In the current political climate, most professionals have to walk on eggshells. This is true in academia, Fortune 500 companies and many political arenas. The problem with this heightened sensitivity is that it distracts us all from openly discussing real problems.
Every American can agree that specific instances of discrimination still happen and create problems of unfairness. Unfortunately, the left has seized the talking points and have all but eliminated possible solutions to these issues. Instead they force us to treat any instance of discrimination as a systemic problem that can only be solved through regulation. At its core, this is a fundamentalist belief, and it is far more dangerous than it may appear on the surface. Diversity and inclusion policies are harmful on multiple levels, and they are often the source of the systemic problems they claim to counteract.
Changing Standards
The first problem that arises in the face of inclusion policies is one you were expecting. Focusing on inclusion and diversity forces a change in prerequisites that have nothing to do with merit. When you have to meet diversity quotas, you will inevitably be forced to ignore quality candidates. This is a simple math principal. A minority group has fewer candidates to offer which includes having fewer top-quality candidates.
In some small, specific scenarios, this can still lead to a net benefit for a group by making it better equipped to handle diverse situations. On a larger scale, it undermines sustainable improvement for companies and universities. This can be seen in the correlation between American universities’ increased commitment to inclusion and their global decline in competitive education rankings. It’s not tricky. If you don’t recruit solely on merit, you’ll have a less capable body of candidates.
Counter Effectiveness
Changing standards can be countered, but there is a greater problem with diversity policies. Research shows that they don’t work. A series of Harvard-based studies have demonstrated that diversity and sensitivity training overall decrease minority representation — especially in regards to black women. The policies also lead to heightened tension between racial, political and religious divides that consistently leads to a more hostile work environment.
Perhaps more surprising is that these policies have a negative impact on accountability in cases of actual discrimination. In the 2011 Supreme Court case of Wal-Mart v Dukes, it was shown that Wal-Mart deliberately underpaid female workers. They used their gender-inclusion and sensitivity training as a defense against any pretense of discrimination. The defense held, and Wal-Mart was exonerated. This isn’t an isolated incident either.
Many companies that have actually committed illegal discrimination were let off the hook because they invested in these ineffective policies. The result is that both majority and minority groups feel less comfortable and more threatened when forced to participate in inclusion activities or training.
Linking Fundamentalism and Fascism
Even though we just looked at obvious problems with the diversity and inclusion narrative, we’ve skipped over the primary threat. This is a movement run by fundamentalists. Like any such group, they work by demonizing all dissenters and refusing to participate in reasonable discourse. Fascism itself is the political ideal that the state is greater than the individual. The inclusionists are mirroring this ideology in promoting the concept that the minority is greater than the majority.
The mentality is already frightening, but it has also caused real and deliberate harm. The fundamentalists push for totalitarian government actions that infringe on inalienable rights: namely speech and religion. Business owners are frequently denied their religious rights and forced to conform or close, and freedom of speech is a thing of the past on college campuses.
History has given us more than enough examples to understand the ultimate threat of fundamentalists. They will never stop demanding more, and they won’t be satisfied until the entire world is at their whim. Diversity and inclusion policies have been tried and they have massively failed. The left has once again unwittingly proven that a free-market approach is the key to true freedom and fairness. It is long past time to abandon these archaic practices and undermine the political powers of such an inherently dangerous ideology.
~ American Liberty Report
