Why Is DEI Off the Table? -

Author Poornima Luthra said that she sees the current moment as “a pivot point for companies and for us as DEI practitioners to really hold a mirror up to ourselves and say, ‘Are we actually doing what [we need to do] for the long-term, sustainable, systemic, and cultural change that is necessary?’”

Poornima Luthra said that she sees the current moment as “a pivot point for companies and for us as DEI practitioners to really hold a mirror up to ourselves and say, ‘Are we actually doing what [we need to do] for the long-term, sustainable, systemic, and cultural change that is necessary?’”

Poornima Luthra began her research for her newly published book Can I Say That? with a simple premise: DEI is currently being seen as “a threat — to your status, your culture, values, your opportunities, access to resources, a threat to the very idea of meritocracy, which we are definitely seeing play out today,” she told Convene. Her aim in writing the book was to understand what emotion was responsible for that and, she said, her research revealed that it all comes down to “the very core human emotion of fear.”

We can only move forward from this current moment, she said, by addressing this fear and recognizing that — looking back at the history of women’s, civil rights, and the LGBTQ+ movements — “there’s always been resistance and backlash. It’s come in waves. That’s not to trivialize what we’re experiencing or what anyone in history has.” But during this period of backlash, Luthra said, it’s easy to assume that we’re experiencing the worst of it. However, “we have to ground ourselves and gain inspiration from the fact that people have been through this before and they have come out the other side, fighting for what they believe is the right thing. I draw a lot of inspiration from that in my own work.”

Luthra said that most of the companies across Europe that she works with that have federal contracts in the U.S. or U.S.-based customers, have been told that “they need to remove any evidence of DEI training and usage of the term ‘DEI’ in their work.” Some, she said, are adjusting the language that they’re using in their operations, “going into stealth mode,” and moving from DEI terms to “belonging” or “well-being” themes or in some cases, people changing their titles, she said — and she’s okay with that. “My thinking is that as long as companies are continuing to do the systemic and cultural change work that is necessary, call it whatever you want,” she said. “As long as the principles are there to embrace uniqueness and differences, to ensure that our processes and our organizations are actually fair, and that we are creating a culture of belonging.”

Luthra said that she sees this moment as “a pivot point for companies and for us as DEI practitioners to really hold a mirror up to ourselves and say, ‘Are we actually doing what [we need to do] for the long-term, sustainable, systemic, and cultural change that is necessary?’”

Part of the challenge working with corporate leaders, Luthra said, has been their capitalist model which relies heavily on quarterly results. “That’s what drives them and what they’re held accountable for,” she said. When you invest resources into diversity, equity, and inclusion, they want to know the outcome. What are we measuring here?

“The easiest things to measure are, of course, targets, quotas, diversity targets, and across visible dimensions of diversity. It could be binary gender identities. It could be nationalities, ethnicities, depending on the part of the world you’re in and what kind of data we can collect. The problem with this data is that if DEI is done right, it takes time. It takes resources. You don’t see immediate quarterly results. You don’t see sometimes yearly results. Then we create this whole performative thing of, ‘All right, we’ll just do something that puts people in a position that looks good, that we can look at those numbers and say tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.’ What’s the consequence of that? That’s created the zero-sum game, right?

“Then it becomes, if we are prioritizing women, it’s at the expense of men. If we’re prioritizing underrepresented ethnic groups, it’s at the expense of a majority of dominant ethnic groups. We create this ‘us vs. them’” mentality, Luthra said, “which is why we are where we are. Yet, if we look at the core principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, they’re meant to level the playing field, to make sure it’s fair so that everyone stands a fair chance.”

Pro Tip

“When it comes to DEI,” Poornima Luthra writes in Can I Say That?, “many of us fear getting it wrong. We are afraid of saying the wrong thing, using the wrong terminology, being biased, or being perceived to be prejudiced.” One of Luthra’s own favorite phrases to communicate more inclusively, she writes is: “’Tell me about yourself.’ It allows the other person to control the narrative and what they feel safe to share with us. Whatever their response is, believe it and avoid asking follow-on questions that reflected the stereotypes in your mind about who they ‘should be’ or ‘should not be.’”

Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene