Its easy to conclude the era of DEI is over but its not

It’s easy to conclude that the era of diversity, equity and inclusion — the practice of using race and so-called intersectionality like gender preferences in hiring — is dead. But it’s not.In fact, DEI is likely headed for the Supreme Court, where it might get an odd reprieve from the bench’s conservative majority. It’s the reason why there are still plenty of companies — including Microsoft, Apple, Costco, JPMorgan and BlackRock — hanging on to this progressive shibboleth even if it’s destroying what’s left of a functioning meritocracy in the workplace. I know all this runs counter to the prevailing narrative that companies that go woke, will go broke.

I wrote a whole book on the subject. Companies are now making headlines announcing no more DEI in hiring.The Trump administration has ended DEI in government and federal contracting.

SCOTUS in 2023 ruled that racial preferences in college admissions are illegal. Major brands that went woke — like Bud Light when it ran an ad featuring a trans activist sipping the beer, half-naked in a bubble bath — still haven’t recovered from the consumer backlash.They’re now changing course. And yet, DEI is muddling along, and at some companies, it remains as strong as ever.

One reason: Corporate managers remain significantly woke.Another: Lawyers are telling them there is a strong legal rationale for keeping DEI as a corporate mandate, my reporting shows All of this is why DEI’s defenestration often reflects a change in semantics.

Many companies are simply dropping the “E” in DEI because equity can be construed with hard-and-fast quotas, which are legally dubious. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, made headlines when he announced he ditched DEI; he even got rid of tampons in the company’s men’s room.Yet with a simple Google search I found a “diversity and inclusion” section on the company website. A Meta spokeswoman tells The Post when alerted about the discrepancy...