A public clash between Mark Cuban and Elon Musk over the merits of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the workforce continued to unfold this week, with other notables weighing in.
Dallas entrepreneur and minority-Mavericks owner Mark Cuban stood on one side of the argument, claiming that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies improve workplace culture and profits. For his part, Space X founder Elon Musk argued that “DEI is just another word for racism.”
The merits of DEI programs have been hotly debated in recent years. Texas recently enacted a law banning DEI initiatives and offices at state universities and colleges, as reported by The Dallas Express.
While some companies prefer to hire employees or implement initiatives based on a person’s outward appearance or some other extrinsic factor, other companies prefer to hire candidates based on their work history, qualifications, and education.
“Good businesses look where others don’t, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed,” Cuban said in a post on X.
“I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientations, etc., that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration. By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified,” he claimed. “The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain.”
Social media users were quick to call out Cuban for his alleged hypocrisy and virtue signaling.
“There are two Mark Cubans,” said Jeremy Carl, @realJeremyCarl, in a post on X. “The first Mark Cuban had only white guys on the Board of Directors for his Broadcast.com startup when they went public. The second Mark Cuban was made rich by his startup, so he virtue signals about DEI to try to one-up @elonmusk.”
Musk maintained his stance that DEI is inherently racist in its practice and implementation.
“Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism,” said Musk.
American hedge fund manager Bill Ackman also gave his opinion on the topic.
“I have always believed that diversity is an important feature of a successful organization,” said Ackman on X. “But by diversity, I mean diversity in its broadest form: diversity of viewpoints, politics, ethnicity, race, age, religion, experience, socioeconomic background, sexual identity, gender, one’s upbringing, and more.”
“What I learned, however, was that DEI was not about diversity in its purest form, but rather DEI was a political advocacy movement on behalf of certain groups that are deemed oppressed under DEI’s own methodology,” he said.
“DEI is communism and racism repackaged for the 21st century,” said a social media user in response to Ackman’s post.
In an interview on The Take Away, Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall discussed the company’s zero-tolerance policy, which included a hotline to report employees who were not adhering to strict DEI rules.
“Mark Cuban and The Dallas Mavericks set up a hotline for employees to turn in their fellow coworkers that weren’t following the DEI rules because Woke is Communism,” said one social media user.