With the re-election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency, pundits are increasingly torn about the future of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Perhaps it’s dead: “RIP DEI,” read a recent headline in Fast Company. Perhaps it will endure: “DEI Is Here to Stay,” read a recent headline at Forbes. Don’t read too much into those headlines, though—what’s mainly being said is this is a pivotal moment for DEI, which may alter some of the rhetoric around the subject, but not the substance.

There’s no question that DEI is facing an identity crisis: In the wake of the Supreme Court unwinding affirmative action protections in higher education last year, diversity departments in the corporate world have been changing, if not fading, for fear of lawsuits from groups critical of DEI. Fortune reports that corporations like Ford, Lowe’s, and John Deere have all recently announced that it would roll back their DEI efforts; in an email to employees in August, Ford cited the “external and legal environment related to political and social issues” as its reasoning. Across the board, DEI job roles have been decreasing. 

This shift may signal a certain cowardice in corporate leadership, or reflect that leaders weren’t that interested in DEI to start with, or serve as evidence that the intense focus on social justice that compelled leaders to act in 2020 is now in the rearview mirror and that there are new stakeholder interests to satisfy. There’s likely some truth to all of that, but here’s another: Those DEI efforts have worked, and still can, if leaders are willing to connect with them.

It’s beyond time to put the current model to rest.

Amber Cabral

As Julie Kratz notes in the “DEI Is Here to Stay” article, underrepresented groups have made gains among the Fortune 100: Three-fourths of them increased the women in leadership roles, more than half increased the number of senior ethnic minority executives, and 14 percent have an LGBTQ+ board member. That’s not happening by accident, Kratz says; it’s a function of a commitment to improving organizational culture, measuring progress, and improving succession planning. “Embedding DEI into your company culture is more than just a box to check – it’s about fostering a workplace where every employee feels valued, respected and empowered to reach their full potential,” she writes.

Achieving that now, though, may require less focus on talking about DEI and parsing the process around it, and more about putting cultural change into actual practice. In her “RIP DEI” essay, Amber Cabral paints a bleak picture of more organizations shying away from DEI work. But she suggests that the next step will involve a focus on action instead of the kind of rhetoric critics seize on. “It’s beyond time to put the current model to rest and with it, the clinical definitions, and the constant desire to describe and explain what our preferred diversity, equity, and inclusion acronym means and why it’s the right one,” she writes. “None of this is working. And if those of us teaching are as tired as those we are working to educate, what are we really accomplishing?”

But all isn’t lost. One take on the decline in DEI leadership roles is that organizations are better integrating diversity across the organization, rather than siloing it. GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis told Fortune that institutions eliminating DEI roles may also reflect an effort to integrate it “more into the fabric of the company, so that it’s not a standalone part of the company.”

The second Trump administration will almost certainly provoke changes in how organizations structure and talk about DEI. But the importance of the principles of fairness won’t change. It’ll be up to leaders to decide how they’ll fit a commitment to diversity into their culture and actions—and do more than pay it lip service.

[istock/Dedraw Studio]