Conservative opponents of DEI may not be as colorblind as they claim

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Abigail Folberg, University of Nebraska Omaha; Laura Brooks Dueland, University of Nebraska Omaha, and Mikki Hebl, Rice University

(THE CONVERSATION) Critics of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, commonly referred to by the acronym DEI, are increasingly using boycotts and bans to fight against their use. People often argue that this anti-DEI backlash is motivated by race-neutral concerns – for example, that DEI practices are irrelevant to work performance or are too political.

But our recent research, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, suggests that conservative critiques of DEI often boil down to one thing:...