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Note-Taking: The Slow Birth and Fast Death of DEI | Ti Talks on YouTube

01.30.25 - Second entry of notes I take on interesting content I'm watching or reading. I'm just providing notes at this time, and not my own perspective, but I invite discussion and feedback! I also encourage checking out the original source material.

This vlog seeks to discuss Ti’s research into Trump’s latest ruling on DEI rollbacks, where she discusses how several major companies (Target, Amazon, Walmart) have approached this ruling. She lays out a general timeline of racial equity movements in the US, highlights the perspective of several Black-owned business owners, and leaves viewers open to considering their options.

• Current events following the inauguration of Trump, people are concerned with how history seems to be repeating itself with his previous presidency

• Trump is engaging in white supremacy, not just nationally but abroad as well

• This video’s focus is on the legislative actions against DEI

• Meta, Amazon, Walmart, Target, and other big organizations have been cutting back on DEI initiatives even before this election and publicly announcing statements on these decisions

• DEI, which is not the same as affirmative action, has not been around for very long

• The predecessor to DEI was the civil rights act, which is also not that old

  • When Ti’s parents were tweens, segregation just ended.

  • “You are 11 and your government HAS just now ended school segregation and segregating public places, like libraries and swimming pools.”

  • She proceeds to list many examples of segregation that a viewer’s parents likely lived through.

  • Even signing the Civil Rights Act into law was a process that took a century from the end of Reconstruction – there are entire generations of disenfranchisement and extrajudicial discrimination which still affects people to this day.

  • Ti herself has experienced workplace discrimination, where white coworkers received more pay than her despite inferior workplace performance. She was not able to pursue litigation.

• Affirmative Action policies emerged in the 1970s, well after the implementation of Civil Rights Act law.

• Civil Rights Act differs from Affirmative Action in that AA addressed laws of insurmountable systemic racism, like sharecropping, redlining, the KKK, and Jim Crow.

• DEI, coming much later, was a voluntary practice compared to AA and much more performative in comparison.

  • White women benefited the most from AA actually, according to a TIMES article shown in the video.

  • The current legislative body is banning a VOLUNTARY initiative due to what Ti calls an “obsessive hatred and resentment” towards the possibility of Black people succeeding in America, which will trickle down and affect numerous other minoritized demographics, including white women.

• Statistically, Black people benefited the least from AA and DEI, but this will still have impacts.

• DEI was built off of the long work of Reconstruction, Civil Rights Movement, and Affirmative Action and was akin to a “corporate Kumbaya” in the face of the murders of Brianna Taylor and George Floyd.

• None of these companies had anything substantial to show for their DEI initiatives since the quarantine phase of the pandemic. At most, companies had a Chief Officer of DEI, usually the only Black person in senior leadership.

• Ti speculates that this Trump mandate has companies feeling relieved that they no longer have to pretend at not economically kneecapping Black people.

  • She cites that the C-Suites of major companies are overwhelmingly white.

  • Twice as hard for half as much: Even WITH DEI, Black people are underrepresented. And now it’s gone.

• The pretensions of the US as a meritocracy will make it even harder for marginalized communities to succeed – organizations will go back to hiring underqualified, mediocre Chads when they’re not utilizing AI.

• She points out the pathological fear that white people have of being ‘replaced’ by Black people when really, the bigger concern is the rise of AI. ‘

• DEI never stopped companies from discriminating, but doing away with DEI will make it that much easier for companies to continue discrimination without fear of legal recourse.

  • Getting rid of DEI is a clear ‘fuck you’ and message of white supremacy.

• The people have boycotts available to them, but major companies like Walmart, Target, and Amazon are KNOWN for racist policies and collaboration with police. Yet, business is booming.

  • Companies that proudly proclaim that they don’t care about racial equality will draw more attention and praise from white supremacists, even though these legislative changes will hurt EVERYONE’s pockets.

• Freedom is incomplete without food sovereignty, which is why keeping companies accountable matters.

• Again, a failure of current boycotts is what we’re facing. We’re not in the context of 1955 Montgomery, Alabama. People are continuing to use services with classist, racist corporations at their head, like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

• There have been calls to boycott Target, since Target used to have the Racial Equity aAction and Change initiative and Forward Founders, where they would promote early-stage Black-owned businesses in their stores.

• Tabitha Brown, a Black business owner, reflects on how difficult it’s been for Black-owned businesses to hit shelves. Even before this DEI rollback, there were significant obstacles. She encourages boycotts, but points out that Black-owned businesses would be hurt in boycotts of stores that carry Black-owned products. It dwindles the sales of their products, and the companies can remove currently stocked Black-owned products from the shelves, replacing them with other brands. Her solution is for folks to go into big stores to mindfully purchase specific brands and to shop smart.

  • It’s a ‘working from within the system’ approach.

• Melissa Butler from the Lip Bar spoke on this topic too. Lip Bar has been in Target since 2017 and is the largest Black-owned makeup company in Target. Butler has always felt that the 2020 initiatives were a farce, so she’s not surprised by company’s reneging on these initiatives. She doesn’t know yet if DEI rollbacks will impact Target brands specifically. Again, she encourages from the business approach – take your dollars where you can demonstrate your financial power.

• Unique Jones Gibson, the CEO of Culture Brands, is another voice on the matter.

• Ti’s take is that either way, this is a lose:lose. There’s no way people will boycott at an effective level to hurt Target/Amazon/Walmart and if boycotts happen, they will hurt Black people the most because of the demographics of who is the most outraged by DEI rollbacks.

• Ti’s final consideration: THERE IS NO REVOLUTION THROUGH CONSUMPTION. She will not make any calls to action regarding shopping habits. These companies are telling us who they are. We make of that what we will.