SouthernWorldwide.com – Rick Jackson, a Republican gubernatorial hopeful in Georgia, has pledged to ban Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the state’s government and public education system. However, his own nonprofit organization actively promoted DEI principles to business leaders, urging them to invest in and measure progress on these initiatives.
Jackson, a wealthy healthcare entrepreneur, has positioned himself as a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, even stating he would be Trump’s “favorite governor.” His campaign launch mirrored Trump’s, and he has expressed strong support for Trump’s policies, including his administration’s stance against DEI. Trump himself has made ending DEI a key platform point for a potential second term.
Beyond his for-profit ventures like Jackson Healthcare, Jackson founded goBeyondProfit, a Georgia-based nonprofit. This organization describes itself as a resource for business leaders looking to integrate corporate social responsibility into their business strategies. In 2021, goBeyondProfit launched a significant DEI initiative titled “Leading a Thriving Workplace with Race in Mind.”
This initiative featured a video series designed to educate Georgia CEOs on the “do’s and don’ts” of implementing DEI. The series, which received a Telly Award, remains accessible on the goBeyondProfit website, offering guidance on diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
One of the prominent figures featured in the video series was Ibram X. Kendi, a critical race theorist. His book, “How To Be An Anti-Racist,” was promoted, a text that critics argue advocates for race-conscious ideology over colorblindness and supports discrimination as a tool for achieving equity.
The DEI initiative also included experts who characterized inaction on DEI as “cringe-worthy” and framed workplace racial issues through the historical lens of slavery and Jim Crow laws. These perspectives aimed to highlight the ongoing impact of historical injustices in contemporary work environments.
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Matthew Harrison, who was a DEI executive at Jackson Healthcare at the time, also appeared in the goBeyondProfit videos. He shared how Jackson Healthcare saw a significant increase in the hiring of “people of color” after implementing the DEI strategies discussed in the initiative’s instructional materials.
Jackson’s business network has a documented history of embracing DEI-friendly messaging and practices. This record could present challenges to his core campaign promise of eradicating DEI and restoring merit-based policies in Georgia. His campaign platform explicitly calls for prohibiting DEI programs in state government, universities, and classrooms, with messaging vowing to “ban DEI insanity” and “criminalize reverse discrimination.”
“We need to ban every bit of idiotic DEI insanity and criminalize reverse discrimination,” Jackson recently stated on social media, underscoring his strong anti-DEI stance.
The campaign also highlighted that “many of Georgia’s most successful and conservative business leaders” have been involved with goBeyondProfit, mentioning the participation of Chick-fil-A and the late Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus as program ambassadors.
In 2021, amidst a national reckoning on racial justice following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, Jackson’s goBeyondProfit launched its DEI initiative. The “Leading a Thriving Workplace with Race in Mind” program, complete with its award-winning video series, aimed to guide CEOs through the complexities of DEI implementation.
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The goBeyondProfit video series featured DEI experts, including Matthew Harrison, who urged business leaders to invest in DEI, track their progress, analyze racial pay disparities, and adopt race-conscious hiring practices to boost workplace diversity.
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Harrison recounted how Jackson Healthcare implemented a “Rooney Rule” hiring policy in 2019, which led to a rise in the percentage of “people of color” hired for new positions. He stated that this change alone contributed to an increase from 9% to 25% within a year.
“Personally here at Jackson Healthcare, I took over leading talent acquisition here in June of 2019 and put that in place, and within a year, we saw our increase in the number of people of color that we hired into new roles. It went from 9% to 25% and that’s the only thing we changed,” Harrison explained in the video.
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Another speaker in the DEI video series emphasized the importance of linking DEI metrics to employee performance reviews and encouraged “taking those proactive steps and being anti-racist,” referencing Kendi’s book. The speaker also advised employers to conduct regular pay equity reviews and to financially support DEI initiatives, stating that companies must “put your money where your mouth is.”
This speaker framed workplace racial issues by referencing slavery and Jim Crow, calling slavery “America’s first race-based economic system” and arguing that its “vestiges” persist in the modern American workplace. Harrison further commented that the workplace is an overlooked setting for such crucial conversations.
Harrison also described how Jackson Healthcare initiated a “race series” using an external vendor to ensure it wouldn’t be perceived as a mere HR mandate by employees. This approach aimed to foster genuine engagement with the topic.
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A related blog post by Harrison and another DEI expert from the video series recommended that executives take an Implicit Association Test to identify subconscious biases. They also suggested creating a “Bias Breaker” list to acknowledge known biases related to gender, sexual orientation, race, weight, and age, among other factors.
These unearthed DEI efforts come to light as Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial primary approaches its conclusion, with the election scheduled for next Tuesday, followed by the general election in November. The primary race has been marked by candidates vying to be recognized as President Donald Trump’s most fervent supporter.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones holds Trump’s endorsement, and Trump has publicly warned voters about others claiming his support, emphasizing his backing for Jones. Jones’ campaign has labeled Jackson a “Never-Trumper” and a “fraud,” pointing to Jackson’s past funding of Trump’s political opponents, such as Jeb Bush.
Jackson, in turn, has attempted to portray himself as an outsider in the Trump mold, pledging to be “Trump’s favorite governor.” He contributed $1 million to Trump’s MAGA Inc. PAC upon launching his campaign and emulated Trump’s campaign launch style. He has also stated to local media that he cannot identify any Trump administration policy he dislikes.
Jackson has criticized Jones as part of the political establishment. He has also likened Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, another primary opponent, to the Biblical figure “Judas” for his perceived disloyalty to Trump during the post-2020 election challenges.
