Jon Stewart Says DEI Just Wasn’t Done the Right Way: ‘It’s All Framing!’

Jon Stewart argued opposition to DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives boils down to “framing.”

On The Weekly Show podcast, Stewart spoke with Reason editor at large Nick Gillespie and at one point argued that DEI arguments might simply come down to framing. President Donald Trump has been an aggressive critic against DEI programs and numerous companies have dropped their programs since his election victory.

Stewart argued DEI initiatives have simply been applied in the wrong way. The Daily Show host wrote on X that “it’s all framing” when it comes to DEI.

“They’re doing what they can, not what they should,” Stewart said.

Check out the exchange below:

JON STEWART: “Maybe this is a different way to frame kind of DEI. So, for me, if if you reframe that argument economically it maybe aligns a little bit more with how you feel. Because what I think diversity and inclusion and equity means, maybe not in the practice — and I don’t think it means sitting through that hour long seminar where everybody looks at each other and goes, I never said that about her ass — like, it’s not that. But I look at it as more competition. You know, we have supply lines in this country, entrenched poverty and groups that have been explicitly kept out of, you know, equity through government action and all kinds of other ways. If you reanimate those supply lines, you strengthen the result. You know, don’t think of it as diversity, think of it as emerging markets. Think of it as as that. And suddenly you view it as an engine of economic growth, right?”

NICK GILLSESPIE: “I mean, is there a sports league that got worse after Blacks were allowed to play. And in every possible way. It’s just it’s like, you know, you are walling off a huge source of powerful possibility.”

STEWART: “Veterans have been walled off in many ways, women were walled off, people in poverty stricken neighborhoods are walled off. Appalachia has been walled off for ever. That, to me, that’s what inclusion and diversity and equity means.”

GILLESPIE: “Unfortunately, those policies never, you know, had any — they weren’t reaching those people.”

STEWART: “Because they’re doing what they can, not what they should. What they’re allowed to do is you can address those shriveled supply lines and reanimate them and get those, you know, communities involved. So here’s what we’re going to let you do. 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?”

Watch above via The Weekly Show.

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