Diversity Matters

Guest Opinion

By Karen Mulvahill | April 26, 2025

Variety is the spice of life, right? So, what’s all this fuss about diversity? According to City University New York: “The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect for the full range of human characteristics…”

Could someone please explain to me why that isn’t a value you’d expect of a just society?

In our profit-oriented world, just being good humans is never motive enough. Therefore, much research has gone into placing a financial value on diversity, to prove that efforts and investments to increase diversity will pay off.

Numerous studies have shown that teams comprising a variety of different types of people yield better decision-making and greater innovation than homogeneous teams. Promoting an inclusive environment also fosters a sense of belonging and increased employee satisfaction, which is strongly linked to customer satisfaction.

According to a 2023 report from McKinsey & Company, companies with more than 30 percent women were substantially more likely to outperform those with less. Those with higher ethnic diversity were 27 percent more likely to outperform less-diverse companies (“Diversity Matters,” McKinsey & Company). These and many other studies have convinced corporate CEOs and boards that promoting diversity is a business imperative.

So, why the vicious attacks on diversity programs? Sadly, because some people believe that “diversity” means “reverse discrimination.”

It’s telling that before nearly every mention of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) in the president’s verbiage, the word “illegal” is inserted. What is illegal is using a quota system to favor candidates of a particular race. That essentially became illegal way back in 1978 when Allen Bakke, a white applicant, sued the Medical School of the University of California at Davis, accusing it of racial discrimination. Although Bakke performed better on admittance tests than some of the Black students who were admitted, he was denied entrance to the program. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Bakke’s favor essentially made reverse discrimination illegal.

No individual should be discriminated against. That’s made clear in the Civil Rights Act. And yet, how do you undo centuries of discrimination without some acknowledgement of the systemic racism that causes disadvantage to certain populations and greater privilege to the already privileged?

For those with no direct exposure to a particular ethnic group, reading that group’s history is a good way to learn about and gain empathy for their experiences and struggles. Until recently, most history was white male history with an occasional word of praise for the sewing skills of Betsy Ross.

The work that has been done in recent decades to uncover and share the history of women and minorities is important in providing a complete picture of American history.

That’s why it’s so alarming that due to a recent Presidential Executive Order, the history and experiences of women and ethnic minorities are being erased from federal websites. Stories of the Holocaust, lynchings, the White power movement. Books about Arab-Americans and Chinese-Americans. Anything about LGBTQ+ people. Feminism? All gone. Stories—only the good ones, of course—about the history and experiences of white men remain.

All these erased stories make up a tiny percentage of the entire body of historical reporting. Are we to be begrudged even that little bit? Those few stories that inspire us, give us role models, make us feel like we belong, teach the dominant group that we deserve respect?

“Most female aviator stories and photographs are disappearing—including from the archive…they’ve erased us,” Cary Lohrenz, one of the Navy’s first female F-14 Tomcat pilots posted to X.

Some removals caused enough public outcry that they were restored, such as stories of the Navajo Code Talkers and Tuskegee Airmen of World War II. “If you erase the memory, we really forget the people,” said Alessio Ponzio, a visiting professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland. “It’s an act of violence that is very subtle but can really destroy the psychology of people. Basically, ‘I’m telling you that I do not recognize you.’”

In my opinion, what most DEI programs actually do is highly valuable. Acknowledging the existence of historical discrimination and striving to be fair to all are minimum starting points. Awareness, training in unconscious biases, tweaks to make an environment more welcoming to an underrepresented group—these are all good efforts toward achieving diversity and the positive outcomes that so much research has demonstrated. Not to mention a just society.

Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Reverse discrimination is and has been illegal for a while. Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are not.

Let us celebrate the accomplishments and stories of all Americans.

“We must not only learn to tolerate our differences. We must welcome them as the richness and diversity which can lead to true intelligence.” –Albert Einstein

Karen Mulvahill is a writer living in northern Michigan.