The Daily Show host Jon Stewart argued during an episode of his podcast that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives come down to “framing” adding his belief that messaging around such programs has been lost on the American public.
Reason editor-at-large Nick Gillespie appeared on The Weekly Show podcast alongside the comedian, who said DEI leaders are “doing what they can, not what they should.”
The Trump administration has made DEI one of its main targets, with programs being targeted across the federal government. Amid that fallout, universities and some of the biggest employers in the nation have followed suit, severing their initiatives.
For this part, Stewart says DEI efforts have been conducted in the wrong way, Mediaite noted.
“It’s all framing!!” he wrote on X as he reposted a clip from the podcast.
Jon Stewart and @nickgillespie discuss the possibility that DEI may be a way to enhance economic growth, as well as opportunity. #TheWeeklyShow #politics pic.twitter.com/HNvMPg1Gok
— The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart (@weeklyshowpod) February 28, 2025
“Maybe this is a different way to frame kind of DEI,” said Stewart. “For me, if you reframe that argument economically, it [may] align a little bit more with how you feel.”
He went on to say that he doesn’t believe that DEI means “sitting through that hour-long seminar where everybody looks at each other and goes, I never said that about her a**.”
“I look at it as more competition,” he added. “We have supply lines in this country, entrenched poverty and groups that have been explicitly kept out of … equity through government action and all kinds of other ways. If you reanimate those supply lines, you strengthen the result.”
He urged Gillespe to not think of it as “diversity,” but as “emerging markets.”
“Suddenly you view it as an engine of economic growth,” said Stewart.
“I mean, is there a sports league that got worse after Blacks were allowed to play?” asked Gillespie to laughter from Stewart.
“And in every possible way … you are walling off a huge source of powerful possibility,” he added.
Stewart went on to argue that veterans have been “walled off in many ways,” as have women and people in poor neighborhoods.
“Appalachia has been walled off forever. To me, that’s what inclusion and diversity and equity means,” he said.
Gillespie responded that the policies “weren’t reaching those people.”
“Because they’re doing what they can, not what they should,” said Stewart. “What they’re allowed to do is you can address those shriveled supply lines and reanimate them and get those … communities involved.”
“So here’s what we’re going to let you do,” he added. “We’re going to let you have an office on the eighth floor and every April, you’re going to give us a presentation for two hours that everybody hates. How about that?”
