Charlamagne Tha God trashed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) while guest-hosting the left-leaning program, The Daily Show, on Wednesday night.
The host, whose real name is Lenard Larry McKelvey, argued that DEI does not benefit racial minorities in the workplace as a range of industries have become dedicated to hiring more women and racial minorities.
“The truth about DEI is that although it’s well-intentioned, it’s mostly garbage, okay?” he said. “It’s mostly like the black little mermaid. Just because racists hate it, doesn’t mean it’s good. And you know I’m right because everyone one of you has sat through one of those diversity training sessions and thought, this is some bullshit.”
“The truth about DEI is that although it’s well-intentioned, it’s mostly garbage.” @cthagod pic.twitter.com/IYNJKWm94G
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) April 4, 2024
McKelvey pointed to studies finding DEI does not improve the workplace for racial minorities due to the “backlash effect,” a negative reaction toward women and others who are perceived as “counter-stereotypical.”
“The biggest failure of DEI is the number of black people in power at big companies that’s basically the same as it was five years ago,” McKelvey said. “In fact, maybe the only thing that DEI is giving racist white people cover to be openly racist.”
He then played clips of Fox News hosts pointing out how DEI could lower standards in the professional sphere, and claimed they are “blaming DEI for everything.” (RELATED: Watch Elon Musk’s Face As He Has To Explain To Don Lemon For The Third Time How Hypotheticals Work)
Several medical schools, including the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and City University of New York (CUNY) School of Medicine, removed the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) for certain black and Hispanic applicants to increase the number of that demographic that are admitted to its institution.
Airlines across the U.S. have also lifted their college degree requirements and shortened the number of required training hours as they simultaneously have pushed to hire more women and people of color. Analysts have warned that prioritizing DEI over hard metrics is a threat to passengers’ safety.
“The main focus of airline DEI programs is promoting so-called racial ‘representation goals.’ In other words, racial discrimination that puts woke ideology above safety,” Will Hild, executive director of nonprofit consumer protection agency Consumers’ Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in January.
Airlines have experienced a growing number of emergencies throughout the year.
A United Airlines plane had to emergency land in late February after the plane’s wing began to come apart. A Boeing 747-8 cargo plane operated by Atlas Air emergency landed at Miami International Airport in mid-January at 11:03 p.m. after experiencing a mid-flight engine malfunction.