Imagine if accountants faced an onslaught of criticism against bookkeeping and balance sheets, and that their firm was sued for using these tools. What if accountants were villainized, belittled, and disrespected for doing their jobs?
As absurd as this seems, it’s what diversity, equity, and inclusion professionals face every day.
Having worked in DEI for nearly 10 years, I’ve become disoriented watching this field become so hotly contested. Politicization has transformed the work of DEI professionals into a contentious issue and has cast us in a drama for which we never auditioned. This is even more taxing in an already challenging field with high burnout and turnover.
While the number of DEI professionals at organizations has soared over the last decade, DEI itself isn’t new. It began in the 1960s, in tandem with the civil rights movement and became more integrated with organizational culture in the 21st century.
DEI gained momentum after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 as Americans grappled anew with systemic racism. As of 2022, there were roughly 35,000 people in the US working in DEI-related positions.
In addition to the moral and societal rationale, concrete business imperatives have propelled DEI to a permanent place on corporate priority lists. These include strengthening organizational culture, attracting talent, reducing turnover, fostering employee engagement, bolstering revenue, improving problem-solving, encouraging innovation, and managing risk.
Against this backdrop, anti-DEI efforts are an absurd and reductionist distraction that diverts the focus of DEI professionals from enhancing organizational success to countering baseless opposition.
Regardless of the attacks, my primary commitment remains steadfast. It’s crucial to foster a culture where all talented people—including those from traditionally underrepresented communities—can have and can see paths to success. This includes supporting people in my organization as they navigate and dismantle institutional and professional barriers.
My daily work involves addressing biases, microaggressions, inequities, and disparities that feel deeply personal because they often relate to parts of a person’s identity.
This empathy and understanding aren’t merely professional; they’re rooted in shared experiences. In my work, I strive to alleviate the weight of these challenges for people facing them. Sometimes that means having them transfer these challenges to me, which means my work necessarily becomes personal.
DEI opponents not only fail to understand the work and intentionally mischaracterize it, but they also villainize people who are dedicating their lives to addressing real and personal challenges.
Maybe that’s the point—to destroy the profession. Or maybe the rhetoric is meant to make this already exhausting work so untenable that DEI professionals opt out on their own accord.
As for me and countless other DEI professionals, we plan to stay because this work is worth it. But staying means we need to take care of ourselves. We must be honest about the difficulty of the work, including the slow pace of change and feeling of regression.
It also means acknowledging the personal nature of the work because of how it intersects with our identities. Most DEI professionals are from traditionally underrepresented groups too. We’re dealing with our own grief as systemic racism, discrimination, and bias persist and affect many of us personally.
Those of us who do this work aren’t villains. We’re trying to address inequities and level the playing field. We care deeply about the success of others and want to see a more just world.
Most people want these things, too, but we can’t do it alone. There are at least three ways people can support DEI professionals and their work during this time of upheaval.
Learn
Just as the expertise of seasoned finance or operations professionals is crucial for the health of an organization, so is the specialized knowledge of trained DEI practitioners in fostering inclusive and equitable environments.
The spread of DEI misinformation makes our efforts even more important, as we now spend time countering inaccuracies with informed and nuanced perspectives.
You don’t have to believe or adopt everything we say. But at least listen and do your best to learn, mirroring the consideration afforded to experts in other business fields. Challenge DEI strategy from an informed perspective rather than espousing the casual punditry some opponents have adopted.
Protect
If you care about advancing DEI within your organization, now is the time to be vocal with support. As DEI practitioners become targets of attacks simply for doing their jobs, it underscores the need for allies within organizations to advocate for this work.
By standing with DEI professionals, you’re affirming the significance and value of this work and countering the narratives that seek to undermine it.
Act
The job of DEI professionals is to offer strategic and tactical advice and counseling. However, every employee has the power to help build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization.
This happens in big and small ways every day. Individuals have the power to use their DEI lens in every decision they make. These decisions add up, impacting the trajectory of the workplace. People who are intentional and thoughtful create a culture where everyone has the opportunity to develop, grow, advance, and succeed.
This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.
Author Information
Yusuf Zakir is chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at Davis Wright Tremaine.
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