With less than two weeks in office,
Big names like Target, Walmart, Meta and Amazon have announced plans to pull back their diversity initiatives, while companies like Costco, Goldman Sachs and Apple have publicly defended their inclusivity efforts in the workplace. The Trump administration argues that
Notably, the prevalence of DEI programs in the last decade has not equated to a white minority in corporate America. For example, according to Fortune, just 10.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs were women, while just 1.6% were Black Americans. However, rhetoric against DEI implies that diverse candidates and leaders are hired or promoted because of their identity rather than their merit.
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"The notion is that every person of color, women, any trans person, they're all there because of affirmative action," says Ann Olivarius, women's rights attorney, chair and senior partner at McAllister Olivarius. "It's so insulting and humiliating — it's an active threat against us."
The majority of Americans don't agree that being a person of color or being a woman makes it easier to succeed: According to a 2023 poll by Pew Research Center, six in 10 Americans believe being white helps someone get ahead, and 42% felt it helped a lot. On top of that, diversity has proven to be a sound business strategy: Boston Consulting Group found that companies with above-average minority talent in their leadership teams have 19% higher revenue than companies with below-average diversity. Companies that prioritize their DEI efforts also saw a 31% increase in employee happiness and a 25% increase in employee motivation.
Olivarius reminds private employers that Trump's executive orders do not impact them. The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which prohibits workplace discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability and marital or family status, still stands. And while the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission will now be headed by Andrea Lucas, someone set on ending "the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life"(per her X post), the commission won't disappear overnight.
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Employers will have to consider where they stand on DEI — and if they care about their workers and their business, it shouldn't be a hard choice, underlines Olivarius. She spoke with EBN about the future of DEI under Trump and what employers should consider before they act.
What's at risk for DEI under the current administration?
Trump has already put a person in place to run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission who hates diversity. She cannot get rid of the EEOC, but she certainly can dismember it and make it ineffective. She can choose not to enforce the law. And MAGA says that they're doing this because they believe if you're Black and you get hired, then it's not really on merit. The [administration] will do so much damage to people of color, to women, who have dreams and aspirations. This sounds like Nazi Germany in 1937. Trump is a surreal threat to all the good values that we have as a country, and while current anti-discrimination laws are still in place, he's not going to want them to be enforced.
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What would you say to employers who are considering pulling back their DEI efforts?
The law does not require it — these executive orders don't require it yet for private firms. Please respect American democracy and American laws. Please don't start hate-mongering. These executive orders aren't the law, but they will be treated as the law if employers bow down. Businesses are going to be much better off if they do the right thing morally and ethically and don't start cutting off wide swathes of people just because of their skin color or background. Do the right thing, and do what you've always should have done: Hire the best people for the job, whether they're Black, white, it doesn't matter.
What advice do you have for those who continue to champion diversity?
Fight, call your lawyers and use your union. Get ready to organize, write articles, use social media — do what you can to fight for your dignity so you're not extinguished, because that's what this administration is trying to do. They're doing the unimaginable already.
