The corporate world wants its money's worth from DEI
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In fact, he also has unintentionally made the argument in favor of regulation requiring DEI programs by telling us that the only way to get a corporation to act as a responsible member of the community is to make it unprofitable not to.
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Corporations were controversial from the beginning largely because of their amorality. As Edward Thurlow, the 18th-century British lord high chancellor, said: 'Corporations have neither bodies to be punished nor souls to be condemned; they therefore do as they like.'
Julia Glendon
Lunenburg
David D'Alessandro missed an opportunity to say something worthwhile about DEI in his recent op-ed. Instead, he expressed his belief that businesses need only be guided by greed.
The main goal — the heart — of DEI is and should be to avoid racial and sexual discrimination in our society. So what are we to make of D'Alessandro's claim that businesses should keep DEI as a policy only if it benefits their bottom line?
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Helping businesses make more money might be a side benefit of DEI, but it was never the purpose. And while
it can be argued that, as an idea, DEI has been inflated and overly broad
in practice, we should not, as D'Alessandro suggests, throw the baby out with the bathwater.
It appears as if D'Alessandro sees no difference between democracy and capitalism. Perhaps he doesn't know that today when thoughtful people say, 'What is good for GM is good for the country,' they are joking.
Ron Willig
Maynard
Rejecting DEI until proponents can answer corporate America's call to 'show me the money' is crass. Hiding behind capitalism to argue that a benefit to employees is valuable only if it can be distilled to specific dollar amounts is disingenuous. Offering competitive salaries and other numerous benefits cost companies money, but they come with the long-term benefit of attracting and retaining talent. Likewise, a DEI program is another benefit that attracts talent and that improves retention rates if all employees are given the resources and support they need to succeed. To paraphrase another line from 'Jerry Maguire': Help us help you.
Caitlin Keresey
Middleborough
At least David D'Alessandro is honest about the whole motivation and intent of capitalism: money. Apparently, social justice and equality play second fiddle to the pursuit of profit.
He credits Donald Trump for giving corporate elites the 'cover to get out from under the monster that DEI advocates had created.' He translates that into not having to hire 'unqualified people,' but history shows that many qualified people were denied opportunities to ply their skills due to their ethnic heritage.
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So much then for enlightened self-interest or doing well by doing good — two phrases that were often employed by corporate elites in the 1990s, in defense of deregulation. In other words: Just show us the money and we will comply with DEI.
D'Alessandro's op-ed ought to prompt us to question who benefits from capitalism and just how compatible it is with democracy.
Dana Franchitto
South Wellfleet
David D'Alessandro constructed his cynical celebration of noted US corporations' recent abandonment of their DEI programs on the whipped backs of 'DEI advocates,' who exist only as figments of his own repudiation. Though D'Alessandro does not bother to give these advocates embodiment or names, he brags that corporate executives' expulsion of DEI programs is an understandable backlash for the disrespectful treatment they received from the 'DEI overlords.'
Detractors of government policies that foster greater justice and equity for all can always find examples of shortcomings and abuses that serve their purpose. But focusing on these examples of imperfections and limitations is an attempt to obscure the essential point of the greater good these policies make in the lives of millions of Americans, present and future.
The crucial moral and political principle of DEI, like the US civil rights legislation and affirmative action policies that preceded it, is our shared determination to end injustices in the lives and laws of our nation. That will continue to make America
greater
again.
James L. Sherley
Boston
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