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November 13, 2024
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February 19, 2025South Carolina’s Shockingly Deep DEI Rabbit Hole
Your tax dollars are subsidizing woke propaganda and discrimination… and it’s costing a lot more than just money.
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any citizens in the South Carolina Upstate were stunned by what they learned from my recent article, ‘What Can South Carolina Learn From California’s Wildfires?,’ which outlined the contents of a 40-page document guiding Greenville, S.C.’s extensive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives for 2022-2026. The plan contained pages and pages of charts and graphs dividing ALL city employees into seven different racial categories – and outlined the efforts being made to recruit potential employees who would better reflect the racial makeup of the demographics of Greenville.
The plan also described the extensive resources and time devoted to DEI within our city government (including fire and police). It would appear the city’s efforts are supported by Furman University’s Riley Institute and the Greenville Chamber of Commerce (click here). But what we see in the City of Greenville may just be the tip of the iceberg in South Carolina.
While some city officials insist the plan isn’t being implemented, Greenville city manager Shannon Lavrin stated otherwise just last year in her ‘State of the City’ address. She was proud Greenville hired a chief diversity officer (paying him more than what a new police officer makes, by the way). She further explained how they were working to make outcomes “more equitable and just.” According to Lavrin, “all city departments integrated DEI goals into their work plans and DEI training has been integrated into our on-boarding processes, new employee orientation and supervisory development program.” She also praised the city for increasing its Human Rights Campaign’s Municipality Equality Index (MEI) Score by 12 points (from 52 to 64).
INSIDE THE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN…
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ho is the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), and how are they able to have so much influence over a city? Hopefully this article will help you connect the dots to what we have been witnessing over the past several years. As the Executive Director of the Mom and Pop Alliance of SC (a statewide small business advocacy group), I have done extensive research of the topic of ESGs (boy they just love acronyms!)
For those not familiar, ESG is a form of social credit scoring involving commitment to sustainability, climate change, and multiple arbitrary, ever-changing left-leaning social issues. It is foisted on corporations but designed to trickle down to small businesses – which we have even seen in South Carolina. ESG has become quite a force, with over 80% of major U.S. companies participating and all European companies forced to comply once it became the law of the land in the European Union (something to carefully consider when we incentivize companies from the EU to set up shop in our state).
From my ESG work I was familiar with HRC’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI) scorecards – which comprise just one small part of a company’s total ESG score. The HRC’s scoring focuses completely on LGBTQ+ activism. The more a company promotes LGBTQ+ issues, in a multitude of ways, the higher their score is. The HRC is always moving the goalpost, so companies must keep doing more to get a high CEI score. This is why we saw Dylan Mulvaney in that disastrous Bud Light marketing campaign.
Stay Connected!
W
hile some companies are true subscribers to the woke ideology, many likely decided it was safer to just comply – intimidated by LGBTQ+ activists who would accuse them of bigotry or not being an inclusive workplace. They also worried about being dropped from pro-ESG investment firms, thereby tanking their stock price. As an interesting side note, China is exempt from the ESG mandates of the West. Imagine the advantage that gives them globally.
The HRC is a very well-financed non-profit, but seems to function more like a non-governmental organization (NGO). There are many similar, very large “non-profits” currently operating in our nation that have designed creative ways to institute sweeping societal change without going through the voting booth. The funding for the HRC seems to be from mostly outside of the government, so it remains to be seen if President Donald Trump’s executive order stopping funding to DEI within the federal government will impact their activity. HRC’s funding sources include George Soros’ Open Society, several unions including a teachers’ union and 69 corporate sponsors. I suspect some corporations will likely pull back their sponsorships now. The HRC is also very politically active, recently donating over $2 million to congressional campaigns and over $1 million toward lobbying.
HRC’S IMPACT GOES BEYOND CORPORATIONS…
Downtown Greenville, S.C. (Getty)
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was shocked to discover HRC’s impact on society is far greater than rating corporations on their LGBTQ+ activism. It turns out that with their SEI (State Equality Index) scorecard they also grade states, with their HEI (Healthcare Equality Index) scorecard they grade healthcare facilities (over 2,400 of them at last count), and with their MEI (Municipal Equality Index) they grade over 500 cities.
South Carolina has five participating cities: Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, North Charleston and Rock Hill. Each of these municipalities has decided to spend taxpayer time and resources submitting compliance paperwork to satisfy the HRC’s complex 49 metrics. Scoring includes such things as programs to attract LGBTQ+ applicants, DEI trainings, city contractors having non-discrimination policies that expressly cover sexual orientation and gender identity, pushing back on state laws they disagree with, single-user bathrooms, and much, much more!
The HRC clearly states these 49 metrics (scored 0-100) must be submitted by city leadership. Not surprisingly, the media seems happy to promote a city who raises their MEI score, but citizens should be asking if this is the best use of our tax dollars. Might it negatively impact employee morale, including in police and fire departments? The Greenville police officers I spoke with were not thrilled about watching videos on pronouns. Does it put the city at risk for discrimination lawsuits, and most importantly, could it negatively impact merit-based hiring?
One can only speculate as to why these five South Carolina cities decided to participate in the HRC’s LGBTQ+ scoring. Maybe it’s related to mandates from a governmental grant the city accepted in the past. Perhaps it is a requirement of grants they are currently seeking. Or it could be city leadership is ideologically aligned with HRC or likes the positive press it receives when their score “improves.” While I can understand why businesses would feel pressured to participate in the CEI, I don’t yet have the answer as to why a city would spend time and tax dollars on an MEI score. I think it would be good for citizens to ask this question.
Further, I was concerned to see HRC also rates healthcare facilities. I suspect that most people would like to see hiring at these facilities based solely on merit, especially in areas of public safety, healthcare, aviation, etc.
Looking on the HRC website it appears the Columbia VA received an HEI score of 95. While I didn’t find HRC scoring for other hospitals in our state, there is clearly a DEI-driven agenda in some of South Carolina’s largest hospitals. For example, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has an “office of equity,” and boasts on its website that “affirmative action is one method of including historically underrepresented populations into the workforce.”
“Therefore, MUSC must develop an institutional philosophy based on the principles and ideals of affirmative action…where members are able to succeed according to their abilities,” it noted.
Raise your hand if you’re okay being treated by a team of those who succeed according to their abilities.
Prisma boasts of incorporating DEI into their medical school, along with the JEDI Award for “residents and faculty demonstrating exceptional work in the areas of justice, equity, diversity and inclusivity.” A couple of years ago, I attended a presentation on the new Medical School in Greenville and almost the entire presentation was about the efforts they were making on diversity and equity. Obviously, healthcare should not be distracted by these political influences. With lives on the line, it should stay true to its mission and the public’s expectation of delivering exceptional patient care.
DEI COMPLIANCE IS AN INDUSTRY UNTO ITSELF
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he federal government has spent over $1 billion on DEI in the past four years, but more broadly, the amount is way, way higher between the private sector, universities, schools and the local municipalities. Clearly, many grifters will be invested in keeping this gravy train going. Imagine what better use we could make of the billions that have been spent on upholding DEI, and of the time dedicated to DEI training and compliance?
While DEI and ESG are greatly weakened, we may not be able to believe the headlines that “DEI is dead” just yet. Its purveyors are already rebranding under new names such as “Inclusive Excellence,” “Access, Community and Belonging,” or “Community, Engagement and Belonging.”
Not surprisingly, DEI initiatives have been shown to increase prejudice among participants by instilling new biases they had not previously held. It is also patently unfair! Who decides which groups are marginalized for the benefit of other groups, and who decides what must be done to make things “equitable?” Creating equity always results in some form of discrimination for someone. And giving special benefits or treatment to one group based purely on immutable characteristics is actually racist.
Sadly, this has been going on for decades. I saw it in the 1980s when my then college boyfriend was in medical school. He came from modest beginnings. His stepdad worked the line in a Detroit factory. Because he didn’t attend a great high school, he had to work twice as hard as most of his classmates. He watched non-white students receive mentoring and unlimited free tutors to help them, but because he was white and deemed what some now call “privileged” he was not eligible for these benefits.
This practice obviously creates resentment and hinders producing the best physicians. DEI initiatives can also be unfair to minorities. A pilot friend of mine told me “black pilots absolutely hate it.” Quite understandably, they don’t want co-workers or passengers to look at them and wonder if they really earned their seat in the cockpit.
A CALL TO ACTION
(Getty)
In time I think we will all look back on this DEI/ESG/social justice craze as a bizarre, disturbing time for our nation – and for humanity in general. It is my hope that the citizens of Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, North Charleston, and Rock Hill will demand that their cities pull out of the Human Rights Campaign’s MEI scoring. However, this ideology extends far beyond these 5 cities, corporations, and hospitals. It is all around, in our workplaces, schools, churches, and universities. It will be up to each of us to courageously call it out and work hard for change.
While we can always do better, America is the least racist nation in the world. Rather than spending billions on DEI programs that are making things worse, lets grow excellence through merit and teach our children to judge people on their character.
Can we all finally agree that it is past time to put this 50+ year old failed experiment in social engineering to bed once and for all?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Diane Hardy is a former nurse anesthetist turned entrepreneur, who (along with her business partner) recently opened her second franchise bakery in Greenville. She is the Executive Director of the Mom and Pop Alliance of SC, which she founded during Covid upon discovering South Carolina’s over 400,000 small businesses had little representation in our State House. The Alliance provides education, communication, and advocacy for SC’s family-owned businesses.
Her passion for South Carolina’s small business is strong, and as such she donates her time to the organization, accepting no salary or government funding. Her love for our state isn’t new. Before launching the Mom and Pop Alliance she was the founder and host of The Palmetto Panel (2014-2019), an annual statewide conference highlighting issues impacting South Carolina. Diane has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and psychology from Michigan State as well as a master’s degree from MUSC.