Where Bud Light erred, this brand shows how to do DEI without woke activism | Opinion

Political lenses are focused sharply on corporate America these days, with eyes peeled for the spread of DEI initiatives — diversity, equity and inclusion. Liberals stand ready to punish companies failing to add such a department, while conservatives are prepared to push back against those who do.

The reasons are simple. The right prefers a focus on merit, without regard to race or other perceived irrelevancies, while the left clings to its devotion to identity politics. From Disney to Bud Light, the headlines are filled with stories of companies paying a price as conservatives seek a marketplace punishment for woke activism.

But what happens when the storyline involves the discovery of a DEI officer at one of America’s hallmark conservative brands? Reactions are expectedly conflicted, and the early sloppiness of the story was of no help in achieving clarity.

A political strategist named Joey Mannarino tweeted May 29 that Chick-Fil-A, longtime purveyor of chicken and conservative values, had “just hired” a DEI vice president. While some predictable gasps followed, facts trickled in. The official in question, Erick McReynolds, has had that title at Chick-Fil-A since November 2021, having served as executive director of that department since July 2020.

That’s nearly three years at the very least that one of America’s hallmark family-values brands has had a DEI office, so this is nothing new. But it is different. The various companies that have been recently outed for over-the-top woke posturing have been uniformly aligned with liberalism. It’s easy to find video posts of managers bursting with pride as their companies adopt positions teeming with social justice extremism and revolutionary sexual attitudes.

So what is Chick-Fil-A doing swimming in the DEI pool? A visit to their own DEI webpage is instructive.

Alongside a smiling picture of McReynolds, the company proudly touts its commitment to “being better at together” and fostering “a culture of belonging.”

It describes recruitment partnerships with the Women’s Foodservice Forum, The National Black MBA Association and the Association of Latino Professionals of America. “Community group” membership options for employees include Women in Business and the Black Employee Resource Group.

This openness extends to the supply chain necessary to operate the most popular fast-food chain in America for eight years running, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. “We are developing mentorship and partnership opportunities for minority owned businesses … and are working to provide additional support through the launch of several supplier diversity efforts,” the page says.

Nowhere on the page does it suggest that male employees can become female, or vice-versa. Nowhere does it suggest that America is a racist cauldron in dire need of modern atonement in the form of racial revenge policies.

Chick-Fil-A’s brand of DEI is a testament to the company’s efforts to operate in a manner that displays genuine fairness and openness toward customers and employees without thwarting the Christian values set forth by founder S. Truett Cathy in 1947.

Diversity should mean welcoming employees and customers without regard to religion, race, politics or sexual stances. It should not mean scrapping merit as a hiring criterion in order to meet some arbitrary racial standard.

Equity should mean equality of opportunity, not rigging the landscape to yield equality of result.

Inclusion should mean welcoming employees who meet the qualifications for each job without flouting the company’s principles. This is a two-way street; I recently supported a liberal Texas baker who punted a vocally conservative employee who didn’t exactly fit in a shop festooned with rainbow flags and Beto O’Rourke campaign signs.

What seems to have happened at Chick-Fil-A is the establishment of an office that may carry the DEI label without the accompanying leftist dogma that has marked the tilt of so many other companies.

One might wonder why Chick-Fil-A would risk the negative attention in the first place. Maybe it’s because this brief dust-up is nothing compared to the firestorm that awaits companies failing to create DEI departments and job titles.

In what may prove a masterstroke of marketing, Chick-Fil-A is able to say it has a DEI division wholly without the repellent radicalism that has caused rampant self-inflicted wounds elsewhere.

No company needs some ill-defined office or executive to practice simple fairness and decency; DEI as widely practiced today often violates those values. But companies need not buckle under pressure from today’s woke bullies. If they feel they must throw the mob a bone, the Chick-Fil-A example proves that a company can put “DEI” on an office door and some business cards and define the terms in that abbreviation more truthfully.

Mark Davis hosts a morning radio show in Dallas-Fort Worth on 660-AM and at 660amtheanswer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @markdavis.