Countering the Corporate Diversity Backlash

Corporate diversity is facing a backlash. Target, a company that has carried merchandise celebrating LGBTQ+ pride for over a decade, ordered some stores to remove such products after conservative activists accused the company of sexualizing children and organized a boycott. Anheuser-Busch lost sales in response to a promotion with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, costing Bud Light its spot as America’s bestselling beer. Even Chick-fil-A, perhaps the prototype of corporate conservatism with its opposition to same-sex marriage and policy of closing on Sundays, recently came under attack from conservatives for employing an executive to lead its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

Universities are also facing a diversity backlash. The U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ending race-conscious admissions will likely have ripple effects, as an unclear regulatory environment might discourage organizations from implementing current diversity efforts while spurring some to explicitly exclude Black, Latine, and Indigenous groups.

These recent events show that resistance to civil rights progress for members of marginalized or underrepresented groups remains entrenched, and opponents of efforts to improve equity have been emboldened.

Diversity backlash puts companies in a difficult position. Bowing to pressure from anti-diversity groups may cost them the goodwill they have tried to cultivate among other consumers; Target’s capitulation to conservative pressure earned it blowback from progressive activists. Backing down can also encourage conservative activists to push their demands further. While it might temporarily reduce the pressure on companies, giving in to anti-diversity forces could hurt them over the long term. Demographics are changing, with nonWhites making up an increasing portion of the coveted youth market, and legal protections for LGBTQ+ Americans have broad support. Rooting out discrimination and increasing access to opportunity is essential to ensuring a rich talent pipeline. And for many individual managers and employees, anti-discrimination is simply a moral imperative.

Diversity initiatives are vulnerable to attack because many have been tentative. One-off hours-long training sessions, unsupported new hires, or programs that wither as anti-racist protests recede fall far short of the transformative structural changes needed to make organizational outcomes truly equitable. Leaders who are sincerely committed to diversity must prepare for the cost of defending inclusive organizations and adopt policies that make it difficult to roll back diversity gains.