I just got kicked off a ‘diverse thought’ panel for wrongthink

Corporate DEI lives on.

Yesterday, this op-ed, by me, ran in the New York Post. I think I’m now on my 4th cancellation. Do I have 9 lives?

My slightly longer version below.

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Woke capitalism is alive and well.

I’m here to prove it. Again. I’m cancelled. Again.

Five months ago I received a direct message from an organization called Peer 150 asking me to speak at one of their conferences.

I’m kinda known at this point as aggressively non-woke. Despite having been a Democrat for three decades, I’ve argued that woke capitalism is harmful to American corporations as it stifles speech which stifles creativity and innovation. And it is harmful to the American project because it furthers a culture of censorship.

In 2020, I was the only C-suite executive in a major Fortune 1000 company to push back against lockdowns and school closures during covid.

I ended up resigning from Levi’s, a company I’d worked in for 23 years.

I was banished from corporate America for having proven myself disobedient. When I went on to interview for big jobs at big companies in 2023, I was told I’d need to apologize for my actions. Despite having been proven right about school closures being harmful to the nation’s most disadvantaged children, I was still cancelled.

So I started my own company called XX-XY Athletics, the only brand standing up for the protection of women’s sports. That’s not helping with getting myself un-cancelled. But we are growing fast. We’re about to turn one and we flew past 7 figures many months ago.

I was surprised to be asked to speak at such a mainstream conference. Not because I’m not qualified. I’ve spoken to this group before when I was the Chief Marketing Officer at Levi’s and I run a successful (so far) start-up.

I was surprised because my views are rather “heterodox” at this point, to put it kindly.

The organization bills itself as “a premier, invitation-only network of over 800 of the Nation’s top HR Leaders.”

This is a mainstream peer to peer networking organization with the top HR executives in the country. Eight hundred H.R. leaders from companies like NBC, Ikea and Universal Music Group come together to discuss the pressing corporate issues of the day.

I doubted they’d be into my dissenting viewpoints. I responded to the direct message as follows:

“You do realize this crowd might boo me out of the place?? I don’t mind it but just making sure you’re aware of what you’re getting yourself into!”

He wrote back:

“Hahaha ... yeah right. More like a possible standing ovation when we are done!!! I know what I'm getting into . . . a kick ass presentation in Portland is what :).”

I said yes.

We proceeded to have many calls to brainstorm the concept for my talk. We landed on this:

“UNFILTERED: Championing Performance, Merit & the Power of Diverse Thought”

In reality, they weren’t much up for the diverse thought portion of my talk.

After all this prep work, I had a conversation with one of the founders on March 13.

He said, and I’m paraphrasing: Since we went live with you appearing at the event we’ve gotten complaints. Some members are saying they won’t come. Some are saying they will cancel their memberships entirely. And some have said that they will pull their companies’ sponsorship of the event. I feel terrible but this is how I earn my living.

I warned you, I said.

I know you did, he said.

He did his poor me act, pretending he hadn’t decided but I think he had, he just didn’t want to tell me yet.

I was too nice. I gave him permission to push me off the agenda without feeling guilty. I meant it, at the time.

On March 18, I got the email.

While we always aim to push conversations forward, we also recognize that our responsibility is to create a space where people feel valued and supported. As much as I hate to do it, I just don’t feel like Portland is quite ready for you.

I wasn’t getting paid. What’s the difference? Why should I care at all? Well, here’s why it matters to me.

1. I thought maybe I’ll be un-cancelled one day. I was excited for that prospect. Clearly, that day is not yet here.

2. These people are cowards. They are pretending they want to champion diversity of thought. But they can’t even handle being in a room with me. And Peer 150 sees their job as being supportive of this censorious community which insists on never being in a room with someone who they disagree with on anything. These are the HR leaders who make the decisions about who can work at their companies!

The bullying minority continue to bully everyone else into silence, thus manufacturing a fake consensus.

Peer 150 guy could have said to his members: I understand you disagree with some of her views. But let’s have the hard conversations. That’s valuing diversity of thought. Isn’t that what we say we want to do?

But he didn’t. He caved.

So many CEOs write to me and say I agree with you on everything, but I can’t say it because it will harm my business. I’m the breadwinner.

I’ve got news: So am I.

I have no patience for these weak-kneed cowards.

You either believe in a culture of free speech or you don’t. You either have principles or you don’t.

These “leaders” can’t take the smallest stand in their own companies. They can’t take the tiniest amount of pushback.

But of course, they’ll jump in with both feet once it feels safe and then expect to be championed as heroes of free speech and diversity of thought.

Woke is alive and well because cowards remain silent.

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I made a video about the whole affair if you prefer watching to reading.