Billionaire hedge fund chief and anti-DEI crusader Bill Ackman on Monday—MLK Day—joined world’s richest man Elon Musk and largely-ignored Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips on Space, formerly Spaces, on X, formerly Twitter, where he claimed that late civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. would have disagreed with modern efforts to increase diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) in colleges, universities, and corporations. Ackman cited King’s legendary “I Have a Dream” speech, which envisioned “a world where people will be judged not by the color of their skin,” then insisting that the DEI movement does just that, according to Rolling Stone. “I think Dr. King would be very opposed to this sort of ideology, even though you know, diversity is a good thing, even though of course, a culture where everyone feels comfortable and included is critically important,” Ackman said. But, as RS pointed out, Bernice King, MLK’s daughter, preempted this very line of reasoning last summer, tweeting at those who misused that same speech to make the same point, “My father’s dream and work included eradicating racism, not ignoring it.”
