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Andrea Lucas, a commissioner for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, spoke to Fox News Digital about a viral tweet from billionaire enterprise mogul Mark Cuban that she says may probably open him as much as a lawsuit and speaks to one of many many misperceptions the general public has about DEI.
Lucas advised Fox News Digital that “certainly there’s a lot of confusion over DEI programs and what you can and can’t do with respect to race or sex or other protected characteristics” and that Cuban’s viral tweet illustrates the misunderstanding that “as long as you don’t use race or sex as the dispositive factor or the sole factor, it’s okay to use it as a plus factor.“
“That’s just fundamentally wrong,” she added.
“I only ever hire the person that will put my business in the best position to succeed,” Cuban posted on X earlier this week sparking a social media firestorm. “And yes, race and gender can be part of the equation. I view diversity as a competitive advantage.”
L – Mark Cuban, R – Andrea Lucas (Getty Images)
Lucas responded on X telling Cuban he’s “dead wrong” on the legislation and advised Fox News Digital that Cuban’s pondering opens him as much as a possible lawsuit.
“If any employer, whether private or public, uses race or sex or any other protected characteristic, particularly race or sex, as any factor in their decision-making process for any employment decision then they’ve violated Title VII and an employee that’s been harmed can file a complaint with the EEOC and then if they get a right to sue letter, they can file in federal court,” Lucas stated.
Lucas spoke to Fox News Digital about the concept of diversity “quotas”, which have been a controversial concern with many outstanding corporations and governments in recent times, and stated that whereas hiring “goals” will not be prohibited by the legislation, quotas can run afoul of the legislation.
Mark Cuban reacts after a rating throughout the second half of the sport in opposition to the Utah Jazz at American Airlines Center on December 06, 2023 in Dallas, Texas. (Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
“A goal, per se is not prohibited,” Lucas stated. “But there’s lots of ways that you can end up violating the law or having it be used as evidence of violating the law if it indicates that you’re using race or sex or another protected characteristic as a factor in your decision making. Quotas absolutely are a direct violation of Title VII, so if you are indicating that goal really is an actual requirement or a hard target, that you will be hiring this amount of people or you will be promoting this amount of people, that’s absolutely a facial violation of Title VII.”
Lucas, who has beforehand written about how corporations ought to look at diversity packages, advised Fox News Digital that a number of the misperceptions about DEI stem from a misunderstanding of the phrases.
“So a lot of people hear the words diversity, equity and inclusion and think, well, all of those sound like great concepts,” Lucas stated. “I like fairness. Who doesn’t like fairness? I like equality. What’s wrong with equity? But the reason that there’s been a shift from focusing on equal employment opportunity to equity is for a reason. Words mean something, and equity and equality are not the same concept.”
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Dec 2, 2023; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Mavericks proprietor Mark Cuban walks off the courtroom after the Mavericks loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the American Airlines Center. (Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)
Lucas continued, “I like to remind people, we are the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, we are not the equal outcomes commission. That is just a fundamentally different mission. There may be different outcomes at different points for different employees. That’s not mandated by the law for everyone to arrive at the exact same place. What matters is that employers are treating all of their employees the same without relying on their skin color or their sex or other protected characteristics.”
Cuban later posted on X a dialog between Lucas and EEOC Vice-Chair Jocelyn Samuels and referred to as it an “interesting conversation” that confirmed “smart people can disagree on these issues.”
“Smart people cannot disagree about some basic principles of law,” Lucas stated in response to that submit. “And those principles are, there’s no such thing as reverse race discrimination. There’s just discrimination. Discrimination based on race is always illegal. It doesn’t matter which group is being referenced. It doesn’t matter which group is doing the discriminating or being discriminated against.”
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“There’s no good form of race discrimination and another basic principle that no one can disagree about is that Title VII states that if you are using race or sex as a motivating factor, you’re violating the law. That’s absolutely not in dispute. It’s a clear text of the law. It’s a clear agency official position. So anyone who’s trying to muddy the water on that front, is entirely mistaken.”
Lucas advised Fox News Digital she is “deeply concerned” about the latest DEI push inflicting extra issues than it solves.
“When people focus on equity focused solutions they are not actually fixing existing discrimination and they may be trying to fix existing discrimination by introducing more discrimination,” Lucas stated. “But a cycle of discrimination is never going to fix anything. Two wrongs will never make a right. If people are concerned about barriers for particular groups in our society, equal opportunity is the way to go forward and there are many ways to address and eliminate barriers that people may face, in hiring, promotion, firing that are entirely race neutral and actually get at the problem.”
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“I’m really concerned that DEI ends up introducing more problems than it actually solves.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Cuban for remark however didn’t obtain a response.
On Monday afternoon, Cuban posted on X that he “never” hires individuals primarily based on pores and skin colour if two individuals have equal credentials.
“But remember it’s rare that two people are absolutely equal,” Cuban added. “In fact it’s pretty much impossible for that to happen. People aren’t clones It’s always judgment and we always hire the person who puts the company in the best position to succeed.”
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