Thoughts

From Andrew Ross Sorkin:

Many prominent business leaders are weighing in on the debate that is taking place amid a broader pushback against policies like those around environmental, social and governance — or E.S.G. — that have been criticized by some as politically motivated rather than business-minded.

D.E.I. detractors are feeling emboldened. The billionaire financier Bill Ackman, one of Gay’s most tenacious critics, writes in a lengthy essay for The Free Press that D.E.I. is “inherently a racist and illegal movement” that effectively discriminates against white people. Such policies, he writes, should be wiped out of decision-making at Harvard and elsewhere.

And on X, Elon Musk argued that the basis of D.E.I. was “literally the definition of racism.”

Others are pushing back. The billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban challenged Musk in a series of posts on X, defending the three principles of D.E.I. as good for business:

On diversity, “Good businesses look where others don’t, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed.”

On equity, “Put your employees in a position to succeed. Recognize their differences and play to their strengths where ever possible.”

And on inclusion, “Great companies create environments that reduce unnecessary stress on their employees."

Personally, I am surprised by all the ink spilled over this issue. The Harvard issue is a Harvard issue and I didn't feel as though the "shouting from the peanut gallery" was appropriate. We have such far greater issues to solve -- crime, homeliness, creating good paying jobs, etc. Oh, the border, too. Let's get on with those and spend a bit less time on some of the other issues. (I caught myself there being critical of others. Perhaps what I could have said was we need to spend time coming to some agreement/consensus as to what are our highest priority issues.)