“I know, Theresa, but my hands are tied. She brings in a lot of revenue for the company.”

That’s how the CEO responded to the valid claims I had raised against my white identifying manager.

I had exhausted all the official internal channels, and this meeting with the CEO was the last stop.

I was speaking fair treatment, inclusivity, emotional and psychological safety.

But he understood and spoke money, bottom line, profit, increased revenue, quarterly earnings, etc.

He determined that the harm I was experiencing did not outweigh or justify the loss of revenue that would result if he took action against my manager.

He cared not for me or my well-being. Whatever dollars I might bring in paled in comparison to what my manager was already bringing in.

Because she brought the company too much profit for them to do anything about her, they allowed her to wreak havoc with no regard for the hell I was going through.

I was the sacrificial black lamb, even though my loss would mean a 50% decrease in number of the company’s Black employees. That’s right. There were only two of us—each working in different departments.

The CEO had no idea how it sounded for him to stress how much he hated to lose me, while refusing to do what would make me stay.

That was my last meeting ever as an employee prior to leaving corporate for good.

Real DEI

That we even need an entire industry devoted to DEI means that DEI is “euphemistic shorthand” for work that seeks to get the profit-driven power majority to be decent human beings to other human beings.

As such, real DEI concerns itself with…

• people and the inherent value of each individual
• fair treatment of people in interactions
• fairness in access, in opportunities, in pay, etc.

However, DEI is up against the long-standing “value system” upon which this country was built—a system with an insatiable appetite for profit and power at any cost, even at the cost of lives.

In this respect only, we as DEI educators and practitioners have gotten it “wrong” with our sensical appeals to morality, humanity, fairness, justice, and all-around common decency.

Companies operating within a racial-caste capitalist system adhere to…

• prioritization of profit over people
• profit-driven whiteness-centered leadership and culture
• profit-driven infrastructure

Two Different Languages

DEI’s primary “love language” is people.

A company’s primary “love language” is profit and power.

Therein lies a core disconnect.

Companies are not motivated by a moral imperative to do what’s right.

At the end of the day, lives don’t matter.

Profit and power do.

Companies are most likely to do the right thing when forced or compelled. And profit or a threat to power has proven to be a greater motivator.

In fact, companies like Wells Fargo, Tesla, Starbucks, to name a few, put in the effort to avoid doing what’s right while at the same time investing in performative DEI for the sake of public image. After all, image ultimately translates to profit.

Companies constantly show us who they are with each subsequent news cycle, each pending lawsuit, employees’ lived experiences, etc.

Appeals to “do the right thing” are empty appeals unless companies understand what’s in it for them when they “do DEI.”

The WIIFM principle (“what’s in it for me?”) is the reason why “the business case for diversity” was born. It was an attempt to speak the language of profit and get companies on board.

Profit (or Power) Doesn’t See People as People

I don’t think we’ve yet developed enough “fluency” in the language of profit to significantly advance DEI. Companies have adapted and seem willing to lose money as part of the cost of doing performative DEI business or anti-DEI business.

In other words, if a company gets sued for $1 million due to a bigoted and racist high-performing, revenue-generating leader, it means little if the company is set to earn millions and millions by retaining the leader. Losing $1 million to gain millions—or being on the receiving end of temporary outrage—is relative low collateral damage.

The lives, livelihoods, and well-being on the receiving end of toxicity is inconsequential to the big picture.

Besides, companies know based on prior experience that Black people in particular, for example, have short attention spans. We’ll be mad for a minute, and then resume banking at Wells Fargo and buying a cup of joe from Starbucks. And if companies throw in an appeasement symbol or two, akin to tasteful Juneteenth recognition, many of us will even sing their praises.

And of course, let’s add to the mix that DEI work is presently being threatened by the rise of…

• unchecked hate of “others”
• “replacement theory” fear
• “white oppression” and “reverse racism” narratives

DEI work has become more of an uphill battle than ever before. So then does anti-racism work have a chance, or anti-Black racism work, for that matter?

DEI That Makes Dollars and Sense

Please don’t misunderstand. I know profit has a legitimate role in business. The issue is the lack of balance between profit and people to the point whereby profit is clearly king at the cost of people.

When profit has become king, it speaks to how soulless and empty a company is. This goes contrary to the very essence of DEI.

Companies are showing us who they really are. For them, DEI has to make dollars and sense, and it cannot disrupt the existing power structure. Because although profit rules, it shares the throne with its close sibling, power.

Are we failing to hit companies even harder and more frequently with real-time data, for example, that clearly indicates…

• bottom-line benefits of DEI
• annual revenue left on the table when a company drops the ball on DEI
• losses in revenue and in “human capital” for each instance that a company messes up on DEI

The Blunt Reality

• The 2020 videotaped murder of George Floyd for all to see and the subsequent back-pedaling of companies reveal this…
• There is no horrific experience that can be witnessed, heard about, or read about that would awaken any moral drive of a company to consistently do the right thing.
• DEI work (and anti-racism work) will need to rely more heavily on speaking the language of profit and bottom line, while referencing public image and brand which directly impacts profit and bottom line.

Post-Script to Opening Story

• The CEO’s short-term bet in favor of a toxic manager didn’t pay off in the long run. In fact, it blew up in his face.
• Due to the many subsequent complaints against her, the manager was subject to a massive and costly investigation by the head office. Company employees were interviewed and attested to her toxicity.
• Remember, it was never an issue of whether the CEO believed me.
• He and company representatives knew I was telling the truth about her.
• However, the company chose to look the other way and continue collecting the money she was bringing in.
• The outcome of the investigation? The manager was unceremoniously fired.
• And the CEO? He had already been replaced years earlier.

He should have bet on Black.