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Since assuming office, the Trump administration has upended diversity, equity, and inclusion programs with startling efficiency. Over his first 100 days, President Donald Trump has taken a multipronged approach to derailing DEI initiatives across the federal government, academic institutions, and even the private sector. Through an array of executive actions, Trump has targeted federal anti-discrimination measures that date back 60 years and threatened to withhold funding from public schools and universities that maintain DEI programs. By explicitly directing federal agencies to investigate private employers, Trumps orders have also had a chilling effect across corporate Americaleading a number of companies to cut back on DEI initiatives or at least create the illusion of doing so. As each day seems to bring a new DEI-related action or court ruling, it’s clear that undoing the progress many employers and federal institutions have made on equity and inclusion continues to be a core priority for this government. Heres a closer look at how Trump has chipped away at DEI programs during just his first few months in office: The federal workforce Trump has moved swiftly to eliminate DEI programs that are squarely within his purviewnamely, reversing the equity requirements that President Joe Biden had put in place during his term. One of Trumps first edicts was an executive order that forced agencies to eliminate all illegal DEI efforts. The order explicitly noted that DEI offices would have to be disbanded and roles like chief diversity officer would have to be terminated. The Trump administration also told federal workers they were required to report anyone who tried to continue DEI work under a different nameor risk adverse consequences. Since Trump handed down this order in January, federal agencies have cut at least 428 DEI roles and put those workers on administrative leave, according to The New York Times. (That figure only includes data from the agencies that have publicly reported those job cuts.) Some federal workers who were affected by the cuts claimed their roles had little to do with DEI. Others have said that even their employee resource groups were affected as agencies cracked down on DEI to comply with the executive order. Through other executive actions, Trump reiterated the importance of merit-based hiring across the federal government, and that it should not be based on impermissible factors, such as ones commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of equity, or ones commitment to the invented concept of gender identity over sex. By rescinding an executive order that dates back to 1965, Trump also took aim at a key policy that has been critical to promoting racial equity and curtailing discriminatory hiring practices among federal contractors. For decades, this order has forced the hand of companies that do business with the federal government, compelling them to adopt affirmative action plans that diversified the workforce. With Trumps action, some of the largest employers in the country are no longer subject to those requirements. The education system In recent weeks, Trump has ramped up pressure on the education system, fixing his sights on some of the most elite universities in the country. The administration is currently in the midst of a very public fight with Harvard University, stripping the school of billions of dollars in federal funding, in part because of its refusal to amend its DEI policies and admissions practices. (A number of other universities have also been singled out by Trump over DEI-related issues and face similar threats to their funding.) Last week, Trump pushed through an executive action aimed at college accreditors, who he argues have helped impose DEI requirements on universities. Trumps actions have already pushed many colleges to revise their DEI programs, regardless of whether they have been explicitly targeted: A recent Politico analysis found that more than 30 public universities have either closed their DEI offices or restructured them over the past few yearsincluding the University of Michigan, which was once known for its robust DEI program. While Trumps ongoing battle with higher education has garnered more attention, other academic institutions have not escaped scrutiny over their DEI efforts. In a memo earlier this month, the Trump administration ordered all public schools to eliminate DEI programs, again threatening to rescind federal funding. For now, this directive has been blocked by federal judgesand a coalition of attorneys general in Democratic states have brought a lawsuit against the Trump administration. Since taking office, Trump has also mounted investigations into the public school systems in California, Colorado, and Maine over DEI-related concerns like gender-neutral bathrooms and the rights of transgender students. The private sector Beyond the executive order targeting federal contractors, the Trump administration has attempted to exert its influence over the private sector in other ways. In the same action, Trump clearly directed federal agencies to investigate private-sector companies over any DEI programs that constitute illegal discrimination or preferences. This edict has sparked fear and confusion among corporate leaders, with many executives reportedly losing sleep over the threat of federal investigations. Experts say that a major source of concern has been the lack of clarity around what might be considered illegal DEI. Trumps orders have accelerated a shift in corporate America that had already been underway for some time. In the years since the racial reckoning of 2020, many companies have quietly backed away from the DEI initiatives they had seemingly embraced at the time. Since the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in 2023, however, employers have taken more drastic action in response to conservative activists like Robby Starbuck, who has waged social media campaigns to pressure companies into cutting their DEI program. Companies like Walmart and McDonalds have eliminated certain DEI policies and pulled out of the Human Rights Commissions Corporate Equality Index, an annual benchmarking survey that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ workers and is often touted by employers. Even tech giants like Meta and Google have made notable changes to representation goals, which had become common practice across the industry. Some DEI experts argue that not all of these changes should be seen as a full-throated rebuke of diversity work. In some cases, employers are merely folding DEI work into other teams or tweaking programs to ensure they are legally soundnot to mention evaluating whether they continue to be effective. If you see that theres no longer a DEI title at this company, I think that could be bad news, Joelle Emerson, the cofounder and CEO of culture and inclusion platform Paradigm, previously told Fast Company. Or it could be that the company is actually very strategically embedding some of this expertise in ways that are going to have more impact on the business. In fact, a survey recently conducted by Paradigm found that only a fraction of companies19%had actually reduced funding for DEI programs. Still, plenty of companies are now operating from a place of fear, carefully calibrating their external messaging on DEI and in some cases overcorrecting to avoid litigation or excessive scrutiny from Trump. The administrations anti-DEI agenda also seems to be shaping the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions priorities under new acting chair Andrea Lucas, who has issued guidance on what the agency considers unlawful DEI-related discrimination. In March, Lucas made a controversial decision to send letters to 20 prominent law firms requesting details on their DEI-related practicesfour of which have already reached settlement agreements with the EEOC and agreed to drop the term DEI.
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Whatever else Donald Trump intends with his assault on the federal workforce, labor unions, and the National Labor Relations Board, one potential effect is clear: a devastating blow to Black Americans who for decades have used public-sector jobs to move up from subsistence living and toward the middle class. Federal employment has been a pathway to the middle class for African American workers and their families since Reconstruction, including postal work and other occupations, explained Danielle Mahones, director of the leadership development program at the University of California, Berkeley, Labor Center. [Now y]oure going to see Black workers lose their federal jobs. Black people are the only racial or ethnic group to be overrepresented in government jobs. Data analysis by the Pew Research Foundation shows that while Black people make up 12.8% of the nations population, they account for 18.6% of the federal workforce. At the U.S. Postal Service, Black workers comprised 30% of the total workforce in fiscal year 2022. Although the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that African Americans are still underrepresented in executive positions within the postal service, the overall numbers reflect a robust history of Blacks seeking out USPS jobs to move their lives forward. California has the second-largest population of federal workers outside the Washington, D.C., area. Deep federal job cuts will affect the states roughly 150,000 workers, and Black employees make up more than 10% of that total. Historically, Black workers have used federal positions, many of them union represented, as pathways to homeownership, higher education for their children, and retirement savingsopportunities that were not widely available to previous generations, said Andrea Slater, director of the Center for the Advancement of Racial Equity at Work at the University of California, Los Angeles, Labor Center. Those opportunities didnt insulate Black families from the decades-old practices of redlining housing policies, wage theft, and other inequities, Slater said, but a government job usually meant dependable employment and some form of pension. Federal jobs and government contracts have helped build and establish cohesive Black middle-class communities from the Bay Area to San Diego, Slater added. * * * Postal workers nationwide have publicly protested a proposed cut of 10,000 jobs, which they consider a step toward an Elon Musk-led attempt to privatize the postal service. At a Los Angeles rally in March, Brian Renfroe, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, told the crowd, We had an election in November, and some people voted for President Trump, and some people voted for Vice President Harris, some people voted for other candidates. But you know what none of them voted for? To dismantle the Postal Service. Still, a sense of unease hangs over the process. Asked for comment this week, a union representative in Northern California, who said the situation had their colleagues worried about losing jobs and civil service careers, refused to be quoted or identified. Trumps true motives for clear-cutting federal jobs and going after the unions arent known, but his animus toward union labor is no secret. During his first term, the presidents policymakers acted to weaken or abandon regulations that protected workers pay and safety, and Trump directed particular force against federal workers, more than a third of whom are covered by union contracts. Many workers and their unions were caught flat-footed by the scale and intensity of Trump 2.0s effort to decimate their ranks. Nobody was ready for this, UC Berkeleys Mahones said. This is part of a long-term project to eliminate the labor movement and unions. What is new, though, is the accelerationdoing something so massive, so quickly and chaotically, with no regard to the law nor humanity. Trump signed an order in March directing 18 departments to terminate contracts it had already signed with unions representing federal workers, and to shutter the process through which employees could file job-related grievances. Trump cited a 1978 law that makes exceptions from collective bargaining for departments that have national security missions. The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 820,000 federal and D.C. government workers, said Trump has abused that narrow cutout in the law to go after multiple departments that are heavily unionizedand an accompanying fact sheet distributed by the White House all but confirmed that. The release claimed that certain federal unions have declared war on President Trumps agenda, adding that Trump refuses to let union obstruction interfere with his efforts to protect Americans and our national interests. The AFGE and several other unions filed suit in federal district court in Northern California seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent Trumps mandate from taking effect. Caught in the middle, meanwhile, are hundreds of thousands of federal employees whose jobs are on the line, including Black workers who may have spent their entire careers in a single area of public-sector service. The specific requirements of government sector positions will likely require Black displaced workers to acquire new job skillsand ageism and racism continue to influence hiring practices, even in California, Slater said. This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
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