DEI Unraveled: The Rise, Fall, and Reinvention of Inclusion: The Veritas View

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May 12, 2025

Written by Frank Glassner:
CEO, Veritas Executive Compensation Consultants

Part I: The Birth of a Movement – Or Was It a Band-Aid?

In the beginning, there was guilt. And lawsuits. And political pressure. That triple cocktail, shaken—not stirred—under the fluorescent lights of smoky boardrooms in the 1960s and 70s, gave rise to what would one day be neatly acronymized into DEI: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

But back then? It didn’t have a snappy name. It was policy born of protest, litigation, and PR necessity. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 didn’t just outlaw discrimination—it mandated active correction of past wrongs. Enter Affirmative Action, Title VII enforcement, and the era of equal opportunity hires. DEI was born not as a philosophy, but as a compliance checklist.

Corporate America, not known for its love of regulation, complied. Kind of. As long as there were metrics to hit and headlines to avoid, DEI thrived. It wasn't about soul-searching—it was about not getting sued.

Part II: The Great Expansion – Window Dressing or Cultural Revolution?

Fast-forward to the 1990s and early 2000s: DEI began to take on a kinder face.

No longer just a legal risk mitigator, it became a brand enhancer. "We don’t just hire diversely," companies boasted, "we live it." It was the golden age of diversity brochures—smiling teams of rainbow-colored workforces (often stock photos), with captions that felt vaguely like United Nations slogans. It was corporate cosplay, staged for quarterly reports.

Corporate training departments exploded. Consultants swarmed in. DEI officers emerged, often reporting directly to the CEO, usually without a budget and frequently with a PowerPoint deck last edited by legal.

Was it necessary? Perhaps. Was it effective? Sometimes. But what it certainly became was big business.

Whole cottage industries were born overnight: "unconscious bias" training (for the consciously biased), "safe space" policies (in companies that laid off 20% of staff the same week), and laminated wallet cards reminding managers to use gender-inclusive pronouns right before handing out pink slips.

Part III: The Overcorrection – When Equity Overwhelmed Excellence

Then came the quotas.

Not official quotas, of course. That would be illegal. These were the wink-wink kind. Performance reviews, bonus payouts, and board committee charters quietly began attaching incentives to "diversity metrics." It wasn’t just about who got hired—it was who got seen.

And then came the backlash.

Talented candidates passed over because they were the wrong color, gender, or socioeconomic background. Faculty jobs given not to the best scholar, but the most optics-pleasing resume. Corporate teams shuffled not by performance, but by pigmentation.

Welcome to the age of performative inclusion. Meritocracy was mugged in broad daylight—by a committee.

Let’s be clear: the intent was noble. But the execution? Often tragicomic.

We saw well-meaning HR teams create roles that served no purpose beyond optics. "Director of Belonging" became a real title. One firm installed meditation rooms, but kept pay equity data buried deeper than Jimmy Hoffa. Another had diversity seminars led by consultants who couldn’t define the word "equity" without looking it up first.

Some companies essentially built DEI Potemkin villages: glossy surface, hollow core.

Scary Example #1: The Internship That Wasn’t

A Fortune 500 firm created an “Underrepresented Voices” internship—but when a qualified white applicant applied, the recruiter wrote in an internal email, “Not eligible. Wrong background.” That email leaked. So did the lawsuit. DEI became DOA.

Scary Example #2: The Board Flip-Flop

A large biotech firm made headlines for announcing a new all-women board. What didn’t make headlines? The private equity firm behind it quietly pushing three of those members out within 12 months for lacking “strategic governance experience.” The replacement: three men from golf foursomes and fraternity alumni lists.

Part IV: Meltdown and Cancellation – Pop Goes the Culture

Then the tide turned.

Supreme Court rulings chipped away at affirmative action in education. Conservative media went on the offensive. Whispers in the C-suite became roars: "DEI isn’t working."

Suddenly, DEI heads were being laid off. Training programs quietly shelved. Executives took to earnings calls to assure shareholders they were "refocusing on performance."

Companies started tracking “DEI fatigue.” Employees dreaded another town hall on privilege while wondering when their actual raises would come. The new workplace bingo card included terms like “microaggression,” “emotional labor,” and “I identify as tired.”

In some circles, champagne corks popped quietly. “Finally,” some whispered, “we can get back to hiring the best person for the job.”

But here's the twist: The best companies never stopped.

Part V: The Hidden Truth – ESG Had It All Along

Here’s the big reveal: Thoughtful diversity never died. It just changed costumes.

Smart firms embedded it in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks. Not with a bullhorn, but a blueprint. They built inclusive pipelines through mentorship. They monitored pay equity through data. They asked: who’s not at the table—and why?

Not because it was woke. Because it was smart.

They didn’t post rainbow flags in June and forget about equity by July. They embedded fairness in compensation committees. They asked managers to mentor—not mandate. They didn’t hide behind jargon. They led with results.

The best cultures don’t need slogans. They need systems. They don’t mandate kindness; they incentivize performance, openness, and mutual respect.

Part VI: The Educational Casualty – When Ideology Trumped Inquiry

Meanwhile, on campus, a different storm brewed.

Admissions policies turned colleges into social engineering labs. DEI statements became mandatory for job applications—often more scrutinized than research portfolios. Open dialogue gave way to safe spaces and speech codes.

Faculty appointments required allegiance to the correct vocabulary. One professor described it best: “It’s not that I’m afraid of offending students. I’m afraid of offending administrators.”

Many students graduated having learned more about microaggressions than macroeconomics.

And now? College trust is plummeting. Employers are quietly questioning GPAs. Students—yes, even those from underrepresented groups—are starting to ask whether they’re being helped, or infantilized.

Scary Example #3: The Math Wars

In several public school districts, “equity math” eliminated advanced placement tracks, because differential performance outcomes were deemed racist. The result? Bright students left. Teachers resigned. And college readiness scores dropped. Equity wasn’t achieved—excellence was erased.

Scary Example #4: The DEI Loyalty Oath

In one California university system, job applicants were required to write a DEI loyalty statement longer than their research summary. One PhD candidate was told, “Your statement isn’t sufficiently aligned with our DEI priorities.” Translation: Your science is good, your politics are not.

Scary Example #5: Harvard’s Hollowed-Out Admissions

Harvard’s DEI-driven admissions model collapsed under its own contradictions. The Supreme Court ruled that using race as a decisive factor in admissions violated the Constitution. Suddenly, the institution that once claimed to be on the front lines of progressiveness was forced to explain decades of admission patterns that resembled a Sudoku puzzle of identity politics.

The fallout? Trust in merit-based academia dropped faster than a freshman’s GPA in Organic Chemistry

Part VII: When Inclusion Becomes Parody

Somewhere along the way, we stopped laughing with DEI—and started laughing at it.

There was the global retailer that installed “ethnically representative mannequins” in stores, only to discover they’d ordered them all from the same supplier in Stockholm. Or the investment firm that hosted a “White Allies Only” listening session that ended in a fistfight over who was more self-aware (honest Sports Fans, you can’t make this s*&t up…).

One high-profile media company attempted to increase internal DEI scores by instituting what they called “Perspective Rotation Pods,” where employees had to role-play other genders and ethnicities during meetings. That’s not satire. That actually happened. One pod leader insisted a colleague “channel the voice of a Pacific Islander single mother” while presenting Q2 earnings. She resigned, citing "irreconcilable absurdity."

It was as if someone spiked the corporate punch bowl with hallucinogenic jargon and nobody had the guts to ask why their VP of Finance now identified as an “empathy archaeologist”.

Scary Example #6: The DEI Retreat from Hell

A tech firm flew its entire executive team to Sedona for a “Radical Inclusivity Summit” led by a shaman, two improv coaches, and a yoga instructor named “Z.” After four days of drum circles and trust falls, the CEO emerged to announce a 15% headcount reduction. The CFO was last seen clutching a crystal and whispering about her chakras while shredding the earnings forecast.

Scary Example #7: The HR PowerPoint That Killed a Career

At a major aerospace firm, an HR director mandated a new DEI training program that featured a slide titled “The Privilege Pyramid.” A respected engineer, who’d worked on Mars rover thrusters, asked one clarifying question—and was walked out 48 hours later. Mars was more hospitable than that boardroom.

Part VIII: The Corporate Meltdown – When Good Intentions Go Full Kafka

This isn’t to say all DEI efforts were nonsense. Some moved mountains. Some opened long-locked doors. But too often, noble intent was kidnapped by bureaucracy, weaponized by fear, and drowned in buzzwords.

It became a movement where everyone had to talk, but no one could speak freely. Where you needed a decoder ring just to fill out a job application. Where someone in HR once actually said, “We need less competence and more consciousness.”

Scary Example #8: Google’s Unconscious Bias Debacle

At Google, one well-intentioned engineer penned a memo suggesting that diversity programs should also include ideological diversity. He was fired. The media exploded. The message to employees was clear: inclusion had limits—and curiosity was career-ending.

Scary Example #9: Harvard’s Hollowed-Out Admissions

Harvard’s DEI-driven admissions model collapsed under its own contradictions. The Supreme Court ruled that using race as a decisive factor in admissions violated the Constitution. Suddenly, the institution that once claimed to be on the front lines of progressiveness was forced to explain decades of admission patterns that resembled a Sudoku puzzle of identity politics.

The fallout? Trust in merit-based academia dropped faster than a freshman’s GPA in Organic Chemistry.

Scary Example #10: The Airline That Grounded Common Sense

One major airline began promoting pilots through a “representational equity lens.” When questioned about experience levels and simulator hours, a spokesperson clarified, “We prioritize potential.”

Shortly thereafter, two emergency landings and a flapless approach led to a quiet internal memo: "Consider reevaluating flight deck criteria." Passengers didn’t care how pilots identified. They cared if they could land the damn plane.

Scary Example #11: The Corporate Talent Show

At a major media conglomerate’s DEI Day, top executives were asked to perform “inclusivity skits” in front of staff. The CFO dressed as a gender-fluid mime. The General Counsel did a spoken word poem about their privilege. Stock dropped 3% that week—not due to the market, but from investors’ realization that the company had turned into an open mic night with a Nasdaq ticker.

Part IX: The Redemption – Reinventing Respect

But all is not lost.

Across the country, smart companies are quietly rebuilding from the wreckage. They’re ditching the grandstanding in favor of ground truth. They're hiring for talent, promoting for performance, and mentoring for potential.

They’ve discovered that inclusion doesn’t require a keynote speaker with a hyphenated identity—it just requires a leader who listens.

They’re going back to basics: fairness, respect, and accountability.

One Fortune 100 board we worked with scrapped their DEI council—then replaced it with a Culture & Conduct Committee tied directly to long-term incentive metrics. One year later: higher engagement scores, lower turnover, better performance. Coincidence? Only if you believe in unicorns.

Scary Example #12: The Startup That Said No

A mid-stage startup in the Midwest made headlines when it declined to adopt a formal DEI policy. The CEO simply said, "We’re focused on building a high-performing, respectful culture."

The press scorched them. LinkedIn lit up like a rage bonfire. But guess what? They tripled revenue, retained more women in engineering than any of their peers, and had no trouble recruiting top talent. Their secret weapon? A culture where nobody had to audition for belonging.

Part X: The Final Reckoning – From Performance Theater to Performance Culture

DEI wasn’t supposed to become a parody. It was supposed to be a path forward. But in too many places, it became performance theater—badly directed, poorly cast, and running way over budget.

The reckoning now underway is not a rejection of inclusion. It’s a rejection of inauthenticity. Of slogans over systems. Of skits over skill.

And that’s the real opportunity: to rebuild a better version of what DEI was always meant to be.

Because belonging isn’t about policies. It’s about trust. Dignity. Respect. And when those are in place? The rest takes care of itself.

Part XI: What Would Frank Do?

Let’s be blunt: DEI, as it was implemented, often did more harm than good. It reduced humans to categories. It created fear instead of inclusion. It favored shortcuts over strategy.

So, what would I do?

I'd bury DEI. And create DCI: Dignity, Competence, and Integrity.

I’d rip up the checkbox approach. Replace it with performance-based mentorship. Transparent promotion criteria. Equitable hiring pipelines that reward potential—not appearance.

I’d push boards to measure inclusion not by quota, but by cultural heatmap: Who speaks in meetings? Who gets sponsored? Who sticks around?

And I’d fold it all into compensation - Because what gets paid gets done.

And I’d remind every CEO, Board member and HR executive:

• Inclusion without excellence is pity.
• Excellence without inclusion is waste.

But excellence with inclusion? That’s culture.

Part XII: The Veritas Way

At Veritas, we don’t do DEI kabuki.

We believe inclusion means empowering every voice—not amplifying the loudest. It means honest conversations, not HR slogans. It means building pay systems that reward the right things—not just the right optics.

We’ve helped companies walk back from the DEI cliff—without losing their soul.

We’ve shown boards how to build cultures where performance and fairness go hand in hand.

And we’ve done it not with guilt or fear—but with data, rigor, and a little bit of irreverence.

After all, as I often say in the boardroom, just before a $12 million CEO package gets tabled:

“Help me to understand.”

Because that’s where the real inclusion starts.

FBG

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Frank Glassner is the CEO of Veritas Executive Compensation Consultants and a widely respected authority on executive pay and strategic compensation design. Known for his discerning judgment, consummate diplomacy, incisive insights, and unwavering discretion, he is a trusted advisor and confidant to boards, CEOs, and institutional investors worldwide.