Would Tufuku Zuberi think corporate DEI research is fundamentally flawed?

In the introduction to his Thicker Than Blood (2001), Dr. Tufuku Zuberi makes an astute observation about the state of social theory and social science. Although humanities and cultural studies have long challenged biological notions of race, these social theorists still rely on data produced by scholars who haven’t questioned racial statistics to the same extent. I suspect that critical theorists often have blind spots of their own; in fact, I think critical theorists suspect that, too, almost by definition.

Such is the state of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) research in the corporate world. Many large corporate institutions have hired researchers with expertise (or at least an interest in) the critical analysis of race and ethnicity in the workplace. And what data do these researchers have to work with? Usually, the “easiest”¹ data to get is self-reported race and ethnicity from hiring surveys conducted to help ensure compliance with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) law.

In fact, corporate DEI researchers possibly have it worse than academic researchers in humanities and cultural studies. The data they depend on isn’t generated by social scientists with their methods that emerged from eugenicist, racist, and colonialist roots. It was produced by lawyers, whose chief goals are legal compliance and risk mitigation. And where did many of our laws come from?

I think you can see where this is going.

When corporate DEI researchers try to collect new data to better understand the context behind EEO survey statistics, risk-averse company leadership often stands in the way on the advice of legal counsel. I’ve seen it happen time and again, and heard about it happe second-hand, as well. On top of that, many corporate DEI researchers are themselves blinded by their own privilege, especially when they’re, say, White people, which a lot of them are. Yes, even my fellow progressive White people. One of the defining moments of my life came fairly recently, when I applied to be on a DEI research team and was interviewed by a rightly skeptical non-White expert in the subject. The way I was “poked” at by this interviewer, to use their own term, is a poking that all well-intentioned White folks require now and then… maybe more “now” than “then”.

I wish I could ask Dr. Zuberi his thoughts about corporate DEI research practice, and how it could be done better. I have a mutual connection with him on LinkedIn, so I reached out to try and start a conversation. I suspect Zuberi is a busy person, though, what with being the caliber of public scholar who hosted PBS’s History Detectives for a decade and a half! Fun fact, though: We are both Sacramento State alumni!

Related post: https://slipbox.hanowell.me/post/2021/07/12/thicker-than-blood-notes-on-the-preface/