Conservative Attacks on Diversity Efforts in Corporate America Keep Coming

Before the US Supreme Court did away with affirmative action in college admissions, corporate America was bracing itself for attacks on its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. They have begun — and there will likely be more to come.

This week, the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), a group created by conservative activist Edward Blum, filed complaints against two law firms over their diversity fellowships. Three weeks ago, AAER sued Fearless Fund, an Atlanta-based venture capital firm, over a grant program it created for Black women. And in July, 13 Republican state attorneys general warned the chief executive officers of large employers like Microsoft Corp. and Walmart Inc. against introducing race-based practices in hiring and contracting.

“This is just the beginning,” said Janice Gassam Asare, who advises tech companies and academic institutions on their diversity efforts.

While the affirmative action decision didn’t explicitly address the corporate world, its impact will surely play out there. Big employers say they’ll have a harder time hiring diverse talent from elite schools. And the most risk-averse companies may end programs that benefit people from underrepresented groups.

Asare, author of Decentering Whiteness in the Workplace: A Guide for Equity and Inclusion, has seen some companies “completely gutting their DEI programs because they feel like they don’t know where to turn and they don’t want to cause any sort of controversy.”

Related: Recent Events Highlight Need to Rein in Costly D&I Risk

Blum also founded Students for Fair Admission, which sued Harvard over its admissions policies and won in the Supreme Court. Blum wasn’t able to provide immediate comment.

In the law firm cases, Blum’s organization wants the respective courts to permanently end the firms’ current diversity fellowships.

First- and second-year law students from “historically underrepresented” groups in the legal profession, like people of color, LGBTQ individuals or those with disabilities can apply to the Perkins Coie fellowship, according to the firm’s website. Morrison Foerster’s program also gives fellowships to law students who are “members of historically underrepresented groups.”

AAER alleges that these programs violate the Civil Rights Act of 1866 by excluding those that fall outside of those racial groups. Blum argues that excluding students from these fellowships “because they are the wrong race is unfair, polarizing and illegal.”

A Perkins Coie spokesperson said in a statement that the firm’s commitment to its values of diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession “remains steadfast” and that it will defend the lawsuit vigorously. An email request for comment from Morrison Foerster wasn’t immediately returned.

Antonio Ingram, assistant counsel at the Legal Defense Fund and a diversity fellow at Morrison Foerster in 2012, callsBlum’s moves in the wake of the Supreme Court decision troubling. “These attacks on DEI are really attacks on pipelines to create more equity and remediate historical exclusion,” he said.

Big Law is the second industry Blum has gone after in court this month.

In early August, AAER sued Fearless Fund, on the grounds that it had violated the same section of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Blum’s group took issue with a contest that awards $20,000 grants to Black women who own small businesses in the US.

In an open letter in support of Fearless Fund signed by more than 70 firms, the organizations noted that Black women received less than 1% of all venture capital funding, according to multiple industry estimates. The AAER effort “is not only transparent, unoriginal, and unconvincing, but it also unjustly targets Black women while threatening the civil rights of all women,” the letter said.

In the meantime, large swaths of corporate America are being less vocal about their efforts in DEI, slimming budgets and cutting staff dedicated to this work. Still others are foisting the work on unpaid employee resource groups or human resource departments.

Desiree Morton, co-founder of Aginci, an employee perks platform aimed at creating inclusive work cultures, expects the culture gap to widen between companies committed to creating inclusive workplaces and those that were making empty promises. The former will have better luck innovating, as well as hiring and retaining the best people, in her view.

“My optimism is about the same as it was before the June SCOTUS decision,” Morton said via email. “The status quo largely is not working … I’m looking forward to where we’re going, and hanging on with white knuckles for the wild ride to get there.”

Photo: Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images