“You’re a liar”: Elon Musk slams Mark Cuban over DEI and says,’shame on everyone who is using it’and then snarkily suggests the person Cuban should choose as an alternative Dallas Mavericks star
Musk in a similar vein to Ackman’s views Musk, who shared the essay, said, “DEI is just another term for racism. Shame on everyone who uses the term.”
Cuban who transferred a majority stake within the Dallas Mavericks but retained operational control over the team, opposed Musk’s position through a series of tweets in which he emphasized the benefits in DEI programs.
“Good businesses look where others don’t, to find the employees that will put your business in the best possible position to succeed,” Cuban stated. “By expanding our search for hiring that includes them, I believe we are able to identify candidates that are better skilled. The demise of DEI-Phobic businesses is a win for me.”
Musk was, however, doubtful, mockingly asking Cuban, “Cool, so when should we expect to see a short white/Asian women on the Mavs?”
In spite of his joke, Musk acknowledged that in certain situations, diversity may be a factor in the hiring process of firms.
“I do think that if merit for a given job is roughly the same, then the tiebreaker should be diversity (of all kinds),” the president replied in a separate tweet to Cuban in another tweet.
Calling Cuban ‘a liar’
The squabble about Musk and Cuban intensified in January. 8 following a blog post from X user TheRabbitHole84..
The article featured a picture of a headline which read, “United Airlines Says It Wants 50% Of Pilots Trained In Next Decade To Be Women Or People Of Color.” In conjunction with this title was a quotation that was attributed by Cuban: “DEI does not mean you shouldn’t employ by merit. Naturally, you choose to hire by merit.”
Musk was critical, stating, “The airline industry can’t find enough qualified pilots even without insane DEI requirements!”
Cuban appeared to defend the position of United Airlines, suggesting that those targets were aimed at the aviation school, not to the airline in general.
“This is a training institution. When they’ve graduated and are able to complete a long process that will give them the chance to fly with United,” Cuban explained. “BTW it appears that there are several layers of merit-based assessments before they are able to fly with United …”
Yet, Musk continued to dismiss Cuban’s argument, bluntly replying, “You are a liar.”
The tense exchange reveals the differing opinions about DEI in the business world. On one hand there are those, just as Musk consider DEI initiatives as possibly harmful as well as discriminatory arguing their validity and alignment with the principles of merit.
On the other hand research such as Cuban assert that DEI is essential for tapping into a wide pool of talent and could significantly improve businesses and help make a business more competitive.
In the fall 2023 Fortune/Deloitte CEO Survey, the majority of CEOs said that DEI is a part of their top priorities (65 percent) in addition to stating that their Board anticipates periodic updates about DEI developments (58 percent). But, news reports suggest that the roles of DEI are sector being cut.
This ongoing debate highlights the challenges and complexities of the search for a method of DEI that avoids the ethos of tokenism and solidarity in performance and is in line with ethical principles and business goals.
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