- David Plazas is director of opinion and engagement for USA TODAY Network Tennessee.
In 2020, Americans posted black squares on social media to demonstrate protest against racism and police brutality following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers on Memorial Day.
Companies issued grandiose statements promising to better deliver on their promises to fully embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion — hiring more people of color, investing in organizations led by underrepresented groups, and conducting more training over the summer in what became known as “racial cleansing.” The aim was to strengthen their businesses while investing in their talent.
While diversity efforts themselves are not new, the intensification of rhetoric and action was surprising and striking.
But some observers questioned whether this was too good to be true.
In the July 3, 2020 episode of the Tennessee Voice video podcast series I host, I interviewed Nashville-area community, business, and diversity leader Jackie Akbari and wrote, “Jackie Akbari was careful to pay attention to what they said and how they said it: Is this a socially conscious fad or a sign of fundamental, transformative change?”
Tennessee Employers Maintain CommitmentsAdvancing diversity, equity, and inclusion despite resistance
Recent news that Brentwood, Tennessee-based Tractor Supply is backing away from its efforts following an aggressive anti-DEI campaign on social media shows that, at least in this case, fads have trumped real change.
Critics of “cancel culture” are now using this tactic to attack “woke” people.
In 2021, Tractor Supply CEO Hal Lawton touted his company as a leader in DEI and ESG (environmental, social and governance) policies and encouraged other companies to follow suit.
He spoke about the accomplishments and culture of “Stronger Together” and ended his guest column in The Tennessean by writing, “Tractor Supply can and will do more. We applaud other companies that have made similar strides and encourage others to do the same.”
A lot has happened in these last three years.
- Tennessee and other states, fearful that critical race theory (an academic theory in law schools) will be indoctrinated into students in K-12 and college, have passed laws restricting the curriculum so students don’t learn about uncomfortable truths from the past that states consider “divisive concepts.”
- As denunciations of so-called “wokeness” permeated academia, book bans and censorship became commonplace in state legislatures, the net effect of which was to erase stories about or written by Black and LGBTQ-identified people, even those about Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges, the 6-year-old girl who desegregated her school.
- The Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions has emboldened officials to apply the justices’ decision to all aspects of life. Later that year, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Scurmetti wrote a letter to CEOs of Fortune 100 companies in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, warning them about diversity policies and “race-based preferences in hiring and contracting.”
Google Dictionary defines woke as “the quality of being alert and concerned about social injustice and discrimination.” However, the word has become a byword for people who pay undue attention to these issues, to the detriment of others’ free thought and speech. Ironically, the critics’ solution is to silence wokeness in the courts of public opinion and the law.
The backlash isn’t just coming from social media moguls and conservative activists using the “cancel culture” tactics that liberals once accused of using to “expose,” harass, and boycott companies. It’s also government-sponsored policies and laws that are calling for major revisions from the 2020 pledges.
The result is a rollback of progress that opened up opportunity for marginalized groups who once couldn’t get certain jobs, attend certain schools, or accumulate the same wealth as their white neighbors. When we explore why this happened and who perpetuated and benefited from these policies, this is an incredibly uncomfortable truth.
Beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Act wanted equal rights, not more rights.
The pendulum swing is nothing new: The 1796 Tennessee Constitution granted black men the right to vote at will, but the 1834 version removed that right. After the Civil War, Reconstruction promised a more equal society, but then legalized segregation, public lynchings, and poll taxes were introduced, disproportionately impacting black citizens.
Sixty years ago this July, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, a bill aimed at achieving equality and righting the wrongs of the past.
According to the 1776 United States Declaration of Independence, the evils of slavery, restrictions on the voting rights of women and people of color, and Jim Crow segregation laws all had an impact for generations on people’s ability to “enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
The newly protected citizens were not asking for special rights, but for equal rights, and it seemed that by pushing the boundaries and asking questions, they were vindicating themselves.
DEI critics argue that their success is unfair, undeserved, and undeserved to other citizens.
Many companies continue to invest in DEI initiatives while considering de-emphasizing or rebranding them, resulting in these corporate policies and programs becoming less relevant, or at least less important.
So while Tractor Supply’s decision to retreat from DEI and ESG is disappointing, it’s not surprising given today’s American political environment.
As other companies consider how to move forward, rather than abandoning their DEI and ESG efforts, they need to have hard conversations, internally and externally, about what has worked and what hasn’t worked since 2020, and how to move forward without making it seem as if the efforts made so far never mattered.
David Plazas is director of opinion and engagement for USA Today Network Tennessee. He is a member of The Tennessean’s editorial board. He hosts Tennessee Voice videocasts and curates the Tennessee Voice and Latino Tennessee Voice newsletters. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email dplazas@tennessean.com, or tweet him at: David Plaza.
