DEI's License to Hate
Corporate DEI programs haven't stopped racism and rising antisemitism, they've unleashed it.
If you're Jewish and work in the ad industry (or for a Fortune 500 company), I’m genuinely curious:
Did your place of work issue a statement of support for Jewish people after 1400 civilians were butchered in Israel?
Were employees of your corporation encouraged to read up on Jewish history, to understand the historical persecutions of the Jews?
Did your company post the Star of David in their social feeds?
Did your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer call for a company wide meeting to ask people to check themselves for any “unconscious bias” against Jewish people?
If you’re not Jewish, when widespread antisemitism broke out across America on campuses and on the streets, did your corporation’s leadership ask you to reach out to your Jewish coworker(s) and offer words of empathy, solidarity and encouragement?
Did your company circulate a pledge against antisemitism for everyone to sign?
(If your place of work did any of the above things, please let me know in the comments below.)
“Socially conscious” Corporate America Suddenly Goes Silent
During the summer of 2020, after the death of George Floyd, many ad agencies (and many corporations) took all the above actions and more. Of course, their very public-facing support of BLM was only one of many public political positions taken by the ad world in the last 5 to 7 years, including:
-Adulation & celebration of Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling during the National Anthem
-Climate activism
-the #metoo movement
- the trans rights debate
-The Pride Movement
-the supposed suppression of Black voters in Georgia
-incessant condemnation of Trump/MAGA
-offering to pay for employees to get abortions after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
I could go on.
These were all “socially conscious” causes ad agencies (and many large corporations) not only took, but did so very publicly.
So, why the sudden silence from the ad world and corporate America when antisemitism erupts following the attacks on Jewish civilians in Israel on October 7?
The answer, of course, is the ideological poison that infiltrated America’s workplaces known as DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).
A Cancerous, Divisive Ideology
Corporate DEI programs - under the banner of “inclusion” - with their goal of “equity” (equal outcomes) have instructed employees to adopt a simplistic, Marxist view of the world that divides everyone into two camps: the “oppressors” vs the “oppressed”.
DEI then, shamefully, asserts that all “oppressors” can be identified by their low melanin levels (i.e. White skin), while the “oppressed” can be identified by their higher melanin levels (i.e. Black/Brown skin). An individual’s character matters not at all when it comes to DEI - one is considered “privileged” or “marginalized”, good or bad, based almost entirely on what color their skin is.
Collectivizing guilt and grouping people in this way is definitionally racist and a recipe for abject disaster. Yet I’ve had a head of HR look me in the eye and say of DEI’s illiberal racist policies, “but it’s for a good cause”.
And indeed, this rationale has allowed DEI to become fully embraced - and sanctioned - by all of corporate America, especially in my business, the very progressive-leaning advertising industry. Today, though it’s against the law, ad agencies routinely hire, promote and fire based on skin color - all in the name of achieving the “E” in DEI called “equity”.
But you can’t fix racism with more racism.
And as we now clearly see, once you open the Pandora’s box of bigotry via DEI, there’s no telling where it will direct its hate. Yesterday’s demonized-by-DEI White male Christian or White “Karen” can easily become today’s light-skinned Jew.
And, indeed, it appears that’s what is happening.
The Activist Ad Industry Conveniently Loses Its Voice
Again, in my corner of the business universe (advertising), from what I’ve gathered, agencies have publicly said next to nothing about the events of October 7 or the frightening rise of antisemitism in America. I’ve been going through leading agency social feeds. I can find no statements against antisemitism, no website takeovers (like Wieden & Kennedy’s below on behalf of BLM in June 2020) and few if any expressions of empathy from major agency/corporate C-suite leaders on LinkedIn. All of which were plentiful during the BLM protests and riots.
And as I pointed out, corporate America’s collective silence wouldn’t be so glaring were it not for the fact that all these same agencies and companies felt compelled to comment on every last social issue. But notice the pattern: the social cause must align with the oppressor/oppressed worldview espoused by DEI. And clearly, given the reaction in the ad agency/corporate world, support of Jews - even when they’re shot, dismembered and raped by terrorists - doesn’t qualify .
Connecting antisemitism to Corporate DEI initiatives
But again, why does DEI inevitably lead here?
Because the Israel/Palestinian conflict fits neatly into DEI’s bigoted worldview. After all, Israel’s greatest ally is a so-called “White Supremacist” nation (America), riddled with an oppressive societal disease known as “Whiteness” - according to the DEI gurus. (Even the ADL, sadly, has promoted these libelous ideas about the US.)
And now, as antisemitism explodes into the open in the US, Jewish Americans suddenly find themselves grouped in with those “oppressive” White folks that DEI claims are the source of all evil and inequity in the world. (Note: I realize Jews are not all light in complexion, but to those seduced by the woke DEI cult, that’s clearly how the Jewish people are viewed and categorized in America).
Thanks to DEI, ad agencies and companies are now filled with indoctrinated woke bigots, emboldened by the very ideology corporations claimed would help heal Corporate America’s racial divide.
And clearly, given their muted reaction to the obvious rise in antisemitism, the cowardly C-suites (that allowed this racist ideology in the door) are still unwilling to collectively - and loudly - speak out against this hate.
But these corporate leaders would do well to remember: history shows that the Jewish people are, indeed, society’s canary in the coal mine.
What happens to them, in the end, happens to us all.
When I was younger, I used to think that issues like this were impossibly complicated and nuanced. Far beyond my young abilities to fathom.
But as Einstein said, you don't really understand something until you can explain it to a 5-year-old. Now that I know what I know, and fathom what I fathom, it really is this simple:
People who have been conned into believing in the validity of Marx's conceptualization of reality have been reduced to an infantile version of themselves, where they simply want what they want (power, say-so, etc), and they want it NOW. And if anyone stands in the way of their getting what they want, then those people will be characterized as hostile, and treated accordingly: usually with reputation assassination and calumniation. They prey upon the good natures and the humility of the percentage of the populace who don't understand what is really going on, and they keep discussions of the issues murky and muddied ("The Dark Side clouds everything...").
Such individuals are intrinsically malevolent, and are ACTUAL hostiles that are just waiting for a sufficiently opportune time to make their move. There is no reasoning with them; they will only speak the language of force, like a donkey or some other dumb animal. The benevolent-in-intent hesitate greatly before being willing to conclude that this is true, and that speaks well of the intentions of their heart, but it does not speak well of their comprehension of what is at stake, or of what we are drawing near to unless we nip this in the bud.
History already bears witness to what happens when the conceptualizations of (and characterizations by) Marx are allowed to take root and bear fruit.
And time runs ever shorter.
I hit post too soon. My message to you is not completely on point but I wanted to simply agree with you that DEI programs really is a heap of superficial garbage that is doing more harm than good. To your point that after the George Floyd event ad agencies threw up all of the badges of whatever seemed to evoke supporting women, black people, minorities, etc-it was just for show. It's never meant anything for them. Do you know that now when you are producing a commercial, you are mandated to have additional funds be included in a production bid that shows you have hired marginalized people on the particular film shoot you are producing? And guess what, do you know that 9 times out of 10, no marginalized people have been hired and that additional dollar amount is basically just that, additional funds. But the clients the agency works for get to tick that box of theirs off that says they had marginalized people working on their commercial. Pathetic right?