A former diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) trainer sounded the alarm on what he sees as a far-left ploy to ensure fairness in the workplace, arguing the initiative is a matter of “optics” and remains “detrimental to minorities.”
Former diversity trainer Erec Smith joined “Jesse Watters Primetime” Monday to discuss why he believes the strategies are ineffective and even “useless” within corporate culture.
“This was a while ago when I was a diversity officer, and I realize how useless it was because, A, you can’t really compel people to do certain things or think certain things,” Smith told Jesse Watters Monday. “You can’t be a thought police when it comes to these things. And secondly, I was always preaching to the choir. It wasn’t working.”
Smith, who is a co-founder of “Free Black Thought,” a nonprofit dedicated to unpacking diversity of thought within the Black community, is known for his work focusing on anti-racism advocacy.
He suggested that the DEI agenda is a strategy designed to financially enrich the far-left proponents who advocate for the implementation in various facets of public life, including colleges and corporate workplaces.
“Think about it. If you’re making all that money off of racism, the last thing you want is for racism to go away,” Smith said. “You are going to perpetuate it. You’re going to see it where it isn’t.”
“The major tenet of critical social justice pedagogy is don’t ask if racism happened. Ask how it manifests in this situation, which is to say there’s racism everywhere,” he continued. “And you know the saying, if you’re a hammer, then everything’s a nail. Well, if you’re a critical social justice activist, everything’s racist.”
Smith’s remarks come as some experts have questioned the legality of the DEI policies moving forward following the Supreme Court’s decision to rule against affirmative action back in June.
The Supreme Court said in a 6-3 decision that colleges and universities could not include race considerations in their admissions process, effectively outlawing what’s known as affirmative action and upending previous legal precedent that allowed it.
The decision has sparked debate on if and how it could influence other sectors of public life, including the hiring and promotion practices of companies and corporations.
Fox News Digital previously spoke with experts who said the decision could mean that corporations could be held liable for “wokeism” in DEI programs and policies.
Nonetheless, Smith warned the “woke” initiative pushing “equity” in the workforce is unlikely to make an exit anytime soon.
“It’s not going to go away tomorrow, but what we have to do is start pushing back,” Smith said. “A lot of people are afraid. A lot of people are complying with this, but they don’t really want to. They just don’t want to be mobbed on social media. They don’t want to lose their jobs. They’re very much against this.”
“The people who can speak out, people like me, need to be loud and clear about how detrimental this is to minorities,” he continued.
Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy contributed to this report.
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