His post — which used to be called a tweet — began with a punchy statement containing just 10 letters, six of them capitalized. But the message reverberated in cyberspace like a 10-ton blast of dynamite.

“DEI must DIE,” read the missive posted in the wee hours of Friday morning, Dec. 15, 2023, on X. It was posted by Elon Musk himself, the billionaire tycoon who now owns the social media platform formerly called Twitter.

His intent was to let the world know he’s had enough of the dreaded “wokeness” masquerading as diversity, equity and inclusion in society. The second line of the post summed up his disdain.

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“The point was to end discrimination, not replace it with different discrimination.”

And with that curt statement, sincere attempts to foster clarity and a modicum of consensus around moving America closer to a more perfect — and equitable — union for everyone took a giant leap backward.

Across the spectrum, critics of DEI shouted amen while proponents rallied to its defense.

Let the record show that I not only disagree with Musk, I believe his motives for opposing DEI are self-serving and a bit sinister and stem from an aura of white privilege.

And yet, count me among those willing to roll out the welcome mat for Musk and his plans to put Memphis on the road to being an epicenter for computer technology’s growth and possibilities.

By now, most Memphians have heard the groundbreaking news, even if the details remain somewhat sketchy. xAI, an artificial intelligence startup that Musk launched last year, will build what is described as the world’s largest and most advanced supercomputer in Memphis.

When completed at what The Daily Memphian’s reporting has revealed to be the former Electrolux manufacturing site in southwest Memphis, the operation with the strange name, the “gigafactory of compute,” could be worth billions of dollars and stands to totally revolutionize technology around artificial intelligence.

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Almost immediately after the Greater Memphis Chamber announced the venture, Wednesday, June 5, Musk posted a one-word confirmation on X: “True.” Other reaction ranged from exuberant to guarded.

Several local and state elected officials rushed to put out statements hailing the announcement as transformational for Memphis. Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor of Eads even tried to claim credit for luring xAI to Memphis through his work addressing the city’s crime problem.

Meanwhile, skeptical environmental groups questioned the possible impact the world’s largest supercomputer would have on the electrical grid and the city’s drinking water from our precious underground aquifer. Both Chamber and Memphis Light, Gas and Water officials appear ready to adequately address those concerns.

But what was not discussed nearly as much was Musk’s personal and political views, whether those views are diametrically opposite of our community’s standards and, if so, does that matter.

The billionaire owner of SpaceX and the largest shareholder of Tesla Inc. has been heavily criticized for being tolerant of antisemitic and white nationalist content on the X platform since he bought it in 2022. In November 2023, Musk, 52, faced heavy blowback when he responded to a post on X that minimized antisemitism and accused Jews of hating white people.

Musk’s response read, “You have said the actual truth.”

He later apologized, saying, “It was foolish of me. Of the 30,000 (posts) it might be literally the worst and dumbest post I’ve ever done.”

In an attempt to do more damage control, Musk in January visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, site of a Nazi death camp in Poland. But according to The Associated Press, he raised more eyebrows later during a conference in nearby Krakow, Poland, when he said, “In the circles that I move, I see almost no antisemitism. And, you know, there’s this old joke, ‘I’ve got like this one Jewish friend.’ No, I have like two-thirds of my friends are Jewish. I have twice as many Jewish friends as non-Jewish friends. I’m like Jewish by association. I’m aspirationally Jewish.”

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Musk has also been accused of making sexist comments. A federal lawsuit in December 2022, months after Musk bought X, alleged that mass layoffs at the social media site “impacted female employees to a much greater extent than male employees.”

His views on diversity, equity and inclusion are the latest in a string of controversies for Musk. The difference is, he has plenty of allies among conservatives and right-wing politicians — including those in the Tennessee General Assembly — who agree with his anti-DEI stance.

In another post on X, Musk wrote, “DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it.”

In theory, that means shame on the Greater Memphis Chamber, the organization that announced Musk’s supercomputer venture for Memphis. The chamber’s support for DEI is displayed in statements on its website.

“Memphis’ superpower is its diversity,” one statement reads. “And when we create a diverse, equitable and inclusive economy, everyone benefits.”

The statement goes on, “At the Greater Memphis Chamber, we believe economic impact is a social impact. And when we embrace diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), we become a stronger and more resilient community. A community that feels a profound sense of connection and belonging.

“But social impact is also economic impact. Inclusive economic growth is the only sustainable economic growth, and that’s especially true in Memphis, the nation’s largest majority-Black city.”

My sentiments exactly.

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Still, neither the chamber nor I consider Musk’s views to be a deal-breaker for xAI’s “gigafactory of compute.”

“No matter who enters our market, the chamber will always exhibit our values,” Ted Townsend, the organization’s president and CEO, told me this week. DEI is a cornerstone of those values, Townsend said. “And we hope that companies that come in also embody that spirit.

“We’re not asking CEOs what their beliefs and ideologies are,” Townsend added. “We’re asking them to believe in us.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis echoed those sentiments, although he joked that Musk “does have a tendency to fit his shoes into his mouth.”

Cohen said of Musk, “He’s the Howard Hughes of our generation. I’m not a fan of the guy. I think he’s kind of strange. But his money is good, and we need it. Green is bipartisan, bisexual and bi-everything. So bring the green and it will help everybody.”

And if you think Cohen and Townsend are selling out their principles, you’re wrong. We’re not asking Musk to come to Memphis and set public policy for local governments and businesses. We don’t need him to give motivational speeches to schools and colleges. Or show up at the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award Ceremony or a Facing History and Ourselves event.

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Despite his backward thinking on DEI and other social issues, Musk is thinking into the future when it comes to technology and the usefulness for artificial intelligence. Plus, as Townsend told me, Memphians are very much in the plans once xAI is operational here, through direct employment and AI tutoring programs.

Musk also once said that the reason he changed Twitter’s name to X is because he wanted the platform to “embody the imperfections in us all that make us unique.”

That sounds an awful lot like diversity. So let’s ignore the chatter on X and welcome Musk and his innovative supercomputer to Memphis.

We may even be able to change his thinking about the value of DEI.