Navigating Backlash: Lessons for a Thriving Multiracial and Multicultural Workplace
By: Stephen Heintz, President and CEO, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and Mark Adiedo, Vice President, People and Culture/Chief Diversity Office, Rockefeller Brothers Fund. This piece was originally published on January 15, 2025, by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts in our nation are at a crossroads, with major implications for the workplace.
At their core, workplace DEI efforts reflect an aspiration to create an environment where all individuals are seen, their differences are recognized and respected, and they are treated fairly. DEI can engender a sense of belonging, a necessary ingredient for people to most fully and positively contribute to the workplace. If workplaces can uphold the principles of inclusion and equity despite the prevailing rhetoric of division and derision, then our society has a higher chance of realizing our collective potential.
At the RBF, our DEI efforts have instilled a deeper sense of belonging among staff, which has unlocked improved performance outcomes—and we have evidence from periodic independent assessments of grantmaking impact, relationships with our grantees, endowment performance, and staff and trustees’ sense of belonging and job satisfaction. Sadly, this evidence-based narrative at the RBF and other workplaces has thus far been insufficient to counter mis- and disinformation campaigns that aim to delegitimize DEI efforts.
Historical efforts to dismantle racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry in America have always been marked by intervals of progress followed by sharp periods of regress. Every move toward greater diversity, equity, and inclusion—and therefore justice—has sparked reactions that can manifest as exclusion, hatred, and even violence.
Following the Civil War, the Reconstruction period (1865 to 1877) ushered in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, which abolished slavery, granted citizenship, and erected voting rights for African Americans. But the end of Reconstruction marked the beginning of the Jim Crow era that included, among other devastating events, the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, which the U.S. Department of Justice recently acknowledged was a coordinated military-style attack.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and the Selma to Montgomery marches catalyzed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Soon after, renewed “law-and-order” rhetoric cemented President Nixon’s Southern Strategy, which targeted affirmative action and desegregation policies and weakened federal protections.
The election of the first Black president in 2008, symbolizing racial progress, paved the way for deeper exploration systemic racism and approaches to dismantle it. It was followed by the 2016 elections, accompanied by a rise in white nationalism and policies targeting voting rights, immigration, and affirmative action.
The years since the murder of George Floyd and the racial justice uprising that followed have also elicited a sharp and deep reaction: intensifying efforts to dismantle DEI initiatives, including legislation to ban critical race theory in schools, vilification of LGBTQIA+ people, and challenges progress made in the feminist era not limited to the current assault on reproductive rights.
At the RBF, we have recently examined our history with regard to race and gender so that it can inform our next steps. We are leaning into long-held values and learning from past gains, as well as missed opportunities, to advance strategically and future-proof our progress, even as the nation faces attacks on DEI and the pursuit of justice that have caused some workplaces to reverse or slow their commitments. We are gleaning important lessons from the past, including how communities came together in diverse coalitions to counter malevolent forces that threatened to undo progress toward diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice.
The RBF and others must take steps to further demonstrate the value of DEI work not only to social justice but to organizational outcomes. For example, the Fund will continue to document measurable impacts from our DEI efforts that are core to our mission. We will also forge external partnerships, including with allies across lines of difference, to broaden community support, sharpen best practices, and advance collective advocacy.
The work of dismantling racism and other forms of bigotry in America has been an interplay of progress and regress. Periods of advancement have often been met with resistance and backlash, necessitating renewed efforts and strategies to combat interpersonal, institutional, and systemic inequalities and injustices.
Workplace strategies are important for the broader social context and solutions that can contribute to a thriving multiracial and multicultural society. The current environment may make it harder to fight exclusion, discrimination, and hate, but this is also a critical time for those who want to preserve the progress we have made to stand up for hard-won achievements.
The RBF is reinforcing mechanisms that will help us to resist backsliding. We will heed past lessons as we devise contemporary strategies so that we can continue building a workplace where everyone belongs and a world where equal opportunity and fair outcomes are a foundation of society. The values of inclusion, equity, and justice are part of the RBF legacy and critical to our work advancing social change for a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.