Growing up, my mom would say, “We need to do the thing that we do best in service of those who have been historically excluded and not granted the opportunity.”
I think there’s a huge swathe of people who just don’t understand DEI. They don’t understand the experience of people of colour. They don’t understand why it’s not equal. And I think this new US administration is taking advantage of those people. Many Americans who say they don’t “see” colour may come from a good place, but it’s an uninformed place. Because unless you are seeing colour, you are not understanding that we didn’t start at the same jump line for the race.
I’m sure some DEI efforts have been poorly implemented or misguided, leading to resentment in certain places. But the allowances we give [to certain] people are also totally different. I was talking to a friend the other day about a hire that was recently made at a major Hollywood network, and that person really wasn’t performing well — he was a white man. Yet, the network kept giving him more shots and tailored the role of the job to match his strengths. I see this happen all the time. Odds are, if a person of colour is given an opportunity and it’s not working out, there becomes a feeling of resentment that they were nothing more than a DEI hire. Less allowances are given to people of colour, period.
We’ve been conditioned to believe there’s only one definition of success, and only one type of person who can be successful. If you’ve grown up in a society that drilled the idea that you’re a winner into you, confronting the reality that this perception may be built on structures and ideologies that are toxic and can harm others can be deeply painful to acknowledge.
If you grew up believing that you were going to graduate and secure a job within your community without question, but then that job is given to a South Asian immigrant, it becomes a lot easier to blame that immigrant than to recognise society is changing and that your experience may not be the carte blanche entrance into every room with the same ease that it was for your parents. When society takes steps forward, we often don’t allow space for those who feel left behind. And as we edge toward equality a bit more, certain groups will inevitably feel marginalised in the process — and that frustration can turn into anger.
One thing I’ve learnt is that racism is born from fear. I always think about Bill Belichick, who was the coach of the New England Patriots football team while Tom Brady was there. [He] got busted for spying on another team. He was already winning, but the fear of losing drove him to such a level, and that’s what we’re seeing. Fear of losing, or even just being second place when your whole identity is built around being first.
There are a lot of things happening right now within America that are extreme, and we must resist the urge to normalise it. It would be a mistake to believe this anti-DEI sentiment represents the new status quo. I understand there’s a lot of fear among people who support DEI efforts — but we can’t let fear guide us. The resistance to this administration might look different than last time, but in many ways it can be stronger. I think the way people are going about implementing change is more strategic and hopefully more effective.
For the most part, President Trump’s executive orders will not dictate private companies and the decisions they make. Nor will they likely dictate consumer behaviour. We know that people want to shop their values and there is momentum behind it. When I think about the fashion and beauty industries, the vast majority of the leaders within these industries hold the same perspectives that I do about the world, and we simply need to stay committed to those perspectives. So many of the decisions we make as private companies are private, and as a business owner I can tell you we make the decisions that are good for our bottom line, our communities and the economy.
During the pandemic, I thought about the fact that over 40 per cent of Black-owned small businesses were expected to close. Small businesses — not just Black businesses — are the pillars of communities all across America. That’s why I launched the Fifteen Percent Pledge. If major retailers could commit 15 per cent of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses — because Black people are 15 per cent of the population in America — it would create a powerful shift in how money is allocated throughout America and the world. My whole idea is about access and opportunity, and everybody getting a shot.
Meet the people committed to making fashion and beauty more equitable and inclusive industries, hand-selected by Vogue Business editors.
Now we’re in year four, and this past weekend we hosted the largest Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala to date, raising funds for Black-owned businesses. We had the Sephora CEO on stage commit their unwavering support to the work we’re doing together — and that’s not because it’s nice to check a box, but because investing in brands like Danessa Myricks is simply smart business. Danessa Myricks, who received investment from my initiative Parity Collective in partnership with VMG Partners, landed on Sephora’s shelves because of a DEI programme. And it wasn’t charity — it was a phenomenal business decision.
A lot of what’s going on with DEI is what I’d call a PR rollback. I don’t know how much is going to change except for the people who are truly racist using this as an opportunity to push their own exclusionary agenda. Despite this PR backlash, I refuse to think of diversity or DEI as taboo. If we need to reframe the message, fine. But the work matters and is very much needed. At the end of the day, you will be more successful in business with diverse perspectives. The smart leaders will embrace this, and those that don’t will feel the impact.
We all spend so much of our lives working that it’s in our best interest to create an environment that is hopeful, creative and filled with opportunity. Every time I talk to someone — and I mean, really talk to someone — who has a very different opinion than me, we tend to meet in the middle and find ourselves having a lot more of the same ideas than we do different ideas. There’s so much divisive rhetoric right now, so much confusion and misinformation, people inevitably have a difficult time parsing through it all. But I recommend that if someone holds a negative perspective, the key is understanding its source. Fear, left unchecked, grows into a giant shadow. But when we confront it — when we look it in the eye — it shrinks.
The views expressed in op-eds are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Vogue Business.
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