DEI is a tricky topic. Without Diversity and Inclusion programs, many people would not have gotten out of poverty. DEI programs have helped carve out a bit of a middle class for Black and Brown people.
But let’s be real. I’ve been a DEI hire. I hated it.
I left engineering because I got sick of being Northrop’s little DEI hire everyone could push around. The problem with being a diversity hire is that the other people in the company implicitly think you’re stupid. I literally had a more prestigious degree than most of my coworkers in my department, but nobody cared. I helped spearhead a system where we track aircraft performance for daily status reports (In Excel) and it got taken away from me by the Mayonnaise set. Hell, I couldn’t even be allowed to update the status reports on a fucking Powerpoint, because my manager took that away from me too.
The irony. I’m the only one in this department with an engineering degree (not engineering technology, for no-math-doing goobers), but I’m still considered an idiot to be shoved to the side.
This is why I’ve got mixed feelings about the current fash’s destruction of DEI programs. DEI programs do help POC get out of poverty. I can't deny that. But DEI programs are kind of a shitty bandaid solution to the problem of White-run companies not hiring people of color. If all your leadership is all white, any POC employees are never going to be respected. Not really. DEI hires are meant to give the image of a diverse workplace. Not actual integration or unity. Just the same ol’ brown people doing the grunt work while the white higher ups reap all the profits and credit.
This even happens to me in Comics. In the past, any time some yutz wanted to have a project with a Latina lead, they'd come to me. It never went well. On one job, the guy claimed he wanted me to give him my opinions on his script, but refused to listen when I would actually give them. On another project, the writers wanted me to storyboard their entire trash wedding comedy movie, but then wouldn’t listen when I tried to tell them naming their only Latina character “Cha-Cha” wasn’t gonna play well with audiences. I walked off both projects abruptly. They both apologized to me later for acting like assholes to me but of course I did not answer either email.
Will I stop patronizing a company if they roll over for the fash and remove their DEI programs? Hell yes. But do I ever want to be a DEI hire myself ever again? Absolutely not. I'd rather never work a corporate gig again than be treated like a paid housepet.
TL:DR No I’m not going to work on your project because it has a Latina lead. DEI hiring is over.
-Love, Joolz
