OPINION: Why Pharrell’s DEI Comments Prove He Fell Victim to White Supremacist, Capitalist Values

What we’re witnessing reflected in Pharrell Williams’ recent comments and thought process when it comes to Black people and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is the weight of hundreds of years of forced assimilation, generations of social conditioning in which the oppressed are taught, explicitly and implicitly, to emulate the worldview, values, and identity of the oppressor.

In this context, Pharrell represents the modern Black capitalist and celebrity figure, whose role is modeled after the white capitalist and celebrity apparatus.

Throughout his career, he has been surrounded by white sponsors, white mentorship, and white-dominated institutions. As a result, he has absorbed and internalized many of their narratives and belief systems. But this isn’t about Pharrell alone; this is true for all of us.

“Blackness,” as defined in America, is a constructed category. It is not biological or genetic. Everything we call Black— Black success, Black professionalism, Black capitalism, Black respectability— is shaped inside Eurocentric frameworks and white institutions. Our identities and our measurements of success are built within systems that were never designed with our liberation in mind.

It is also telling that he insists Black people should want the job because they are “the best,” not because they are Black. That statement shows how deeply he has bought into the white myth of meritocracy— the idea that success is solely earned through talent or effort. What he fails to acknowledge is that white institutions operate on a longstanding system of white affirmative action: an informal, but powerful network of racial preference, connection, and opportunity that consistently prioritizes white people.

I trace all of these dynamics— historical, legal, psychological, and institutional— into the present day in both of my books, “The 400-Year Holocaust” and “Diagnosing Whiteness & Anti-Blackness.” These patterns are not new; they are part of a continuous lineage of racial programming and Eurocentric socialization that shapes how we see ourselves and how we understand power, merit, and identity in America.

One of the most striking dynamics here is the racial double standard around pride and deservedness. Many white people openly and confidently lean into a sense of racial pride, entitlement, and inherent deservedness, often without ever naming it as such.

Their identity as white comes with an implicit assumption of superiority, legitimacy, and access. This is baked into U.S. culture. White people are taught, from childhood, that their history, their accomplishments, their institutions, and their leadership are the standard. Their pride is normalized, validated, and rewarded.

But when it comes to Black people, the messaging is the exact opposite. We’re told to distance ourselves from our racial identity, to avoid appearing “too Black,” and to prove that we deserve to be in the room by being “the best.” That’s exactly what Pharrell is echoing here; he’s encouraging Black people to lean out of racial pride and into the white myth of meritocracy. This myth claims that success is just about talent, hard work, or being exceptional. But in reality, opportunity in America is determined far more by networks, sponsorship, access, inherited advantage, and the protections afforded by whiteness.

So, while white pride and preference operate quietly as the baseline of institutional life, Black pride is often discouraged, pathologized, or framed as divisive. Pharrell’s stance reflects how deeply the myth of meritocracy, and the expectation that Black people must outperform to be seen as deserving gets internalized.

It’s not malicious; it’s conditioning. But it still reinforces a system where white people are allowed to feel inherently worthy, while Black people are constantly told that their worth must be proven, justified, or earned through excellence.

This is the exact paradigm I document historically and psychologically in my books. It’s not just an opinion—it’s a pattern woven through the structure of American life.

Dante King is author of “Diagnosing Whiteness & Anti-Blackness: White Psychopathology, Collective Psychosis & Trauma in America” and “The 400 Year Holocaust.” He is also the founder of Blackademics, a nonprofit advancing racial justice through education, research and scholarship.