Diversity, equity and inclusion programs are often defunded, dismissed as divisive, symbolic, performative, or reduced to box-ticking exercises, but in the shadow of the genocide in Gaza, we need to ask ourselves – what is DEI really about?

Has it ever been what it claims to be? Or, has it, as many suggest, become a version of “equality” designed by, and for, the already privileged, more about protecting comfort than creating justice?

For many, DEI has always been performative, offering gestures instead of real change, real acceptance.

Dr Izat El Amoor, a Palestinian sociologist and professor, has argued that it has become a corporate industry that protects the already privileged. The same minority voices appear repeatedly, while real power and decision-making remain untouched.

If DEI stands for justice, why does it pick and choose whose suffering matters? Why do so many organisations loudly support causes like Black Lives Matter or LGBTIQ+ rights, but stay silent on Palestine, Sudan or other global tragedies?

If inclusion only counts when it’s popular or comfortable, was it ever real to begin with?

DEI on paper vs DEI in practice

Before we look at how DEI often fails, we need to be clear about what it actually means:

• Diversity: The presence of different groups.
• Equity: Fair treatment and access for everyone to opportunities.
• Inclusion: A sense of belonging and respect.

However, who actually gets counted as “diverse”? Most of the world is culturally and linguistically diverse, yet in countries like Australia, “CALD” is used as though diversity is a minority problem. Being born into a culture, language or heritage different from the Anglo-English default is not the same as being marginalised. We need to be clearer – refugees, people without secure housing, or those facing systemic barriers, experience exclusion in very different ways than someone who simply comes from a non-English speaking background. Diversity is global – marginalisation is contextual.

The US is often called a “melting pot” of cultures, combining people from around the world. Diversity drives innovation, but systemic inequality shows there’s still much to learn about real integration and valuing all communities.

Today, however, the US is also seeing a backlash, with many framing diversity as a threat to “merit” rather than a path to equality. This raises an urgent question – how do we move DEI beyond focusing on marginalised groups alone, towards creating true acceptance and belonging for everyone, instead of framing diversity as victimhood?

A queer person in Australia lives a very different reality from a queer person in Palestine or Sudan. Treating these experiences as interchangeable erases context and risk.

Real inclusion recognises that identity is layered. Someone may be queer and a refugee, Indigenous and disabled, or a woman and a survivor of genocide. Unless DEI acknowledges these intersections and the histories that shape them, including colonisation, displacement and intergenerational trauma, it becomes a statistics game, not a tool for justice.

Five shifts organisations need to consider

1. Stop performing, start transforming

DEI can’t be reduced to celebrations and slogans. Real change means:

• Challenging bias in hiring, promotions, and leadership decisions.
• Creating space to discuss human suffering and oppression, including in Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan and beyond, without fear of punishment.
• Supporting staff whose families or communities are affected by global crises and recognising the mental health impact.
• Giving real opportunities to people who are usually left out, not just putting up posters about diversity.
• Rethinking DEI as “Humanity and Inclusion Programs”. Traditional DEI focuses on workplace dynamics like gender, race and ability, but rarely addresses wars, genocide, displacement, or systemic oppression.

Humanity and Inclusion Programs must include this understanding, connecting employees, clients and consumers with the lived realities of those affected worldwide.

• Moving beyond framing “diverse” groups as victims, towards supporting their self-determination.

2. Inclusion can’t be pick-and-choose Supporting one cause while ignoring another isn’t inclusion. The Palestinian experience shows that some human rights challenges get corporate backing while others are silenced. Justice cannot be selective.
3. Safety over spin Many workplaces claim inclusivity, but employees fear consequences for speaking up. Real DEI means:

• Protecting workers who raise human rights concerns.
• Having a moral code that an organisation actually lives by.
• Training leaders to handle difficult conversations, not just easy ones.
• Clear policies on free speech and advocacy that don’t punish people for their beliefs, lived experience or activism, but recognise their humanity and their right to speak out.
• Ensuring DEI training and recruitment reflect both national and international realities, including the mental health impact of global events and an organisation’s moral and ethical responsibilities beyond its public image.

4. Awareness isn’t enough ‘Cultural awareness training’ doesn’t shift power. People do! Organisations need to:

• Ask who leads, who is heard, and who is excluded.
• Challenge all forms of discrimination: racism (including antisemitism), sexism, Islamophobia, colonial mindsets and political suppression.
• Recognise that representation without redistribution is hollow.

5. DEI has always been political Power, like silence, isn’t neutral and neither is inclusion. Too often DEI is treated as safe, neutral and apolitical. In reality, real inclusion means confronting militarism, capitalism, immigration systems and global inequalities. It means standing against war, genocide, exploitation and displacement, not just diversifying the workforce of organisations that profit from them.

Reflection

DEI is at a crossroads. It can remain a corporate buzzword that offers comfort and accreditation without change, or it can become a framework for real justice, challenging privilege at its foundation.

Palestine hasn’t just exposed hypocrisy; it shows what has always been true. DEI that avoids hard challenges, like colonialism, militarism, structural racism and economic exploitation, is not equity, is not diversity, is not inclusion, and does not offer a sense of belonging.

True inclusion means standing for all people, everywhere, even when it’s uncomfortable.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.