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394

Microsoft Says Bye-Bye DEI, Joins Growing List Of Corporations Dismantling Diversity Teams (atlantadailyworld.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

133 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://yall.theatl.social/post/3229309

From the Atlanta Daily World:

In a surprising yet increasingly common move, Microsoft has quietly dismantled its team dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The decision, communicated via email to the affected employees on July 1, cited “changing business needs” as the reason for the layoffs. While the exact number of employees impacted remains unclear, the team’s lead didn’t … Continued

The post Microsoft Says Bye-Bye DEI, Joins Growing List Of Corporations Dismantling Diversity Teams appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

In the future there will probably white people suing for racism based on the existence of dei and the courts are now so racist those lawsuits will be allowed because the same territories that fought for slave ownership during rhe civil war have political leverage via republicans

Dei is now a legal liability instead of protecting against lawsuits. Many companies that are laying off people cant justify keeping dei in that environment when they are laying off people that do work that is closely aligned with the business. Laying off a senior programmer but keeping dei seems a bit unfair and since dei could be a liability why keep it?

There was also pressure to hire more black people in business back in covid times and post-covid and companies did that, with data showing it probably impacted other races getting hired. It's risky for them to keep doing that and likely expensive. Dei was also keeping more data allowing them to get sued to more easily either way. Many employees complained about dei and that it was all for show even when the expense was there.

Its also became synonymous with woke and republicans hate the term. Conpanies only do what the prevailing political winds say so they can fit in with legal compliance enough to keep profiting. They don't care and are mostly an illusion of a logo with greedy people worshipping money behind the veneer.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In the fututre there will probably white people suing for racism based on the existence of dei and the courts are now so racist those lawsuits will be allowed. . .

"No future" about it It's been happening for a long time

But these are just two recent examples. They've always ultimately served the same purpose - to defeat legislation or political effort to support minorities.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Youre right. And... Do you think DEI becoming a buzzword in the Republican culture war makes it more or less likely there will be more of those lawsuits?

But yes, at the end of the day, whatever the reason it just means more racism, because bias is often hard to prove and you often can't prove that bias accounts for a lack of advancement, you just feel it, and bias can make getting ahead so much harder in so many ways.

I think Republicans especially hated DEI because it could include trans and LGBT people. The existence of trans people means their made up god is fake, because their fantasy book says Adam and Eve, not Adam Eve and They/Them. If trans people are real, then the magical fantasy book is a lie, and then they've been lied to and fooled and their magic jebus bread didnt really have magical powers and they can't possibly admit to that, so here we are.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I think you're right, it's become both tainted and a liability.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Companies are stopping because the orange clown supreme court ruled that racists, sexists and bigots could sue companies for not allowing them to hate.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Don't you love living in the future.

[+] [email protected] -42 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Kinda glad, as a gamer I'm tired of DEI telling me I can't have a steak because a baby can't chew it.

I'm all for more diversity and inclusion, but there's a right way and a wrong way to do it, how DEI was being used in the gaming industry was definitely the wrong way.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What you're complaining about sounds like the symptom of the lack of a DEI team where companies just apply diversity bandaids instead of hiring professionals.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Honestly these "Diversity Bandaids" seem to be more common when DEI is applied than not, it really feels more like a pro-censorship initiative more than actually trying to elevate women and minorities in the workplace.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I've worked with DEI. What you're describing is poor DEI. But yes, it's unfortunately common specially in large corporations.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's not really the fault of DEI, although I share your feelings on the matter. I feel like corporate media has just become a smooth, grey blob of whatever is determined to appeal to the widest audience of people.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Try to appeal to everyone and you'll end up pleasing no one....

[–] [email protected] 36 points 3 months ago (2 children)

What steaks are you being denied? I don't understand.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Remasters that remove characters or stages because they're "problematic content", redesigns of familiar characters that remove their sex appeal because feminity in and of itself is somehow misogynistic (seriously I'm a lady just wants to play a beautiful woman in my escapist fantasies, ya know cause it's MY fantasy and we all wanna be more attractive?), risque humor no longer being allowed, localizations that remove or change dialogue seen as sexist (Even if it's villain dialogue, or done to show that a specific character has flaws that include outdated views), the terms "Male and Female" are now "Body Type A" and "Body Type B" (Look I'm trans, non-binary identity is more common, I get it... but... this feels more patronizing than inclusive...)

Lots of shit like that.... and as a gamer it is quite frankly embarrassing. Games are a form of art, and we should not apologize for art.

Btw, I know the Body Type A/B thing sounds pedantic, but it really just feels like trying too hard yet not hard enough.. If it's really too offensive to just have a drop down menu that says "MALE or FEMALE" in current year, just have a character creator that lets me pick masculine/feminine/androgynous traits from menus and ask for my pronouns at the end. That'd be a much better solution (and was fucking awesome when Cyberpunk 2077 did it)

A lot of games are very lazy and have two body types, an overly masculine buff guy (A) and a curvaceous lady (B), then ask if you want to be referred to as "He, She, or They", while I understand They (Non-Binary individuals exist), can someone tell me who the fuck outside of a Right Wing troll trying (and failing) to be funny is going to pick the buff guy + the "she/her" pronouns?

It's just one of those situations where I just wanna say "Your attempt at inclusion is so poor, I'd rather you just call me a slur at this point."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Um. I think there are some kinds we should apologize for. I'm sure you could imagine the kind of hypothetical challenge I might put forward.

But that said, it sounds like your concern is more about that sort of rainbow capitalism / design by committee flavor that would balk at, say, Bayonetta. I get that.

It reminds me of a story that... was it Contrapoints? told about how progressive people will sometimes do this thing where they've clocked you as probably trans or something, and they want to ask your pronouns, but they'll do it by having everyone sit down in a circle and share theirs one at a time, which makes the whole thing very strange because everybody is staring and waiting for your turn to go.

Less conscientious people will be like "she looks like a woman... I'll go with she." They can guess wrong, of course, but the casualness of it can also be really freeing in its own way.

A thing I'm not sure about, though: while some of the ideas put forward by these well-meaning but oblivious people might be kind of cringe, I don't know that they haven't affected anything positive. Rainbow Six Siege sells the shit out of its diversity characters to an almost distracting degree, but still, I think it's kind of nice.

So, I guess my hope is not that DEI committees get disbanded, that seems kind of bad, but that the right people get involved in them. Hold back the busybodies when they get too sex-repressed, maybe.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

God that brings my blood to a boil, I sadly have seen plenty of neo-liberal nonsense, it doesn't do people like me favors, it just radicalizes people into thinking my existence is a "distraction"

Fuck Rainbow Capitalism

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You know what he wants. An all white video game

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I'm not trying to make a "did you assume my gender?!" joke, but uh, you actually did assume their gender incorrectly. Which I find a bit ironic.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Hey, hey, hold on. I looked at their comment history, I don't think that necessarily.

I mean, it's possible, but I'm trying to be charitable here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Why would we give someone the benefit of the doubt when we could instead label them as an enemy and then feel no remorse when we assume all their traits are negative? /s

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

To be fair, I assumed negatively, too. I was just waiting to see if they would surpise me.

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