Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by returntocollege | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

returntocollege

[dead]

View on HN

George Floyd's "incident" was in 2020.

DEI efforts long predate that date.

2011: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13583

2019: https://time.com/5696943/diversity-business/

> A 2019 survey of 234 companies in the S&P 500 found that 63% of the diversity professionals had been appointed or promoted to their roles during the past three years. In March 2018, the job site Indeed reported that postings for diversity and inclusion professionals had risen 35% in the previous two years.

Do you have any sources for that opening statement?

I think being alive in 2020 is a good enough source for this one.

George Floyd's being alive for part of 2020 debunks it, unless the various DEI programs predating 2020 were somehow created via a time machine.

Of course DEI existed before 2020 but Floyd's death certainly escalated the situation.

Yep. What this shows is that companies sway with what they perceive is public opinion. From Floyd to Trump, companies are shaping their internal public facing policies to mirror where they think the public is on social issues.

Lesson taught and learned.

What about being alive before 2020?

You have a completely distorted view of the history of these programs which LONG predate 2020. Unfortunately so do a lot of people.

I think they may confused because 1) the specific phrase "diversity, equity, inclusion" and term "DEI" only really started to be common around 2019-2020, and 2) DEI only really entered the public discourse in the past couple years.

This is causing people who were not that aware of these topics before to jump to the incorrect conclusion that because they weren't seeing discussion of "DEI" before that period, corporate diversity programs in general must be recent, whereas in reality it's only this specific name for them that is recent.

Not the OP, but I think that it would be fair to say that these ideas peaked during that time.

For me, the photo of Wells Fargo managers kneeling in front of their huge money safes will always be the icon of that time. You cannot really get more performative than that.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-16/banks-sna...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com