Mark Cuban Challenged Over DEI Hiring Practices

The celebrity businessman believes ‘race and gender can be part of the equation’ when hiring staff.

Mark Cuban, then owner of the Dallas Mavericks, talks to reporters before the game against the Chicago Bulls at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 1, 2023. Tim Heitman/Getty Images

High-profile businessman Mark Cuban has doubled down on his position on inclusive hiring practices, defending his diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) hiring policy.

“I’ve never hired anyone based exclusively on race, gender, religion,” Mr. Cuban said on X, formerly Twitter, on Jan. 28.

“I only ever hire the person that will put my business in the best position to succeed,” he said.

“And yes, race and gender can be part of the equation,” he wrote. “I view diversity as a competitive advantage.”

Mr. Cuban reiterated his stance on hiring from a DEI perspective following a lengthy exchange with one X user named The Rabbit Hole, who voiced support for “a colorblind meritocracy.”

The Rabbit Hole account wrote: “[T]his means I am against forms of hiring which undercut merit including forms of hiring which cut out merited individuals over their group association(s).”

Section of Civil Rights Act

Mr. Cuban’s remarks garnered significant pushback from many users on the platform, including a federal official—a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Republican Commissioner Andrea R. Lucas, who responded to the entrepreneur’s statement.

“Unfortunately you’re dead wrong on black-letter Title VII law. As a general rule, race/sex can’t even be a ’motivating factor'—nor a plus factor, tie-breaker, or tipping point. It’s important employers understand the ground rules here,” she said.

Title VII is a section of the Civil Rights Act, which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law in 1964. According to the EEOC, the federal employment law “prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion, and national origin.”

On Jan. 29, Mr. Cuban shared a YouTube video in which Ms. Lucas and the EEOC’s Democrat Vice Chair Jocelyn Samuels discussed their views on the Supreme Court’s landmark June 2023 ruling, which effectively ended affirmative action in higher education.

The ruling held that Harvard College and the University of North Carolina violated the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin among programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance, per the Department of Justice.

Ms. Samuels stated that affirmative action relied on a “different set of measures” than “the vast majority of DEIA work”—the “A” referring to accessibility—and touched upon “race-conscious but neutrally executed mechanisms” among hiring policies.

“There’s lots of precedence from the last number of decades where the court has recognized that it’s permissible for entities to do things for race-conscious reasons as long they are executing them in ways that don’t result in individual disadvantage,” she said. “So that’s why I think a lot of what employers are doing now is very likely to pass muster.”

In a statement to The Epoch Times, Ms. Lucas said: “Neither DEI proponents nor DEI critics primarily are concerned about race-neutral diversity policies and practices. What’s in the ‘hot seat’ is explicitly race-conscious, race-limited, equity-focused policies and programs. Those types of DEI programs explicitly involve, or strongly incentivize, race- or sex-motivated decision-making, and are very high-risk.”

She continued: “A common misunderstanding is that race or sex can be a factor in employment decision-making as long as those protected characteristics aren’t the only factor or the dispositive factor. That’s not the law. Employers violate federal employment law (Title VII) if race or sex was all or part of their motivation in hiring or taking another employment action.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Mr. Cuban for further comment.

Debating Elon Musk

Mr. Cuban’s recent exchange on X isn’t the first time he’s contributed to the growing debate surrounding DEI in corporate America.

The billionaire investor has previously sparred with Elon Musk, the current owner of X, who publicly condemned business diversity efforts on Jan. 4, saying that DEI is “just another word for racism.”

After a back-and-forth exchange with Mr. Musk, Mr. Cuban wrote two days later: “DEI does not mean you don’t hire on merit. Of course you hire based on merit. Diversity - means you expand the possible pool of candidates as widely as you can. Once you have identified the candidates, you HIRE THE PERSON YOU BELIEVE IS THE BEST.”

Changes at Dallas Mavericks

In 2018, Mr. Cuban, who sold his majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks in 2023, made headlines after he hired Cynthia “Cynt” Marshall to take over as the chief executive officer of the NBA team, reportedly cold-calling the former AT&T exec for the role. At the time, the franchise was being investigated following reports of a toxic workplace culture.

Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall speaks at the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit at The Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., on March 1, 2019. Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Ms. Marshall eventually accepted the position, becoming the first black woman to lead an NBA team.

She vowed to make the Dallas Mavericks the NBA standard regarding diversity and inclusion, and just two years after taking the helm, the NBA awarded the franchise with its 2020 Inclusion Leadership Award. The team won the award again in 2022.

“Since Marshall’s arrival to the Mavericks in 2018, the organization has undergone a dramatic transformation,” the franchise revealed in a statement.

“The Mavs’ leadership team is now 50% women, and vice-president-and-above employees are now 50% BIPOC.”