{"id":3841,"date":"2025-07-08T15:57:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3841"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:57:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:57:44","slug":"why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Meanings of DEI, CRT, and Woke Have Been Warped"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

As the political pendulum swings, ideas and policies that were once uncontested and niche become controversial and mainstream. Often, terms used to define academic discourse are redefined by politicians and pundits.<\/p>\n

For example, Academy of Management Scholar Quinetta Roberson<\/a> of Michigan State University said that terms such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), critical race theory (CRT), and woke have been removed from their original context and weaponized to support people\u2019s political ideologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people use terminology like woke [in a disparaging sense], you\u2019ve already told me everything I need to know, because it is not a scholarly construct\u2014it is not its intended meaning; they\u2019re using it in a different way,\u201d Roberson said. \u201cThey\u2019ve removed its context and significance and politicized it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, people are equating woke strategies with DEI, and if you unpack that, their conceptualization of DEI becomes primarily about race and maybe a little bit about LGBTQ, but it\u2019s race and ethnicity primarily,\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t hear about it when people are talking about gender, veteran status, or all of the things that are protected categories like disability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt becomes this dog whistle for why the speaker doesn\u2019t like certain things about how race is discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opinions differ on why that is the case. But repurposing language has long history among political movements. Sometimes, it\u2019s simply a way to deflect uncomfortable topics of conversation or debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some people who consider words like equity to mean that some people get a bigger slice of a fixed pie\u2014some people are going to get ahead and some people are not,\u201d Roberson said. \u201cIf they think about diversity training, in their mind, that means that some people are going to be made to feel bad about how others have been treated unfairly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s this conflict-management strategy, where they say, \u2018Let\u2019s not talk about it at all\u2014some people had it bad years ago, but we are a post-racial society,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people use certain terminology, I already know where they sit, and am less likely to engage in a debate with them, because I know that they\u2019re going on opinion or rhetoric rather than on evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher As the political pendulum swings, ideas and policies that were once uncontested and niche become controversial and mainstream. Often, terms used to define academic discourse are redefined by politicians and pundits. For example, Academy of Management Scholar Quinetta Roberson of Michigan State University said that terms such as diversity, equity, and inclusion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,60,72,74],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate-social-responsibility","category-diversity","category-ethics","category-hr"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy the Meanings of DEI, CRT, and Woke Have Been Warped - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Why the Meanings of DEI, CRT, and Woke Have Been Warped\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:57:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":386,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/woke-word-cloud.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY\",\"DIVERSITY\",\"ETHICS\",\"HR\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/why-the-meanings-of-dei-crt-and-woke-have-been-warped\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why the Meanings of DEI, CRT, and Woke Have Been Warped - 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You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-butcher","display_name":"Daniel Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud.jpg",997,598,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud.jpg",997,598,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud.jpg",997,598,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud-300x180.jpg",300,180,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud.jpg",800,480,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud.jpg",997,598,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud.jpg",997,598,false],"owl_elementor_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud-600x360.jpg",600,360,true],"owl_elementor_team":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud-350x450.jpg",350,450,true],"owl_elementor_testimonial":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/woke-word-cloud-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Daniel Butcher","author_link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"},"rttpg_comment":1,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/corporate-social-responsibility\/\" rel=\"category tag\">CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/diversity\/\" rel=\"category tag\">DIVERSITY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/ethics\/\" rel=\"category tag\">ETHICS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/hr\/\" rel=\"category tag\">HR<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Daniel Butcher As the political pendulum swings, ideas and policies that were once uncontested and niche become controversial and mainstream. Often, terms used to define academic discourse are redefined by politicians and pundits. For example, Academy of Management Scholar Quinetta Roberson of Michigan State University said that terms such as diversity, equity, and inclusion…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3841"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=3841"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}