A Case for Redirecting DEI Funds

Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Question of the Week

If there were a Hall of Fame for song lyrics and you got to make one nomination, what would it be and why? (The linguist John McWhorter might pick something from Steely Dan.)

Send your responses to conor@theatlantic.com.

Conversations of Note

Here at The Atlantic I made the case this week that most of the money that companies are spending on DEI consultants ought to be redirected to the poor. For the main argument, I hope you’ll check out the article. I’ll whet your appetite with my gloss on how the DEI industry exploded so rapidly:

On rare occasions, a depraved act captures the attention of a nation so completely that there is a widespread impulse to vow “never again” and to act in the hope of making good on that promise. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination prompted the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, triggered a global war against al-Qaeda, among many other things,