You are spot on. I used to work for a huge corporation, a household name. They were very much about *diversity* and *inclusion*. They even said it was a safe space to announce your neurodiversity (I knew better) and had big international Zoom calls where we all clapped while they lectured us about feminism.
It was all such bullshit. They had a whole day about diversity and had a panel of *thought leaders* and every one of them was a white person.
They had a special interview with a white woman whose husband was from India and she spoke about the *struggle* of that. Now maybe her marriage was a struggle I don't know but the fact they spoke about diversity for a full day without ever considering how homogenous the room was, I mean that was really something to behold.
I was early to ESG reporting (started in 2010) and to me it was interesting as increased disclosure should aid in price discovery. Additional data would let sharp analysts find mispriced risk and to me that was the best of capitalism at work. I watched over a decade as the exact dynamic you describe took over. Diversity is good and it lets a market of individuals take different sides of trades.
If we don’t have differences, the system of capital allocation breaks. The price mechanism stops working and… pick your preferred dystopia.
Not true that everyone got along in the 90s. Maybe in big cities, but certainly not in much of America. I think it’s actually better now. You can be gay, feminist, Jewish, Asian, Mexican, or Black in rural Appalachia now and not get the shit beat out of you for it most of the time. Not so in the 90s. The racism, religious discrimination, and sexism were thiccccc back then in rural America.
I was in Florida in the 90s (both in rural parts and city) and it was def way less divisive than now. Almost no one cared honestly, but of course there are always assholes. The media of the time had way more cultural diversity too - and it was legit great, not a checkbox exercise. There's data on this if you look at previous Gallup polls - that relationships between races were really good (peaking in the 2000s) compared to now.
No, it's because the prior version of race relations required people of color to suffer in silence. All of the issues that DEI brought to the surface were always there, we just didn't deal with them. Remember Black Lives Matter started because we finally started to acknowledge how many black people are killed by police officers.
Just like LGBT, people in that community have always existed but they had to hide before.
Was almost wrung out of culture. 0 people in our high school or college in the 90s or 2000s even cared about this stuff. It's literally just been the past few years I've even felt hatred against me as a Jew. All but dissolved, and then illiberal advocates have regressed us. America is honestly the least racist place in the world, the race baiters and grifters keep it alive to profit off of, and politicians now bring it up purely to divide us.
Dude, America is not the least racist place in the world. Not the worst, but pretty bad. Just because it simmered below the surface in the 1990s doesn't mean it wasn't there. White folks have never had to have a talk with their kids about how to avoid getting hurt by a police officer in a routine traffic stop.
How many times did you personally witness a member of any of the groups you’ve listed be beaten up? This perspective is almost entirely pure media concocted fantasy and particularly in the 90s
Oh def in high school and also badly verbally abused on a near daily basis. People were terrible looking back. Even teachers and principals would say awful things. I remember multiple incidents. A lot of bullying in younger grades too for the extremely few minority kids there. I grew up on border of wva and va.
In one particular incident I recall a boy drew a picture of two boys kissing for an art show, modeled after that famous kissing art video and another kid’s dad yelled and tried to beat him up at the school art show, in front of everyone, just for “acting gay.” Don’t think any action was taken against the dad either, no charges or anything.
"bullying" is quite different than the crimes you've described. I grew up in majority black environments as was "bullied" for being white. it's what kids do.
So well said. This is the crisis of performatism. We saw it during COVID with masks, we see it at the airport with the TSA, and we see it with the gurus and grifters pushing hustle porn all over the internet.
Actual diversity of thought and creativity is good. The managerial-industrial complex would like to do this as a checkbox exercise and doesn't actually want to do anything new, different or creative. Nearly all my creative industry friends get this one. Here's a great video from a YouTuber I'm pretty sure is liberal (both sides see this here) which talks about a lot of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW2Zr8Q6Xqw
Brilliant piece and so true. "Socialist checkbox exercise" - spot on.
We can't stand modern movies anymore because of this. If we watch movies we go back to the 80s or 90s.
Keep up your great writing.
Where did he say it was socialist?
This uniformity of thinking is sadly becoming global.
On the rear of its newest models, Lexus is replacing its classic "L" logo with a generic, all caps "LEXUS". https://tmna.aemassets.toyota.com/is/image/toyota/lexus/images/models/nx/2025/gallery/Lexus-NX-Gallery-2-mobile-960x541-LEX-NXP-MY25-0007.jpg
Looks terrible. Hope they change it back.
Powerful take, and painfully accurate.
We’ve turned “diversity” into a design aesthetic, not a principle.
When everyone looks different but thinks the same, that’s not inclusion, it’s conformity in disguise.
The real question: are we celebrating difference… or just curating the acceptable versions of it?
This hardly even scratches the surface.
You are spot on. I used to work for a huge corporation, a household name. They were very much about *diversity* and *inclusion*. They even said it was a safe space to announce your neurodiversity (I knew better) and had big international Zoom calls where we all clapped while they lectured us about feminism.
It was all such bullshit. They had a whole day about diversity and had a panel of *thought leaders* and every one of them was a white person.
They had a special interview with a white woman whose husband was from India and she spoke about the *struggle* of that. Now maybe her marriage was a struggle I don't know but the fact they spoke about diversity for a full day without ever considering how homogenous the room was, I mean that was really something to behold.
All of us have crazy stories like this
I was early to ESG reporting (started in 2010) and to me it was interesting as increased disclosure should aid in price discovery. Additional data would let sharp analysts find mispriced risk and to me that was the best of capitalism at work. I watched over a decade as the exact dynamic you describe took over. Diversity is good and it lets a market of individuals take different sides of trades.
If we don’t have differences, the system of capital allocation breaks. The price mechanism stops working and… pick your preferred dystopia.
Also, incredible how the ESG advocates/scorekeepers became pitch perfect the same as people doing credit scores in The Big Short. Can't make it up: https://x.com/AdamSinger/status/1661453035002789888
It was so depressing to watch a thoughtless mob take over.
Not true that everyone got along in the 90s. Maybe in big cities, but certainly not in much of America. I think it’s actually better now. You can be gay, feminist, Jewish, Asian, Mexican, or Black in rural Appalachia now and not get the shit beat out of you for it most of the time. Not so in the 90s. The racism, religious discrimination, and sexism were thiccccc back then in rural America.
I was in Florida in the 90s (both in rural parts and city) and it was def way less divisive than now. Almost no one cared honestly, but of course there are always assholes. The media of the time had way more cultural diversity too - and it was legit great, not a checkbox exercise. There's data on this if you look at previous Gallup polls - that relationships between races were really good (peaking in the 2000s) compared to now.
I guess it was very region dependent.
Yeah I'm sure there were pockets of assholes, but on the whole all was getting better until recently: https://news.gallup.com/poll/318851/perceptions-white-black-relations-sink-new-low.aspx
The DEI stuff all actually did the opposite of what was advertised and simply divided America. An incredible failure.
I think it's working EXACTLY as intended even if it wasn't advertised like that
No, it's because the prior version of race relations required people of color to suffer in silence. All of the issues that DEI brought to the surface were always there, we just didn't deal with them. Remember Black Lives Matter started because we finally started to acknowledge how many black people are killed by police officers.
Just like LGBT, people in that community have always existed but they had to hide before.
Was almost wrung out of culture. 0 people in our high school or college in the 90s or 2000s even cared about this stuff. It's literally just been the past few years I've even felt hatred against me as a Jew. All but dissolved, and then illiberal advocates have regressed us. America is honestly the least racist place in the world, the race baiters and grifters keep it alive to profit off of, and politicians now bring it up purely to divide us.
Dude, America is not the least racist place in the world. Not the worst, but pretty bad. Just because it simmered below the surface in the 1990s doesn't mean it wasn't there. White folks have never had to have a talk with their kids about how to avoid getting hurt by a police officer in a routine traffic stop.
Meanwhile, the policy of the US is currently to prioritize white immigrants: https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3loym4e3uts23
How many times did you personally witness a member of any of the groups you’ve listed be beaten up? This perspective is almost entirely pure media concocted fantasy and particularly in the 90s
Oh def in high school and also badly verbally abused on a near daily basis. People were terrible looking back. Even teachers and principals would say awful things. I remember multiple incidents. A lot of bullying in younger grades too for the extremely few minority kids there. I grew up on border of wva and va.
In one particular incident I recall a boy drew a picture of two boys kissing for an art show, modeled after that famous kissing art video and another kid’s dad yelled and tried to beat him up at the school art show, in front of everyone, just for “acting gay.” Don’t think any action was taken against the dad either, no charges or anything.
"bullying" is quite different than the crimes you've described. I grew up in majority black environments as was "bullied" for being white. it's what kids do.
So well said. This is the crisis of performatism. We saw it during COVID with masks, we see it at the airport with the TSA, and we see it with the gurus and grifters pushing hustle porn all over the internet.
Lots of different definitions of "diversity" at work in the piece. Hard to juggle them all, they mean different things!
Actual diversity of thought and creativity is good. The managerial-industrial complex would like to do this as a checkbox exercise and doesn't actually want to do anything new, different or creative. Nearly all my creative industry friends get this one. Here's a great video from a YouTuber I'm pretty sure is liberal (both sides see this here) which talks about a lot of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW2Zr8Q6Xqw