From Allyship to Abandon-Ship: How Do We Stop the Cycle?
By Joy Stephens, MBA and David B. Sarnoff, Esq., ACC
Over the past few decades, companies and professional services firms have implemented diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programming and training to varying degrees of success. Some organizations created executive-level positions that had a direct line to leadership while others pushed responsibility farther down the corporate org chart without empowering professionals to implement strategies and hold people accountable. However, after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, many industries – from law firms to consumer companies to educational institutions – made grand pronouncements of their rekindled and enduring commitment to ideas such as allyship, DE&I programming, pipeline initiatives, and the hiring of DE&I professionals. These organizations pledged to raise awareness of inequity and to create inclusive workplace cultures (when we say inclusive, we mean inclusive for everyone, including white men). These organizations posted DE&I mission statements on their websites and described how it was part of their corporate culture. Sadly, these efforts have turned out to be largely performative and, in some cases, blatantly disingenuous.
Many opponents of DE&I and affirmative action have recently scored historic victories in the Supreme Court: rolling back affirmative action, revoking voting protections, and ending certain policies that addressed discrimination. The collateral damage of these efforts has caused many of the commitments made after George Floyd’s murder to disintegrate before our eyes. DE&I positions at all levels of organizations have been eliminated or gutted. Universities in Texas and Florida have terminated scores of DE&I positions at state institutions of higher education and have even demonized the word diversity. The term “woke,” which began a century ago as a reminder to be alert in dangerous places has since become weaponized to infer a nebulous, indefinable threat used to push rational people into irrational behavior. The commitment to allyship after George Floyd’s murder has been abandoned by many. It is also obvious to many in the DE&I space why this has happened, but what may not be as obvious to some is that this keeps happening.
It is important to note that several law firms, companies, and non-profits, even under threat of litigation, have doubled down on their commitments to inclusion and equity. However, far too many have used recent court decisions as an excuse to retreat, roll back advances in diversity, and surrender. This behavior perpetuates the cycle of broken promises and performative allyship that cuts and runs when the going gets tough. And it is just that – a cycle. Unfortunately, it’s not the first time in our history, but just one of many examples. For perspective, let’s take a brief overview of our history where this has happened.
Let’s use the story of the African American struggle as an example: Beginning with the end of the Civil War, General Sherman met with 20 Black Ministers in Georgia to discuss what the future of newly freed slaves could look like. After this meeting, General Sherman issued Field Order 15 in January 1865, three months before the official surrender of the Confederacy in April of 1865 at Appomattox. Field Order 15 provided, in short, that each newly freed family would receive 40 acres to farm. These 40 acres would come from subdividing the plantations of slave owners for the benefit of newly freed slaves. Shortly after the order went into effect, the U.S. military started to implement the order and assign 40-acre plots of land to families. Because some families were granted the use of army mules, the order became known as “40 acres and a mule.” However, this promise was short-lived and was the beginning of broken promises to African Americans in the quest for equity in a post-slavery society.
After Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, President Andrew Johnson, previously a slave owner, immediately rescinded Field Order 15. Instead of farming their own land, creating financial stability and self-sufficiency, African Americans in the South were forced into being sharecroppers or tenant farmers which was in effect a form of legalized slavery. Another example that is often obscured, minimized, or overlooked is the fact that during the Reconstruction Era from 1865-1877, over 2000 African Americans served in state legislatures and held positions as judges and sheriffs. There were even 16 black men in the U.S. Congress at this time. The Reconstruction Era also saw the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, the 14th Amendment granting citizenship to those born in the United States, and the 15th Amendment granting black men the right to vote.
However, the contested election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876 led to what is known as The Compromise of 1877, allowing the U.S. government to effectively abandon the emancipated populations in exchange for political stability at the federal level. Once again, this movement toward advancement and self-sufficiency was attacked by white southerners who opposed equality, giving rise to terrorist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan that instilled fear, committed random and gratuitous murder and torture to roll back advances, and isolated and intimidated black communities across the south. It saw the rise of the Daughters of the Confederacy, who led a hugely successful misinformation campaign to push southerners to ‘reimagine’ the reasons for and outcome of the Civil War. Learn more about them here. This also marked the beginning of Jim Crow laws and terrorism that reigned for another 100 years.
From the late 1870s through the 1970s, African Americans were denied equal education, the opportunity to own land or live in communities they wanted to live in, and were denied access to higher education and employment opportunities. Even black soldiers returning from war were not allowed to purchase homes in towns such as Levittown, on Long Island, that were purchased for under $10,000 and are now worth over $400,000, allowing a transfer of generational wealth that was denied to the overwhelming number of African American GIs. Also, during this time, thousands of African Americans were lynched, and their towns and communities attacked and burned to the ground in Tulsa OK, Rosewood FL, and St. Louis MO, among other places. Their ability to vote was met with threats and violence acting as a deterrent to exercising one’s constitutional rights. In almost all of these atrocities, there was no justice or compensation for the victims, even when the perpetrators were identified. The most famous of these is the story of Emmet Till, who would be 83 today, had he been allowed to live.
This “broken promise” cycle is not confined to the treatment of African Americans. Native Americans, who have suffered mass slaughter and displacement, have been the recipients of innumerable broken promises, as every interaction the First Nations have had with the United States Government has ended in a broken treaty (more than 500). The most recent of which was the transfer of Apache lands to private mining companies in 2021. Aside from ethnically based breaches of trust, the LGBTQ+ community has similarly seen substantial and devastating reversals of pledges over the last 30 years. 2023 alone saw a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ pieces of legislation raised in nearly every state (over 600). Even self-labeled "allies" who loudly say they support gay rights have continued to vote for politicians who are blatantly hostile toward the community.
While there were success stories of African Americans, Native Americans, Latinos and more achieving greatness in the military, science, education, performing arts, and athletics, the vast majority were victims of bigotry, segregation, and biased policies and practices preventing them from achieving equity in American society. As the Civil Rights movement gained momentum in the 1950s and 1960s, America witnessed the desegregation of many school districts, enrollment in previously segregated state universities, and the passage of the Voting Rights Act to ensure the protection of the 15th Amendment, that no one be denied the right to vote based on race. Additionally, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination based on sex, as well as race in hiring, promoting, and firing.
Affirmative action policies were also established in the 1960s and 1970s to address historical discrimination and promote diversity in education and employment. These policies aimed to level the playing field for marginalized groups by providing them with access to opportunities that had long been denied to them. Affirmative action sought to dismantle systemic barriers and create a more inclusive society where meritocracy was not hindered by race or ethnicity. While opponents of affirmative action claimed it diluted the caliber of the role, affirmative action has always required that applicants be “qualified” for the position. Some opponents seek to confuse affirmative action with quotas, which have been outlawed as unconstitutional since the 70s. Affirmative action seeks a truly merit-based society.
Affirmative action provided an opportunity for large sections of underrepresented communities to seek education, employment, and higher living standards. [3] However, they were also competing with affluent communities that had access to better schools, resources, test tutoring, and generational wealth. The greatest predictor of academic success is how much money your parents earn.
Even with advancements in the workplace, the number of professionals from underrepresented communities remains woefully low for a variety of reasons including unconscious bias, discrimination, poor recruiting strategies, and lack of mentorship and sponsorship. The percentage of law firm partners who are African American remains in the single digits, even though multiple studies from top business schools and consulting firms demonstrate that the most diverse teams tend to be among the top in innovation, productivity, and efficiency. As the U.S. workforce became more diverse as a result of affirmative action and educational opportunities, the economy grew exponentially and lifted up everyone. The military has said that diversity is essential to national security to defend our country and even the military academies are being sued to revise their admission practices.
So why does this cycle of give and take continue to repeat itself? Why do so many people in positions of power believe or assume that diversity will take away from them? It starts with the mindset that the economy and job opportunities are a zero-sum game. If one believes that there must be ‘haves and have-nots,’ then naturally one would want to be on the side of the ‘haves.’ This mentality is based on a misconception though, that to have, someone else must not have. It’s the same as saying that you won’t give your piece of the pie to someone else because then you would have no pie. But it’s really more like sharing fire than pie. If I light your torch with mine, we can both navigate the darkness faster. The difference between these two thought processes is the source of fuel. If you believe that others are just ‘feeding off of you,’ then you will struggle to see helping them as beneficial to yourself. But if you see them as only needing ‘a spark for their own fuel,’ then it’s easier to understand how they bring their own resources to the table and are able to contribute to making the whole of society greater than the sum of its parts. All they need is to have access to the same spark you once used. It is the work of true visionary leaders to share their spark, not to eat their pie alone in the dark.
It is critical that leaders not retreat but rather educate themselves and consult experts on how to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion under the current circumstances. They need to further understand what practices and strategies to further inclusion can still be implemented in light of recent rulings. Also, be mindful that from a generational perspective, Gen Z, in large part, strongly supports DE&I initiatives and they are on pace to outnumber Baby Boomers in the workplace by 2025.
The goal of this article was not to give a single solution, for none exists. The goal of this article was to help the reader recognize that we are again at a point of inflection in our history, and we can collectively choose to break this cycle. As Dr. King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” How will you demonstrate courage? What are you willing to do?
[1] This story is where famed director Spike Lee found the inspiration to name his company “40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks”.
[2] Similar breaches of trust can be said for Asian Americans, Latinos, Jews, and other communities who were victimized, discriminated against and subjected to broken promises.
[3] The greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action were white women.
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