At the Manhattan Contrarian, Francis Menton wonders:
Was the commitment to DEI of Corporate America, and particularly of the tech giants, really this shallow, that they would all reverse course completely and suddenly and in unison and without a peep of objection?
DEI: a Ludicrous Fantasy
In truth, claims Francis Menton, these companies are all breathing a huge sigh of relief at having finally been let off the DEI hook.
Their DEI promises were always a ludicrous fantasy. And they were all quickly running into an impossible situation where the promises they had made could not be continued.
DEI, meanwhile, has morphed into an increasingly militant and desperate racial spoils regime.
The end of this mess – the enforced agreement and silencing of dissent – is something we can all embrace. And please, don’t act like the insufferable moral preening from people who claimed to be our betters never happened.
Before moving on, it is appropriate to remind ourselves — and them — of some of the endless sanctimony, and of the hypocrisy that it covered.
A Little History
Let’s go back to the beginning: It all started in the spring of 2014, when Jesse Jackson joined in on the annual meetings of many of the [big tech] companies. That’s when suddenly the dominoes all quickly fell, Francis Menton reminds readers.
Essentially all these companies began releasing annual “diversity reports” starting in mid-2014.
Facebook’s initial Report in 2014, “Building a More Diverse Facebook,” was not a long document, just a few pages. But it began with the obligatory moral sanctimony:
At Facebook, diversity is essential to achieving our mission. We build products to connect the world, and this means we need a team that understands and reflects many different communities, backgrounds and cultures. Research also shows that diverse teams are better at solving complex problems and enjoy more dynamic workplaces. So at Facebook we’re serious about building a workplace that reflects a broad range of experience, thought, geography, age, background, gender, sexual orientation, language, culture and many other characteristics.
Francis Menton also wondered, what was the percentage of blacks in the tech portion of Facebook?. It was 1%, he notes.
OK, a little more sanctimony please from Facebook:
Connecting the world takes people with different backgrounds and points of view to build products that work better for everyone. This means building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the people we serve.
This is great. Now, what’s the number for the percentage of blacks in the workforce? Are you sure? It was only 2.1%. Really?
If you remember back to Facebook’s 2022 Diversity report, the report was reduced in size. Why, Mr. Menton, what was going on?
Looking through the charts at the end, we find that the percent of black workers in the tech area is now up to all of 2.4%.
In 2023, as you may recall, Facebook underwent a first-time downsizing. According to StockAnalysis.com, total employment at Meta Platforms, Inc. went from 86,482 on December 31, 2022 to 67,317 on December 31, 2023. If this was like all other corporate downsizings, they obviously looked to eliminate first the unproductive employees and make-work jobs.
Why Bury DEI?
Suddenly, I’m lost, Mr. Menton. I can’t find any diversity reports for Facebook 2023. Or for 2024, for that matter. What’s happening?
Although Facebook only formally announced the end to its DEI regime in January 2025, it could well be that (Facebook) had quietly and surreptitiously begun burying it a couple of years ago. Perhaps you are now starting to understand why Mark Zuckerberg was so quick to join President Trump in calling an end to the DEI regime.
Well, that was Diversity at Facebook. Certainly, Google continued with its Diversity reports?
(Google) at least continued the diversity reports, and in the same format, through 2024. There is plenty of swearing allegiance and loyalty to the woke DEI project. As a random example, this is from the intro to the 2020 Report:
Google has made progress in several areas of hiring and retaining talented professionals from underrepresented groups. We also continued our work to understand the identities, intersectionalities, and experiences of Googlers worldwide. More broadly, we made a wide array of investments to strengthen the diverse communities both within and outside Google. Looking forward, we will continue to use data-informed efforts to support diversity, equity and inclusion as we grow and scale . . .
Reading through these charts that track changes in the data by year is starting to give me a headache. Help me out, here. What is the percentage of black workers in tech jobs? Has it changed over the years? Â Thanks, I now see it is deeply buried on page 78 of the document.
The answer is that that percent has gone from 1.5% in 2014 to 4.2% in 2024.
The Real World Steps In
Mr. Menton, I’ve been following you for quite a while. In September 2021, for example, you posted a report on your efforts over many years at a large law firm to help recruit, hire, and retain increasing numbers of blacks and other minorities. You commented on what a “difficult, long-term and often frustrating process” it all was. Can you sum up for us what happened?
Google, Facebook and their brethren thought they were a lot smarter and better than the rest of us. Well, welcome to the real world.
