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Businesses

Amazon To Halt Some of Its DEI Programs (cnbc.com) 48

Amazon said it is halting some of its diversity and inclusion initiatives, joining a growing list of major corporations that have made similar moves in the face of increasing public and legal scrutiny. From a report: In a Dec. 16 internal note to staffers that was obtained by CNBC, Candi Castleberry, Amazon's VP of inclusive experiences and technology, said the company was in the process of "winding down outdated programs and materials" as part of a broader review of hundreds of initiatives.
"Rather than have individual groups build programs, we are focusing on programs with proven outcomes -- and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture," Castleberry wrote in the note, which was first reported by Bloomberg. Castleberry's memo doesn't say which programs the company is dropping as a result of its review.
Further reading: Meta Kills DEI Programs.

Amazon To Halt Some of Its DEI Programs

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  • by newslash.formatblows ( 2011678 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @07:47PM (#65079699)
    that the GOP is about to take control of all ends of government.
    • Very simple logic. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If diversity benefits the company's bottom line, then there is no need for a special program for it. It will happen naturally thanks to the profit motive.

      If diversity does not benefit the company's bottom line, then the program was always harmful and unjust towards anyone not included (whites). In that case, anyone who was formerly chosen just because of such programs can work on bettering themselves so they will have legit competitive advantages to win jobs.

      In either case, things are better and more fair

    • that the GOP is about to take control of all ends of government.

      I think it's more that they're having a lot less trouble finding the engineers they need. When there was a massive shortage, every tech company was acting like a geek day care and doing whatever they could to foster a frat house environment for programmer types. If Amazon had their way, they'd treat their engineers just as poorly as they treat their drivers. It's just that labor market dynamics used to work in favor of the talent and now have changed in the employer's favor.

      Interest rates have made i

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by MacMann ( 7518492 )

      I'm thinking you are confusing correlation with causation.

      I believe that it was the rise of the GOP and the demise of DEI that had a shared cause. This opposition to DEI was growing for some time, it has simply reached a point where people weren't putting up with it any more. They decided to act in whatever ways available to put an end to it. One such action was taking DEI policies to court, which was closely followed by an election where voters chose candidates that opposed DEI as part of their platform

      • by narcc ( 412956 )

        You're dramatically overthinking it. Remember that the stinky convict got less than 50% of the vote. Had the GOP ran anyone else they'd have lost ... even with the other side doing everything in their power to alienate their voters playing Republican-lite.

  • https://www.wsj.com/politics/e... [wsj.com]

    Ring kissed. H-1B applicants for all!

    • by dskoll ( 99328 )

      Ironically, the H1Bs will probably make them meet DEI targets more than anything else.

  • The big lie (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rcb1974 ( 654474 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @08:23PM (#65079773) Homepage
    Diversity and inclusion are not necessarily a source of strength. That depends on whether or not said diverse things (cultural elements, ideas, traditions, etc) are actually good based on their own merits. Only good things should actually be praised, adopted or "included". People who have less in common with each other are more likely to contend with one another, and less likely to achieve unity and consensus. There is strength in unity, but not necessarily diversity.
  • by MacMann ( 7518492 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @08:44PM (#65079813)

    From the fine article:

    Amazon is the latest major corporation to alter its DEI programs in the face of growing legal and public scrutiny.

    I doubt this has much to do with shifting political winds, this is in large part in response to organizations having their DEI polices deemed as racist in the courts. DEI should lose in the courts out of racism because DEI is quite explicitly racist.

    This issue has been beaten quite thoroughly in the comments on Meta dropping their DEI policies, there's not likely to be much added in comments to Amazon doing the same. This isn't going to be some return to prejudice against minorities since the courts have been quite consistent in fighting racism in all forms. I know there will be some that will want to argue against this point, perhaps with examples of racism seen here and there, including racism seen from the courts themselves. I'm not going to claim racism is gone, only that the claims of "systemic" racism isn't likely to hold up any more.

    • by narcc ( 412956 )

      It's like you're trying to win the dumbest poster of the day award.

      Once again, I'll try to explain this shit to the terminally stupid. I'll use a very simple example. See if you can follow along. I'll even use small words:

      1. In the morning, all the kids coming into the classroom are give a cookie except for the non-white kids.

      2. At lunchtime, all the kids are give a cookie except for the non-white kids.

      3. At the end of the day, all the kids are given a cookie except for the non-white kids who are given t

  • There is a lot of those three things still very present in the USA, it is systemic. People try to say that asserting this fact is 'woke' or whatever, but there is huge evidence that it's true. DEI has been a rightful attempt to challenge the idea that racism, misogyny, and homophobia are appropriate and applicable to the workplace.

    Now we have a political climate where the three things are seen as acceptable.

    • Getting a little high off your own supply, no?
    • There seems to be a fine line here. DEI programs tend to go farther than treating everyone (such as people of different races or sexual orientations) equally. They tend to prioritize doing business with, and promoting, people who belong to these groups. Everyone *should* be treated equally. But going farther than equal probably *should* be controversial. And controversial isn't good for big business, as Bud Light found out.

      • Exactly. My former employer, a 1500+ employee high tech publicly traded company, bragged during an all hands meeting that they were hiring people through recruitment firms that discriminated based on race and gender (no whites, East Asians, or men allowed). Then I realized that was why we couldn't ever seem to hire get any qualified engineers for years. The HR director said that DEI was "very dear to her heart". I told her publicly we should hire based on merit only. I also told her that in order to be
  • They're not going to stop hiring every H1B they can get their grubby little paws on and Donald Trump and Elon Musk have already said it's open season for H-1B visas.

    The entire DEI push was an attempt to get women and minorities into programming so that they could have a larger pool of labor and therefore have to pay less for employees. It was always just a scam.

    Those women and minorities could see the writing on the wall with the H-1B visa program flooding the market so they wisely stayed away and h
  • by MpVpRb ( 1423381 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @10:56PM (#65080047)

    Diversity is great! Natural diversity of competent people chosen for their skills who happen to be diverse.
    Racism and hate sucks! But forcing people to work with others they hate is a bad strategy.
    What's even worse is the insulting crap some of the trainers tell the employees.
    They say that a person who is not a racist, expresses no racist views, advocates no racist policies, and advocates for fair treatment for all is secretly, subconsciously racist. This is insulting and insanely wrong. This kind of crap does no good and turns allies into enemies.
    We need fair and equal treatment for all and absolute equality under the law.
    Hiring should be based solely on skills and competence, nothing else

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