Mark Cuban says he has no qualms with being called “woke” when it comes to inclusivity. Ultimately, he said, embracing diversity is actually just a good business decision.
“Call me woke—you don’t need to call it DEI, you can call it whatever you want—I call it good business,” Cuban said in a talk to political and business leaders on Michigan’s Mackinac Island, reported by news outlet MLive. “It means taking the people that you’re selling to and making sure your workforce looks like them, and making sure you can reflect their values and being able to connect to that. That’s what works for me.”
While diversity is being politicized more than ever in some corners, Cuban said he believes that will be short-lived and ultimately, people (including voters) will be more concerned about things that directly impact their day-to-day lives.
“Your constituents wake up in the morning… They don’t think about Bud Light, they don’t think about Target. They don’t think about any of the s**t on the other side, either,” he said. “They think about how they’re going to live their lives or what’s gonna get them satisfaction.”
Transitioning from the woke debate to politics, Cuban, who has hinted at political aspirations in the past (claiming in 2015 he could beat both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton), also had some comments about how candidates are chosen today, saying social media has become too big an influence on voters.
“We pay so much attention to the voices that sound like garbage,” he said.