Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
During Black History Month, I attended a panel hosted by Howard University featuring Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s Spring Inclusive Growth and Racial Equity Thought Leadership Lecture Series.
My decision to brave DC’s grey chill that morning had wavered until the last minute—and now, sitting in an auditorium dotted with just a handful of others, watching Dr Kendi command the vast emptiness around him, I understood why something inside me had insisted I be there.
In recent years, especially highlighted in the first quarter of 2025, there have been significant changes in how organisations approach diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Following the surge of commitments made after George Floyd’s murder, we are now observing a noticeable decline – a “pivot” in these efforts in many areas. This shift has been on my mind lately, especially after reflecting on insights from Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.
The Dual Nature of Institutional Commitment
As Dr. Kendi points out during the lecture, “You have some institutions who only put into place programs to diversify those institutions, to project to the world that they care about diversity, and those institutions weren’t necessarily serious to begin with.”
Performative DEI: Optics over Impact.
These organizations created DEI policies as public relations stunts, and when the environment changed, they changed accordingly.
In contrast, Kendi notes that other organisations approached diversity pragmatically: “They actually reviewed all the research studies that find that when you have a company or even a team with more women and people of colour, that team is more efficient and more profitable.”
These companies, driven by evidence-based decision-making rather than merely public perception, have primarily maintained their commitment to diverse workplaces.
Beyond Surface-Level DEI: The Fearless Futures Approach
The Fearless Futures White Paper, DEI Disrupted: The Blueprint For DEI Worth Doing emphasizes that organizations should shift away from surface-level initiatives and toward measuring concrete outcomes that demonstrate meaningful impact.
Organizations should essentially move beyond food, fun and flags.
Their paper argues that effective diversity, equity, and inclusion work must be evaluated based on tangible results that create systemic change rather than performative actions.
Organizations should establish clear metrics to assess whether their DEI efforts are genuinely transforming structures of inequity and creating more just environments for all stakeholders, particularly those from marginalized groups. By centering outcome measurement, organizations can better determine if their DEI strategies are achieving substantive progress or merely maintaining the appearance of commitment without addressing underlying issues of power and privilege.
“research indicates a significant amount of [DEI] programming and activity delivered under the DEI banner in recent years has failed to demonstrate effectiveness of measurable impact.” (Dobin and Kalev 2016)
Beyond Simple Narratives
What strikes me most is how Dr. Kendi challenges our understanding of racism and, by extension, the work of DEI. He argues that we’ve projected racism “too simplistically” as merely “a phenomenon that hurts people of colour and helps white people” when the reality is “much more complicated.”
This nuanced perspective invites us to move beyond reductive narratives about DEI work. It’s not simply about helping one group at the expense of another but about creating systems where everyone can thrive.
The Transformation Challenge
Perhaps the most profound insight for DEI practitioners comes from Dr. Kendi’s observation about racism’s constantly evolving nature: “To be anti-racist is to recognise that transformation is needed, which then forces you as an individual to constantly want to understand the new developments.”
In DEI work, we must continually educate ourselves and adapt our approaches as social contexts change. What worked in 2020 may not address the challenges of 2025.
Looking Forward
Reflecting on DEI’s current state, I’m reminded of Kendi’s “duelling marches” concept—the ongoing tension between progress and resistance. Rather than seeing our current moment as a triumph or a failure, we might better understand it as part of this historical pattern of advancement and pushback.
For those of us committed to creating more equitable systems, the challenge is to move beyond superficial initiatives, ground our work in evidence and data, and remain adaptable to new manifestations of inequity. Only then can we ensure that DEI work transcends trends and creates lasting change.