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X<\/a> owner Elon Musk, who has been posting for months, even years, in opposition to what he calls the \u201cwoke mind virus<\/a>,\u201d shed new light on his libertarian thinking in an interview with Don Lemon<\/a>, the former CNN host put online on Monday. The billionaire said he believes conversations about racism and discrimination largely belong in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing aware of inequities in society is fine, of course,\u201d Musk said. \u201cBut trying to make everything a race issue is divisive and corrosive to society,\u201d he told Lemon, who was challenging the Tesla<\/a> and SpaceX<\/a> CEO on the amount of hate speech on his social media platform.<\/p>\n Musk expressed fears that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are dangerous to society, citing a post on X<\/a> from last month in which conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro said DEI initiatives would lower standards for incoming prospective doctors. Musk instead insisted that in lieu of DEI measures, hiring and promotion practices should be based solely on merit and integrity.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only basis for promoting somebody should be their skills, talents, and that\u2019s it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Race and discrimination were frequent topics in Musk and Lemon\u2019s tense hour-long interview, where Lemon, a Black journalist, confronted Musk on past controversies including his comments about transgender rights, antisemitism, and moderation of hate speech on X. Instead of addressing Lemon\u2019s questions directly, Musk largely backtracked on several controversies that arose from his chronic posting, including some he had previously apologized for<\/a>, specifically the times he highlighted rhetoric related to \u201cGreat Replacement Theory\u201d and antisemitism. Musk also downplayed the extent of racial discrimination lawsuits against Tesla.<\/p>\n Last Friday, his EV company settled a racial discrimination lawsuit<\/a> for an undisclosed amount, following a $3.2 million judgment in court to a Black former Tesla elevator operator. This was much reduced from a jury verdict awarding the former employee $137 million, an amount later ruled excessive.\u00a0<\/p>\n The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Tesla<\/a> in September for tolerating widespread racist harassment and retaliation against workers who\u2019d spoken out against alleged discrimination. Musk told Lemon that the allegations were not true.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you walk around the Tesla Fremont plant, I think it\u2019s a very good atmosphere\u2026\u201d Musk said. \u201cIf there\u2019s over 20,000 people in one building, is anyone gonna behave perfectly? No. Did I see any situations that I thought were improper? I did not.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk has a history of toeing the line between acknowledging racism and denouncing initiatives to address inequities.<\/p>\n In his interview with Lemon, Musk agreed with Lemon\u2019s assertion in the interview about the U.S.\u2014and \u201cevery country\u201d\u2014having a history of racism, but he said that continued discourse about the persistence of racism today was futile.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you study history broadly, everyone was a slave. We are all descended from slaves, all of us. It\u2019s just a question of when. Was it more recent or less recent?\u201d Musk said. \u201cWhat future do we want? Is this something we want to make a constant part of our dialogue forever? Or do we want to move on and treat everyone as an individual?\u201d<\/p>\n Tesla\u2019s decision to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion language from its annual report in January aligns with Musk\u2019s ideology around the role of DEI in the workplace: The EV giant introduced its DEI report in 2020<\/a> and expanded its Human Capital Resources of its annual report in 2021 to include information about attracting a diverse talent pool and providing employee resources, Quartz reported<\/a>. Its most recent report release last month included a statement condemning discrimination, but eliminated any diversity information.<\/p>\n But other recent comments indicate that Musk is willing to blur the lines of where he stands in speaking out against racism. In February, Musk called the now-suspended AI model Gemini \u201cinsane, racist, anti-civilizational programming<\/a>\u201d for generating historically inaccurate images<\/a>, including a Black U.S. founding father and racially diverse Nazis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is pretty much a guarantee that any company that says \u2018don\u2019t be evil\u2019 will be evil,\u201d Musk posted on X<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\u2018What future do we want?\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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