> “I am baffled by all the companies doing an about-face on their social initiatives right now. Did you not actually mean it in the first place? Either don’t do it, or do it and stay doing it, but don’t do this ‘DEI is cancelled now’,” he says. “It’s very odd to me.”<p>They never did based on how fast they rushed for the door one after another. It’s quite baffling. If they really believed it like they were saying, they would have doubled down.
I'm not baffled, exactly, but I am disheartened.<p>Most companies did social initiatives badly. They're hard to do well, and so a lot of companies never made more than a nod at them. They didn't help and attracted pushback. Given an administration that turned push into shove, it's not much of a surprise that they got rid of it.<p>Still... as badly as these initiatives are done, it should have at least impressed on you that there was a problem there to be solved. Maybe DEI wouldn't solve it; maybe it can't be solved. But I really think their statements should have been "We maintain a commitment to fairness and an equal opportunity for everybody, and we'll keep looking for ways to engage even if this initiative turned out not to be it."<p>As it is, it looked more like "thank God we no longer have to pretend that we don't hate minorities".
Is this just one of the top dogs at Stripe bigging up their own company?<p>Surely it's common public opinion that most social initiatives and stances major companies take are entirely about publicity and reflect whatever they think the bulk of their consumer base supports.<p>If tomorrow 60% or so of McDonalds (or any other company) customer-base became national socialists, McDonalds would have a red, black and white swastika-laden logo within month-end.<p>It's all pandering. Always has been, always will be. There's even terms for each type: pink-washing, rainbow-washing etc.<p>The only alternative is to take a neutral position, where you just focus on whatever product/service you are selling.