Opponents of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and affirmative action often claim these policies hand jobs and promotions to “unqualified” Black candidates over more “deserving” white counterparts. That story ignores why these policies existed in the first place: for decades, qualified Black people were systematically passed over, not because of lack of merit, but because of racism, bias and exclusionary networks.
Decades of research show that when Black and white applicants present the same credentials, the playing field is still not level. In a famous field experiment, economists sent out identical résumés with either white-sounding or Black-sounding names; the white names received about 50% more callbacks for interviews.American Economic Association+1 A 2024 follow-up using more than 80,000 fake applications to large U.S. firms again found that résumés with white-sounding names received significantly more responses than those with Black-sounding names, confirming that hiring discrimination remains widespread.Business Insider That’s not a lack of merit — that’s bias.
If DEI meant unqualified people were suddenly being parachuted into positions, we would expect to see Black workers dominating leadership roles. The opposite is true. At America’s largest companies, Black men held just 2.8% of executive jobs in 2020, nudging up only to 3.2% by 2023, while Black women went from 2% to 2.5% in the same period — still a tiny fraction in a country where Black people are about 13% of the population.Yahoo Black professionals also remain underrepresented in executive leadership, boardrooms and high-paying sectors like tech and finance.Forbes Meanwhile, Black workers are overrepresented among “discouraged workers” who have stopped looking for jobs because they believe no opportunity is available — 26% of this group despite being a much smaller share of the labor force.Bureau of Labor Statistics
The long view makes it even clearer that “meritocracy” has never been race-neutral. One study of U.S. companies with 100+ employees showed that Black men’s share of management rose from only 3% in 1985 to 3.3% in 2014 — essentially no progress over nearly three decades.Harvard Business Review In the nonprofit sector, Black employees are about 12% of the workforce, but lead only 8% of organizations and hold just 10% of board seats, while Black-led groups receive dramatically less unrestricted funding than white-led peers.Diversity These are not outcomes you’d expect if talent alone decided who moves up.
Even where DEI exists, Black workers still face structural barriers to advancement and retention. Mercer’s research finds that Black managers exit their roles at a 20% rate compared with 12% for non-Black managers, undermining the leadership pipeline.Mercer Sociological analyses show Black workers are disproportionately concentrated in low-wage jobs with limited mobility, while exclusion, stereotyping and pay gaps persist despite formal commitments to inclusion.ASA Net DEI, in other words, has only partially chipped away at entrenched inequities — it hasn’t overcorrected them.
Yet in 2025, many companies are dismantling or shrinking DEI and rebranding it as a threat to “merit.” A survey of organizations with DEI programs found one in eight are eliminating or reducing them in 2025, with 5% having scrapped DEI entirely and 8% cutting budgets.Risk Management Magazine Large employers such as Amazon, Google and Goldman Sachs are cited among those scaling back.HR Consulting Group Under pressure from federal policy and lawsuits, firms including Google and Target have modified or dropped diversity policies following new executive orders.Reuters Telecom giants AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon have pledged to end DEI programs outright as a condition for regulatory approvals, explicitly framing the shift as a return to “merit-based” hiring. Reports also show Microsoft rolling back visible DEI commitments, such as transparency reports and diversity-linked performance metrics.The Verge
Putting all of this together, the popular narrative gets it exactly backwards. DEI was created because Black people who already met the qualifications were consistently overlooked, not because they weren’t capable. The data shows that even with DEI, Black workers remain underrepresented in leadership, overrepresented in low-wage work, and subject to documented hiring and promotion bias. Dismantling DEI while calling it a defense of “merit” doesn’t fix unfairness — it helps restore the old system that kept qualified Black talent on the outside looking in.
