The Contours of DEI Backlash in the Academy

Resistance to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs is well-documented, but there is less sociological research on DEI backlash as a broader cultural and social phenomenon. In this paper, we examine DEI backlash in a setting that has been a focal site for debates around diversity: higher education. Using a unique source of qualitative data in which professors from a wide variety of disciplines, institutions, and ideological backgrounds spontaneously express opposition to DEI in written form, we examine the contours of backlash: patterns in its form, content, and expression. In our data, DEI backlash is most commonly, but not exclusively, spontaneously articulated by members of high-status and historically dominant groups, especially full professors who identify as White men. We use our qualitative data to inductively develop a typology of DEI backlash that identifies four categories of backlash: opposition to the 1) existence, 2) extent, and 3) effectiveness of DEI programs, and 4) the erosion of majority group status. Unlike prior sociological work that locates the source of DEI backlash in the extent of effectiveness of programs, we find that the most common objection was due to a sense of erosion of status among majority group members: feelings of no longer being centered within one’s department, institution, or field. We use these findings to argue that DEI backlash is an inherently relational process grounded in concerns about relative group status. Therefore, we suggest that to be successful, diversity initiatives will require not just rebranding or programmatic changes, but also interventions that address the intergroup dynamics underlying them.