A DEI View Of Democratic Outreach
A conversation about racial attitudes in 2024 electoral politics
Among the many differences between 2024 and the last Presidential election year, one is not much discussed: attitudes toward racial justice.
Four years ago at this time, America was entering into a prolonged, and profound, reaction to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Today, according to some politicians I speak with, a backlash is palpable—not just among conservatives, but with many people who were sympathetic in 2020 to the causes of inclusion, equity, and justice.
Is this change real? If so, what does it mean for electoral politics—not to mention the causes themselves?
I intend to have a series of occasional conversations on the topic for this newsletter, interviewing people who I think have knowledge and insight worth exploring.
I’m starting with Malia Lazu, a DEI consultant and MIT lecturer, who has a new book out: From Intention to Impact. She previously worked in politics, which is where I first got to know her.
Below are edited excerpts of our conversation. Please let me know what you think—and what questions you’d like explored on this topic going forward. You can leave comments here or email me at David@DavidSBernstein.com
Bernstein: The last presidential race came in the wake of the George Floyd protests, and the sudden interest in and commitment to inclusion and diversity and reform. Now there's a lot of talk about retrenchment or backlash. Where do you see the energy now compared with then?
Lazu: It is a backlash. But I think it looked like movement to the untrained eye. To the trained eye, it looked like the country being embarrassed, and responding or reacting. And we know that reaction oftentimes isn't sustainable. Folks who are in the movement know you have about two to three years before retrenchment happens.
Bernstein: There’s backlash from the usual suspects, who always opposed change. But what about the people who were expressing support? You talk to people in corporate America, the people who sit on boards, or even the suburban white families who were acting supportive of the BLM protests, do they still feel that way?
Lazu: This is where politics gives us way too limited of a lens to look at society. If we're talking about employees and consumers, that is what corporations care about. A lot of corporations came to the George Floyd movement, and they’re still there. They see the statistics: a majority of people want to work for a company that aligns with their values.
When we are talking about voters, what we see is the Democratic Party got seven million more of those votes in the last presidential election. I think we're going to see something similar happening again. But as someone who comes out of voting work, let me see your field plan, and then I'll tell you what you're going to do in November. Those seven million are not necessarily Democrats. People feel how they feel, and then a certain group of those people go on the first Tuesday of November and cast a ballot. It's important to keep that in perspective. We're not talking about the country.
Bernstein: On the corporate side, you think they’re still on board—they’re not saying, “we've done enough for reform, let’s move on”?
Lazu: I don't think corporations necessarily came into this with gusto. But as CEOs of companies they understand that diversity is beneficial. They might not know what to do, and they might not know how to navigate through pushback from their own personal circle, or from their company’s culture. This is a place where they don't know. They're not necessarily leading from a place of competence, which no CEO likes to do—their kids probably understand the issue better than they do. And they're probably hearing it from their kids, and their employee resource groups. I'm not saying that corporations are all writing a DEI theory and philosophy; what they're saying is that there's value here, and how do we navigate this current moment?
Bernstein: And what are their workers saying?
Lazu: We go in and hold discovery groups. really trying to get a pulse on the culture, going beyond the employee survey data and taking an appreciative inquiry approach. We've spent a lot of time throughout this country, talking to employees about how they feel about their culture, their companies. Nine out of 10 times, people who are from marginalized communities feel marginalized. And if that's the culture you have, you are not getting the most out of that employee. That employee is keeping their resume sharp. Data shows that people are willing to take a pay cut to work for a company that shares their values.
Bernstein: To bring it back to politics, are those marginalized communities feeling that way towards their country, and the political parties, and candidates? Does that affect the Democratic Party’s ability to get the turnout this time around, and to get as high a percentage of, say, Latino voters?
Lazu: The Democrats have a real credibility issue, because I don't think they fully understand who their natural base is, and how to work with them, and have it align with their more traditional Boomer, neo-liberal base. The Democrats’ problem writ large with people who would be attracted to diverse communities, is not fully understanding how to respond to the pushback. If you have relationships with your voters, you can take them through hard things that you may have to do. But you have to have a relationship in order to do that.
Bernstein: I'm guessing that some of the concern among corporate leaders is that if they do these things that the DEI consultant wants them to do, the non-marginalized employees are going to resent it. Is there an analogy with the Democratic Party, that leadership is concerned with white Boomer neo-liberals—because at the leadership level, that’s more their circle of people?
Lazu: Not only are the CEOs worried about it, but they're hearing it from the middle managers: “I’ve worked really hard for this company., and I feel like the rules are being changed.” The biggest impediment to progress is people not being willing. It's not fun to feel like you're being outed from your tribe. And it takes a certain kind of leader to understand that our tribe might be wrong on this one, and to lead from that way. But most don't.
I think that's the same for the Democratic Party. People have a narrative of the world. So they say: “If young people just understood that Biden was better than Trump and got in line, we could just be done with it.” That's not necessarily a healthy way to start a conversation or a relationship with people. So I think, reflecting on that, and understanding that the point of your leadership is to facilitate a forward momentum, will allow you to lean into where that forward momentum is. But it's hard—you don't go to those people's country clubs, you go to your country club. Those people don't even have country clubs.
Bernstein: So the Democratic Party should be thinking about how to make a very important set of marginalized voters feel like you value them; and do it in a way that brings along the folks in the party who, perhaps in their minds, believe that they want to do the right thing but see that it might not be in their particular interest or just have an emotional backlash to it.
Lazu: That's challenging for anyone. And they're facing the same challenges as corporate leaders, because they have similar age leadership. We're in a time where millennials are growing bigger than boomers, and they feel different. So, people who once were Meathead are now being told they're Archie. Now you are representing an institution and a system that is fighting back against this generational shift. To fight back feels like the most natural thing to do. But not if you want to be forward thinking. Parties need voters, companies need employees and consumers. I think there are lessons to be learned from corporate DEI that could be applicable—some of the ways corporations are trying to attract and retain talent, could be used to attract and retain voters.
Bernstein: What you just said about All In The Family rings so true to me. The Democratic Party is mostly led by older liberals who think, “I've been on the right side of things my whole life,” and the culture of the party has moved past that and says: “That's not good enough now.” And it's very tough for them to adapt to that.
Lazu: And listen, I’m aging. There's things that we all have to learn—there was a time when I struggled with pronouns. But, people in their 20s, they’re looking for the ability to explore who they are and the ability for their friends to explore who they are.
Bernstein: And what about the folks who don't identify with the marginalized, and are not young, and feel like they're being asked to give something up, or they're afraid of what change is going to mean. Is part of the challenge getting them on board, and not having someone just rolling their eyes at them and saying: “Get with the program, old man.”
Lazu: There’s another thing though. This idea that corporations bring everyone along to do this work—that’s not true. It's not true in politics, either. You know, there's nothing else that we have to bring everybody along to do. So if we have to do that with equity work, that's inequitable.