DEI in Decline: Did It Go Too Far, or Not Far Enough?

Compact Magazine (Center bias) published a widely-read feature about the consequences of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives on young people on Monday, prompting media perspectives across the spectrum.

'The Lost Generation': In the feature, author Jacob Savage claims 2014 was a "hinge year" for the institutionalization of DEI and that the careers and/or prospects of younger white men "hit the wall" at this time. He includes several anedotes and statistics, including that 48% of "lower-level TV writers" dropped from 48% to 12% between 2011 and 2024, and that The Atlantic's (Left) editorial staff dropped from 89% to 66% white between 2013 and 2024. Savage, who worked in media, noted that white men "shut out of culture industries didn't surge into other high-status fields" and shared his own experience as a professional ticket scalper. Savage said he's not "angry at" the women or racial minorities who received jobs he could have but that he's "annoyed" with himself, "Because instead of settling down, proposing to my then-girlfriend (now wife), and earning a steady income that might support a family, I spent a decade insisting the world treat me fairly, when the world was loudly telling me it had no intention of doing so."

Not Real Change: In an opinion published Wednesday, Jason Parham of WIRED (Left) questioned whether he himself was a DEI hire. Parham described the news media industry as having "laughably high turnover rates, a distaste for racial and gender diversity, and the dubious distinction of being perpetually on the verge of extinction," and said he sometimes jokes that the only reason he's still staffed is because he's black. Parham argued what people mean when they talk about DEI is "specifically black people" and that the 2020 death of George Floyd prompted "corporate activism" that was a "reaction not a behavior change." He added that President Trump's administration has taken a "uniquely hostile" stance towards DEI, which "maybe… was always going to die." Parham concluded by saying "the uneasy and inconvenient truth" is that he feels he could soon lose his job, as DEI initatives did not lead to real systemic change.

'Rightward Shift': Ross Douthat (Lean Right) of The New York Times Opinion (Left) wrote on December 16, "For about a decade, under woke and racial-reckoning conditions, certain important American institutions appeared to systematically disfavor younger white men for employment, preferment and advancement. In the process, these institutions forged a cohort that had concrete, economic, material reasons to regard the existing system and its values as a racially motivated conspiracy against their interests." Douthat says this has brought about a "rightward shift" for young men that includes "the black pill, the extremism, the hard turn against all forms of immigration, [and] the strange appeal of Nick Fuentes." This shift, Douthat says, is "about jobs, professional opportunity and feeling like a door has been slammed in your face or closed before you ever reach it." He concludes that "the cure for the kind of political pessimism" might be "through the simple and, in theory, liberal expedient of just not discriminating against them."

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