Many upstate residents were stunned by what they learned from my recent article, What SC Can Learn from the CA Wildfires, which outlined the contents a 40-page document guiding Greenville SC’s extensive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives for 2022-2026 (click here). It contains pages and pages of charts and graphs dividing ALL city employees into 7 different racial categories, and it outlines the efforts being made to recruit potential employees that would better reflect the racial makeup of the demographics of Greenville. It also describes the extensive resources and time devoted to DEI within our city government (including Fire and Police). It would appear that the City’s efforts are supported by Furman University’s Riley Institute and the Greenville Chamber of Commerce (click here). But what we see in the City of Greenville may just be the tip of the iceberg in SC.
GREENVILLE DEI
While some from the City may say this is not currently being implemented, City Manager Shannon Lavrin stated otherwise just last year, in her State of the City Address. She was proud that the City hired a Chief Diversity Officer (DEI Officer, paying him more than what a new police officer makes, by the way). She further explained how they are working to make outcomes “more equitable and just.” According to Lavrin, “all city departments integrated DEI goals into their work plans and DEI training has been integrated into our on-boarding processes, new employee orientation, and supervisory development program.” She praised the city for increasing their Human Rights Campaign’s Municipality Equality Index (MEI) Score by 12 points (from 52 to 64).
But wait– Who is the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and how are they able to have so much influence over a city? Hopefully this article will help you connect a lot of dots to what you have been witnessing over the past several years. As the Executive Director of the Mom and Pop Alliance of SC (a statewide small business advocacy group), I had done extensive research of the topic of ESGs (boy they just love acronyms!) (click here and here). For those not familiar, ESG is a form of social credit scoring, involving commitment to sustainability, climate change, and multiple arbitrary, ever-changing left leaning social issues. It is placed on corporations but designed to trickle down to small businesses, which we were just starting to see. ESG has become quite a force with over 80% of major US companies participating, and all European companies forced to comply, as it became the law of the land in the European Union (something to carefully consider when we incentivize companies from the EU to set up shop in SC).
From my ESG work I was familiar with the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) scorecards (comprising just one small part of a company’s total ESG score.) The HRC’s scoring focuses completely on LGBTQ+ activism. The more a company promotes LGBTQ+ issues, in a multitude of ways, the higher their score is. The HRC is always moving the goalpost, so companies must keep doing more to get a high CEI score. This is why we saw Dylan Mulvaney in the Bud Light marketing campaign. While some companies are true believers of the ideology, many decide it is safer to just comply, intimidated by LGBTQ+ activists who would accuse them of bigotry or not being an inclusive workplace. They also worry about being dropped from pro-ESG investment firms, thereby tanking their stock price. An interesting side note, China is exempt from the ESG mandates of the West. Imagine the advantage that gives them globally.
The HRC is a very well-financed non-profit, but in my opinion seems to function more like a non-governmental organization (NGO). There are many similar, very large “non-profits” currently operating in our nation that have designed creative ways to institute sweeping societal change without going through the voting booth. The funding for the HRC seems to be from mostly outside of the government, so it remains to be seen if President Trump’s Executive Order stopping funding to DEI within the federal government will impact their activity. HRC’s funding sources include George Soros’s Open Society, several unions including a teachers’ union, and 69 corporate sponsors. I believe that many corporations will likely pull back their sponsorships now. The HRC is also very politically active, recently donating over $2 Million to congressional campaigns and over $1 Million for lobbying.
I was shocked to discover that the HRC’s impact on society is far greater than rating corporations on their LGBTQ+ activism (click here). It turns out that with their SEI (State Equality Index) scorecard they also grade states, with their HEI (Healthcare Equality Index) scorecard they grade healthcare facilities (over 2400 of them), and with their MEI (Municipal Equality Index) they grade over 500 cities. SC has five participating cities. Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, N. Charleston, and Rock Hill have decided to spend time and resources submitting compliance paperwork to satisfy the HRC’s complex 49 metrics. Scoring includes such things as programs to attract LGBTQ+ applicants, DEI trainings, city contractors having non-discrimination policies that expressly cover sexual orientation and gender identity, pushing back on state laws they disagree with, single-user bathrooms, and much, much more! The HRC clearly states these 49 metrics (scored 0-100) must be submitted by city leadership. Not surprisingly, the media seems happy to promote a city who raises their MEI score, but citizens may wonder if this the best use of our tax dollars. Might it negatively impact employee morale, including in Police and Fire departments? The Greenville police officers I spoke with were not thrilled about watching videos on pronouns. Does it put the city at risk for discrimination lawsuits, and most importantly, could it negatively impact merit-based hiring?
One can only speculate as to why 5 SC cities decided to participate in the HRC’s LGBTQ+ scoring. Maybe it’s related to mandates from a governmental grant the city accepted in the past. Perhaps it is a requirement of grants they are currently seeking. Or it may be that the city leadership is ideologically aligned with the HRC or likes the positive press it receives when their score “improves.” While I can understand why businesses would participate in the CEI, I don’t yet have the answer as to why a city would spend time and tax dollars on an MEI score. I think it would be good for citizens to ask this question.
Further, I was concerned to see that the HRC also rates healthcare facilities. I suspect that most people would like to see hiring based solely on merit, especially in areas of public safety, healthcare, aviation, etc.
Looking on the HRC website it appears that the Columbia VA received an HEI score of 95. While I didn’t find HRC scoring for other hospitals in our state, there is clearly a DEI-driven agenda in some of SC’s largest hospitals. For example, MUSC has an Office of Equity, and has on its website, “Affirmative action is one method of including historically underrepresented populations into the workforce. Therefore, MUSC must develop an institutional philosophy based on the principles and ideals of affirmative action…where members are able to succeed according to their abilities.” Raise your hand if you’re OK being treated by a team of those who succeed according to their abilities.
Prisma boasts of incorporating DEI into their medical school, along with the JEDI Award for “residents and faculty demonstrating exceptional work in the areas of justice, equity, diversity and inclusivity.” A couple of years ago I attended a presentation on the new Medical School in Greenville and almost the entire presentation was about the efforts they were making on diversity and equity. Obviously, healthcare should not be distracted by these political influences. With lives on the line, it should stay true to its mission and the public’s expectation of delivering exceptional patient care.
DEI Compliance is now an industry all unto itself. The Federal Government has spent over $1 Billion on DEI in the past 4 years, but more broadly, the amount is way, way higher between the private sector, universities, schools, and the local municipalities. Clearly, many grifters will be invested in keeping this gravy train going. Imagine what better use we could make of the billions that have been spent on upholding DEI, and what better use we could make of the time dedicated to DEI training and compliance.
While DEI and ESG are greatly weakened, we may not be able to believe the headlines that “DEI is dead” just yet. They are already rebranding under new names such as “Inclusive Excellence,” “Access, Community and Belonging,” or “Community, Engagement and Belonging.”
Not surprisingly, DEI initiatives have been shown to increase prejudice among participants by instilling new biases they had not previously held. It is also patently unfair! Who decides which groups are marginalized for the benefit of other groups, and who decides what must be done to make things “equitable?” Creating equity always results in some form of discrimination for someone. And, giving special benefits or treatment to one group based purely on immutable characteristics is, in itself, racist.
Sadly, this has been going on for decades. I saw it in the 1980’s when my then college boyfriend was in medical school. He came from modest beginnings. His stepdad worked the line in a Detroit factory. Because he didn’t attend a great high school, he had to work twice as hard as most of his classmates. He watched non-white students receive mentoring and unlimited free tutors to help them, but because he was white and deemed what we now call “privileged” he was not eligible for these benefits. This practice obviously creates resentment and hinders producing the best physicians. DEI initiatives can also be unfair to minorities. A pilot friend of mine told me “black pilots absolutely hate it.” Quite understandably, they don’t want co-workers or passengers to look at them and wonder if they really earned their seat in the cockpit.
In time I think we will all look back on this DEI/ESG/social justice craze as a bizarre, dark time for our nation and for humanity in general. It is my hope that the citizens of Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, N. Charleston, and Rock Hill will demand that their cities pull out of the Human Rights Campaign’s MEI scoring. This ideology extends far beyond these 5 cities, corporations, and hospitals. It is all around, in our workplaces, schools, churches, and universities. It will be up to each of us to courageously call it out and work hard for change.
While we can always do better, America is the least racist nation in the world. Rather than spending billions on DEI programs that are making things worse, lets grow excellence through merit and teach our children to judge people on their character.
Can we all finally agree that it is past time to put this 50+ year old failed experiment in social engineering to bed once and for all?
Local News Via - MyrtleBeachSC.com
