The World Cup Proved Anyone Can Be Woke

Every four years, millions of people celebrate diverse teams, immigrant athletes, and multicultural excellence. But the 2026 World Cup also exposed something deeper: many of us embrace diversity when it helps us win, while resisting it in nearly every other context.As a recovering DEI expert, I use this year's tournament to explore why DEI exists in the first place, what it means to compete inside a rigged system, and how the World Cup revealed the difference between celebrating diversity's outcomes and supporting the systems that make those outcomes possible.This episode examines FIFA through the same lens I've used to advise organizations on culture and inclusion, asking what happens when institutions perform diversity without addressing the structures that determine who actually gets to succeed.Whether you love soccer, hate DEI, or simply enjoy examining culture through a different lens, this conversation invites you to reconsider what the World Cup may have revealed about all of us.If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love to continue it. Follow me on TikTok for shorter reflections and ongoing conversations throughout the week, and subscribe to Mikaila Unmuted on YouTube to watch the full video version of each episode and join the discussion in the comments.