Elon Musk isn't convinced by Mark Cuban's defense of DEI: 'His hypocrisy convinces no one'

• Elon Musk called Mark Cuban's defense of DEI a desperate attempt at virtue signalling.
• "His hypocrisy convinces no one," Musk wrote on X. 
• DEI, Musk said, "is just another word for racism." 

Elon Musk isn't sold by Mark Cuban's outspoken defense of corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

"Mark Cuban is desperately trying to signal his 'virtue,' but his hypocrisy convinces no one," Musk wrote on X on Thursday.

"Lol," Cuban replied.

Cuban had published several X posts on the benefits of DEI policies on Wednesday. Cuban's posts were made in response to Musk's criticisms of DEI.

"You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration," Cuban wrote. "By extending our hiring search to include them, we can find people that are more qualified."

"The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain," he added.

The subject of DEI has come under the spotlight after fund manager Bill Ackman claimed the practice was "the root cause of antisemitism" at his alma mater, Harvard.

Ackman had spent the past few months waging a highly public, pressure campaign against former Harvard president Claudine Gay. A key bugbear for Ackman had been Gay's approach toward Harvard's on-campus antisemitism.

"DEI is racist because reverse racism is racism, even if it is against white people (and it is remarkable that I even need to point this out)," Ackman wrote in an essay on X on Wednesday morning.

Musk echoed Ackman's criticisms of the practice. DEI, Musk said, was "just another word for racism."

"Cool, so when should we expect to see a short white/Asian women on the Mavs?" Musk asked Cuban on Thursday, referencing the latter's NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks.

Cuban replied with a link to an ESPN story from April 2013, where he said he'd consider drafting Brittney Griner.

To be sure, Musk did clarify to Cuban that he wasn't against diversity per se.

"I do think that if merit for a given job is roughly the same, then the tiebreaker should be diversity (of all kinds)," Musk said in a separate post.

Cuban told Business Insider by email that he didn't have further comments on Musk's remarks.

"Nothing to say beyond I'm just having fun," Cuban told BI.

Representatives for Musk and Cuban did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.