a chance, but the business, club, profession, employment deserves the right to be successful. Root cause analysis is necessary to identify deficiencies but the individual, not the group, needs improvement. Society plays a rule by ensuring everyone has a chance to succeed, not by participation, but earning the qualifications for the direction and profession desired. Fix education. Ever heard of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award? A great place to determine how good or poor you are in manufacturing, health care or education. Great place to identify paths to improvement.
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