Black History Slump

It’s been a slow Black History Month.

It comes as DEI jobs are getting hardest hit in the present round of tech layoffs and new openings are drying up:

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) teams are being cut as tech leaders commit to massive layoffs.

Twitter’s layoffs are a dramatic example in which the DEI team has been reduced from 30 to just two people this year according to Bloomberg.

The business news site also reports that many DEI departments are not being set goals or having recruitment frozen altogether with responsibilities being shared between other staff.

And, according to Textio data, listings for DEI roles are also down 19% from last year.

“Go woke go broke” triumphal rightists will say, with their eternal hope corporations will right themselves or go away, but a lot of this is companies dumping the excess excess baggage they acquired courtesy of George Floyd’s Racial Reckoning Tour of 2020.

This is a stark contrast from 2020 when, after George Floyd’s murder, when according to Indeed data DEI job postings rose by 123%.

Working the DEI grift works a bit like aerospace or autos here with mass layoffs following mass hirings. George Floyd came to the industry like a Boeing contract to build hundreds of new planes for somebody.

There’s a seasonal market for Black! speakers during Black! History Month, and it looks like they typically book months in advance. There’s a high end:

I mean, these are the big leagues of Black! grief:

There are more thrifty options if you can’t afford the ordeal of Angela:

Perhaps in an attempt to set this Black! History bitch off, an Oregon lawmaker is complaining about getting pulled over by state troopers three times, in February. How can that be a coincidence?

“That Tweet came on the first day of Black History Month and it was on a Wednesday. That Monday, I had a stop that I didn’t Tweet about. And then Tuesday I took to the floor of the House of Representatives to speak out against what happened with Tyre Nichols and really reflected on how I could have been Tyre Nichols. And so, for me to be pulled over the day after that really just had me going like, ‘What the heck, man?’” Nelson told KOIN 6 News.

“What the heck man” needs to find its place in the canon of Black! slogans. What the heck indeed, my brother.

Well there’s still a week left to fix racism. But imagine the relief you would feel at one of these large companies in learning there will be no big Black! History Month speech this year. There’s a cancellation we can all get behind.