WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 13: Elon Musk listens as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump addresses a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on November 13, 2024 in Washington, DC. As is tradition with incoming presidents, Trump is traveling to Washington, DC to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House as well as meet with Republican congressmen on Capitol Hill. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

‘Absolutely’: Elon Musk believes that DEI kills people—literally

Trump supporters believe that America is being haunted by a boogeyman: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Recommended Videos

In a post on X, venture capitalist firm partner Shaun Maguire decided to tell a right-wing horror story, writing “DEI kills people, literally.” He went on to call inclusion practices “structural racism,” seemingly unaware of the fact that structural racism is what DEI initiatives were created to combat. “DEI means do anything to [ensure] equal outcomes,” he wrote. “That’s not meritocratic it’s racist.”

Elon Musk gave Maguire’s claims his full support, writing “absolutely” when he quoted Maguire’s post.

The thing is, Elon Musk and Shaun Maguire are absolutely wrong.

Trump supporters in both the public and private sectors have been quick to claim that the three-letter acronym is the source of the nation’s problems. In response to the recent American Airlines crash that killed 67 people in Washington D.C., Donald Trump blamed DEI as the cause. After providing some uninformed advice on helicopter piloting maneuvers in a press conference, the president cited Federal Aviation Administration hiring practices that he claimed caused the agency to seek out employees with “severe intellectual disabilities, psychiatric problems, and other mental and physical conditions” as part of a “diversity and inclusion hiring initiative.”

What Trump failed to mention is that while the FAA did create a program to hire diverse employees, they did so under his first administration in 2019. The president also neglected to mention that the FAA ensured that potential employees sourced from the program would be held to the same “rigorous” standards as any other candidate regardless of disability.

Nevertheless, the president used the tragedy to push his anti-DEI agenda, saying that “common sense” told him the inclusion practices were to blame when asked for proof by reporters.

As evidenced by Elon Musk, Trump’s allies are all too willing to back up his claims. Musk has been a vocal opponent of DEI practices in the past, and has often repeated the anti-DEI catchphrase “DEI must DIE.”

According to Tennessee Garvey, a pilot and the chairman of the board of directors for the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, Elon Musk’s statements surrounding DEI are sorely misinformed. Garvey told the New York Times that, in the history of aviation, “there has never been an incident, big or small, where D.E.I. or diversity has ever been attributed as a sole cause or contributing cause” to a plane crash. Moreover, he explained that DEI does not function by lowering the standards for aviation, but rather by breaking the barriers of entry barring minority employees from being considered for jobs.

Nevertheless, Musk has called for the end of DEI in both government and private industry, and both sectors are following suit. During his first week in office, Trump issued a sweeping executive order that rolled back DEI initiatives across all government agencies. Meanwhile, multiple U.S. companies have scaled back their inclusion practices, including Target, McDonald’s, and Amazon. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that he would be rolling back DEI practices at his company on the heels of his appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, where Zuckerberg lamented that corporate America had embraced “feminine energy” instead of “masculine energy.”

Musk has been criticized by various civil rights leaders, including National Urban League president Marc Morial, who called the billionaire’s anti-DEI comments around Boeing’s hiring practices “abhorrent and pathetic.” Morial also pointed out that Musk’s car company Tesla is being sued for alleged abuse of its Black employees.

Musk also drew censure from NAACP president Derrick Johnson, who reminded the billionaire that, unlike DEI, “hate speech and white supremacist conspiracy theories” actually do kill people.


The Mary Sue is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy