Responding to Organizational Impacts
The Backlash
This backlash has manifested across multiple domains, including education, gender and sexuality, racial discourse, and institutional policies.
A primary focus of this cultural tension has been battles over what some term “woke” ideology. Controversies have erupted around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, with conservative groups and politicians actively challenging what the view as overreach in institutional settings like universities, corporations, and government agencies.
Gender and LGBTQ+ rights have also been central to this cultural conflict. Debates have intensified around transgender rights, with numerous state-level laws targeting transgender youth’s access to healthcare, sports participation, and gender-affirming treatments. Similarly, discussions about gender identity, pronouns, and sexual education have become increasingly polarized.
The entertainment industry, media, and corporate world have not been immune to these tensions. Debates about representation, cancel culture, and cultural appropriation have created significant friction, with both sides viewing the other as either suppressing free speech or perpetuating harmful societal norms.
This cultural backlash reflects deeper anxieties about national identity, demographic changes, and the rapid pace of social transformation, revealing deep fissures in American social and cultural understanding.
T. H. Easter Consulting has seen the impact of this as businesses, organizations and government entities have retreated from their commitments to “DEl” writ large. These employers are not interested in participating in the so-called “culture wars,” and the pendulum, unfortunately, seems to be swinging back to complete abdication of the place of equity and inclusion at work.
Navigating Change
We have leaned into employee engagement as the meaningful analog for these efforts. Organizations simply do better when they are open and inclusive of everyone. The data backs this up. We prefer to create a REAL foundation for our clients. This approach operationalizes our framework of Respect, Engagement, Alignment and Leadership. These are values transcend polarization or partisanship. Rather, they demonstrate an ethos of care and consideration for others, irrespective of belief, skin color, religion, ethnicity, gender identification or sexual orientation.