‘DEI Hires’ Don’t Lower the Bar. We Raise It.
The opposite of diversity isn’t meritocracy, but homogeneity. And in organizations where everyone looks the same, standards tend to be lower.
Raising standards wherever they go.
Photographs: Getty Images
“DEI hire” is a new version of an old insult. For the past 50 years, the term “Affirmation Action hire” hurled the same accusations of ineptitude. Then and now, the goal is to imply that the person is incompetent — even illegitimate — whether they are the vice president of the US, the head of the Secret Service, a hypothetical airline pilot, a Supreme Court justice, a mayor, or a college president. The criticism is clear: a DEI hire “Didn’t Earn It.”
The usual response is to get defensive, insisting that the person’s credentials are impeccable, and downplaying their race or gender. But race and gender are not superficial characteristics that can or should be stripped away in order to prove someone’s merit. And the reality is that, more often than not, such hires don’t lower the bar; they raise it. So maybe we should insist that “DEI hire” is a compliment — even if that’s not how it is intended.