What follows DEI?
What comes after DEI?
This is a question on the minds of many as existing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs come under fire and—in countless cases—are being done away with altogether.
One answer that is getting some traction these days is pluralism.
Pluralism is a framework for creating a community in which multiple beliefs, values, or identities coexist and are recognized as legitimate and important.
What does this look like in practice? According to New Yorker writer Emma Green, pluralistic communities place a high value on viewpoint diversity and free expression and actively cultivate opportunities for individuals to engage with and understand perspectives different from their own (Green 2025).
Much of the emerging scholarship on pluralism zeros in on college campuses, where DEI initiatives have come under particular scrutiny. However, corporate environments and other workplaces are similarly challenged to find new approaches for fostering inclusion and opportunity as leaders increasingly back away from traditional DEI policies and practices.
Focusing on college campuses, Harvard professor Danielle Allen has created a model for pluralism that “aims to help students live and learn together—making everyone feel welcome, and also helping students navigate the conflicts that inevitably arise in a community where people have different world views. Pluralism demands that conservative evangelicals who don’t believe in same-sex marriage be welcomed to campus alongside gay students, and that political conservatives who oppose affirmative action have fruitful discussions with people of color” (Green 2025).
This is a departure from the emphasis on creating “safe spaces” in recent years, in both universities and corporate workplaces, meaning opportunities for members of different groups, such as women, racial and ethnic minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community to connect with one another and be protected from viewpoints and interactions deemed biased and harmful to their wellbeing and sense of belonging.
By contrast, the model of pluralism Allen and others are proposing would actively promote a culture of viewpoint diversity and free expression while helping individuals learn to engage in productive, civil debate with one another, fostering skills in facilitating difficult conversations, careful listening, and identifying common ground.
Advocates for pluralism also stress a nuanced understanding of individual and group differences beyond race, gender, and sexual identity that have oftentimes been the focus of DEI initiatives, for instance by ensuring that student services support all students in obtaining their degrees—including those who are full time workers, parents, or veterans—and cultivating respect for religious identities and perspectives along with other viewpoints.
It’s too early to tell if initiatives around pluralism will translate into policies and practices that foster broad based inclusion and opportunity, whether in colleges and universities or the corporate workplace. Currently, the loss of identity-specific resources is eliminating vital support for groups such as women, African Americans, and members of the LGBTQ+ community, and it’s highly possible that critics of traditional DEI initiatives will simply turn their sights on pluralism next—or appropriate its language to undermine existing programs without committing resources to the kinds of policies and practices necessary to put pluralism into action.
That said, there’s no denying the reality that DEI is being actively dismantled on college campuses and in corporations and other workplace settings all over the country. With roots stretching back to early diversity programs in the 1960s, today’s DEI initiatives are just the most recent iteration of evolving efforts to ensure inclusion and opportunity for all in American society. Faced with the current backlash, proponents of inclusion and opportunity are searching for a path forward.
Pluralism just might help find the way.
Featured Content
Dig deeper into pluralism and related initiatives, as well as concerns raised by some critics, in Emma Green’s fascinating New Yorker article, What comes after DEI?
References:
Green, Emma. [2025, April 14]. "What comes after D.E.I.?" The New Yorker 100. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/04/21/what-comes-after-dei
