According to an editorial piece in the New York Times, on February 25th a few days after President Trump issued an order urging the private sector to end ‘Illegal D.E.I. Discrimination and preferences, Reverend, AI Sharpton led about 100 people into Costco in East Harlem for a so-called buy-cott. The idea was to lead with the intention of shopping and supporting the company for maintaining its diversity, equity and inclusion policies amid pressure from the new administration.

In interviews, self-identified socialists and other leftists worried that this action would help boost the strength of the company at a significant time when it faced pressure from unionized workers, who had threatened to strike on February 1st.

Some on the left have expressed skepticism of such programs. Meanwhile these programs attempt to be helpful and appear to be so on the surface, those on the left have portrayed them as a form of diversion from issues of economic inequality, raising concerns for the effectiveness of these programs. There is doubt about whether DEI is utilized as a symbolic act rather than focusing on creating a genuinely inclusive environment. 

Corporate-backed initiative diversity can take various forms. Starbucks, for instance, pledges to ‘work hard to ensure our hiring practices are competitive, fair and exclusive’ and state they are ‘committed to constantly achieving 100 percent gender and race pay equity.’ Starbuck has also implemented anti-bias training into their system. However, some on the left tend to see labor unions and worker-led organizing as a more effective solution to inequality. 

Jennifer C. Pan, an author and leftist critic, stated that “D.E.I. is fundamentally a tool of management,” In her latest book, “Selling Social Justice: Why the Rich Love Antiracism,” Pan cites examples of how employers and anti-union consultants deploy D.E.I. programs as a way to undermine union campaigns by defusing pressure from workers, falling short of change and possibly hurting minority workers.

Those who share this view often cite evidence suggesting that unions are more effective than DEI programs in closing wage gaps between employees of different genders and races by raising wage floors and improving benefits like paid sick leave. Unlike a labor contract, they note, DEI goals typically don’t impose a direct legal obligation on companies, whereas unions would. According to the article “The Trouble With Diversity,” by Walter Benn Michaels, published in 2006 in The American Prospect, a political and public policy magazine, companies use diversity and inclusion as a tactic for their benefit without creating meaningful change. 

‘My perspective is that the only thing that actually enforces D.E.I. is a union contract,’ said Kevin Gallagher, a former worker at an Apple retail store in Towson, Md., who helped lead a union campaign there and now works as an organizer for the International Association of Machinists. When companies that showcase DEI policies, like Starbucks and REI, resist employees’ attempts to unionize, organizers can sometimes gain leverage by accusing them of hypocrisy and tarnishing their progressive reputations.

by Cynthia Bueno