Billionaires are duking it out on X over range, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
On Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, wrote: “DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it.”
That was in assist of a long post by hedge fund billionaire Invoice Ackman on the reasons he pressured Harvard president Claudine Homosexual to resign, as she announced she would earlier this week. Ackman, CEO of Pershing Sq. Capital Administration, is a Harvard alum and distinguished donor to the college.
Homosexual acquired intense criticism final month for her solutions to lawmakers over anti-Semitism on campus following the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas on Israel. Particularly, she did not condemn requires genocide in opposition to Jews as a violation of college coverage. That was adopted by allegations by conservative activists that she had dedicated plagiarism in her tutorial work, and solutions that she had been unqualified for the function of president, which she assumed final July, within the first place.
“It was a thinly veiled exercise in race & gender when they selected Claudine Gay,” entrepreneur and GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a Harvard alum, posted to X on Tuesday. “Here’s a radical idea for the future: select leadership based on *merit.*”
When an X person responded to Musk by questioning whether or not DEI qualifies as racism, Musk countered: “Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism.”
At this level, one other billionaire weighed in: Mark Cuban, the Shark Tank star and Dallas Mavericks proprietor (final month he sold his majority stake within the NBA crew to households linked to Sheldon Adelson, the late Las Vegas on line casino magnate).
“Let me help you out and give you my thoughts on DEI,” he responded to Musk.
“Good businesses look where others don’t, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed,” he continued. “You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc., that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration. By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified. The loss of DEI-phobic companies is my gain.”
Ackman responded to Cuban, writing:
“That’s exactly what I thought until I did the work. I encourage you to do the same and revert. DEI is not about diversity, equity, or inclusion. Trust me. I fell for the same trap you did.”
Musk replied to Ackman with “Yup.”
Musk, who owns X, has been a frequent critic of DEI in current weeks. In mid-December, he wrote: “‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ are propaganda words for racism, sexism and other -isms. This is just as morally wrong as any other racism and sexism. Changing the target class doesn’t make it right!”
(The U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee filed a lawsuit in opposition to Tesla in September alleging it did not probe complaints of racist conduct and has fired or retaliated in opposition to workers who reported harassment. In different such circumstances, Tesla has stated that it doesn’t tolerate discrimination and takes such complaints critically.)
Ackman, in the same vein, wrote on Wednesday: “DEI is racist because reverse racism is racism, even if it is against white people (and it is remarkable that I even need to point this out).”
In her resignation notice, Homosexual wrote, “It has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor—two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am—and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.”
