CNN panelists Scott Jennings and Arthur Aidala, a New York trial attorney, fired back at an analyst claiming that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) got her ahead during a Wednesday evening segment.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term to end “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing” in the federal government, prompting DEI branches within agencies to dissolve. While lamenting Trump’s opposition to DEI, former White House staffer Ashley Allison, who worked under former President Barack Obama, argued that it is a “flawed premise” to believe that employees who are hired because of their physical attributes are not qualified for their job.
“I just want to say that the premise that DEI exists and therefore the people that got the opportunity perhaps because of DEI is a flawed premise. And I think that is what’s so frustrating around the argument around DEI. I know in this country historically and even today there are injustices in this country based on race, based on gender, based on ideology,” Allison said, prompting CNN host Abby Phillip to add that personal connections also lead people to be hired for top positions.
“It happens every day all over the planet! On Planet Earth, it is human nature!” Aidala said.
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Phillip further claimed that people have often not been hired because of their merit and suggested that DEI is providing historically marginalized groups with more opportunities. Jennings stated that the term “equity” is about achieving a certain outcome rather than granting people more opportunities.
“Is that what equity means? Giving opportunity or guaranteeing outcome?” Jennings said, leading to pushback from his fellow panelists. “Because that’s what equity means. There’s a difference between equality and equity … I think they define [DEI] as trying to guarantee outcomes and they’re trying to punish people they don’t like politically. Wrong race, wrong gender.”
Allison then complained that she does not have the same opportunities as others and has been paid less than her colleagues because of her race.
“The issue in this country right now is we live in difference realities,” Allison said. “I live in a reality where I know I do not have the same opportunity as [Jennings] I know I don’t … I’m not talking about how you felt, I’m talking about how I felt, me, a black woman in this country and if you want me to, I will run to the facts … I’ve got a law degree, a masters and two bachelors, probably more education than all of y’all added up together at this table, and I have always been the least paid person on payroll at every institution I have worked at.”
“Even at the White House?” Aidala asked.
“Even in the White House,” Allison said, prompting Aidala to point out she worked for Obama. “Well guess what happened when I was there, DEI.”
Jennings told Allison that she is a “respected” person because of her merit rather than her physical attributes.
The public scrutiny surrounding DEI has led major companies, including Walmart and top airline manufacturer Boeing, to scale back on their DEI initiatives to better appeal to their consumers and the public. After Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, dozens of investment advisers warned America’s biggest corporations in November that their DEI programs would become a liability once the then-president-elect reentered office, the Daily Caller News Foundation first reported.
Some educational institutions, such as the University of Michigan’s Black Student Union, concluded that the school’s DEI initiatives were ineffective because they did “not sufficiently allow for Black students’ input to influence the development of University programs,” according to The Michigan Daily.
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