Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban says that corporations who embrace the woke ideology are engaging in “good business.” Cuban further emphasized the point by saying, “Call me woke.”
In an address given to business and political leaders at Michigan’s Mackinac Island, Cuban characterized the politicization of corporate America as an embrace of diversity.
“Call me woke—you don’t need to call it DEI, you can call it whatever you want—I call it good business,” Cuban said in a talk to political and business leaders on Michigan’s Mackinac Island. “It means taking the people that you’re selling to and making sure your workforce looks like them, and making sure you can reflect their values and being able to connect to that. That’s what works for me.”
Mark Cuban attends a basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks at Crypto.com Arena on February 08, 2023, in Los Angeles, California. (Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images)
Cuban says he believes that consumer outrage will be short-lived and most customers will return to the brands they’ve traditionally patronized.
“Your constituents wake up in the morning… They don’t think about Bud Light, they don’t think about Target. They don’t think about any of the sh*t on the other side, either,” Cuban explained. “They think about how they’re going to live their lives or what’s gonna get them satisfaction.”
Cuban’s opinions on “corporate wokeism” may be colored by his experience as a sports owner.
Yes, most people who switched off the NFL after the national anthem protests of 2016-2018 returned. However, the NFL has about as complete a monopoly as any business can have in its industry. Yes, there are other professional football leagues. Though, the quality of those leagues is massively beneath that of the NFL, and almost all of them play when the NFL is in its offseason.
Meaning if you love pro football, and almost everyone in America does, you pretty much have to watch the NFL.
That is not the case with Bud Light or Target. There are plenty of options available to consumers when it comes to beer and when it comes to clothing, groceries, and home appliances. Furthermore, both companies have taken massive financial losses in the period directly after they engaged in promoting radical gender ideology.
Some Target stores have moved their “pride” sections — which feature an array of items pushing the transgender agenda on children — to a less prominent location in their facilities following a string of backlash. https://t.co/6dUecom6MK
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 24, 2023
So, contrary to Cuban’s point, many people do think about Target and Bud Light when thinking about the things that will bring them “satisfaction.”
Will that last?
Maybe, maybe not. But it could. Again, Target and Bud Light don’t have the monopoly on their respective industries that the NFL and NBA have.
Cuban’s other point about defining “woke” as hiring a diverse workforce and reflecting their values also needs to be addressed.
The people boycotting Target and Bud Light are not boycotting the hiring practices of those companies. They’re boycotting those companies’ efforts to promote and validate a gender ideology movement that runs counter to most of their values, and they believe should not be marketed to or around children. Companies can engage in diverse hiring practices without putting a transgender activist on a beer can or selling chest binders.
For example, the Texas Rangers, the baseball team that shares a city with Cuban’s Mavericks, have elected to diversify their hiring practices to ensure they’re inclusive. They decided this would be better than making purely symbolic gestures like holding a Pride Night. In fact, the Rangers are the only MLB team that does not hold a Pride Night.
How many people are boycotting the Texas Rangers?
Isn’t “embracing diversity” without losing money and angering your customer base a lot better “business” than doing what Bud Light or Target did?