What do Trump’s executive orders say about workplace diversity programs? | Civil Rights News

President Donald Trump has begun cutting equal opportunity programs to two executive orders on his first day in the White House. Through them, he also repealed a 60-year-old executive order that originally implemented equality and diversity programs in the United States.

Here’s more on how Trump is ending federal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, which he has called “radical,” “illegal” and “discriminatory.”

What are these commands about?

Two of the 26 executive orders Trump signed Monday are relevant to this: one calls for the end of federal DEI programs, and the other calls for federal employment reform.

Termination of federal DEI programs

In one executive orderUnder the headline Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferences, Trump stated that Joe Biden’s administration “has been pushing illegal and immoral discrimination programs.”

DEI, also known as DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility), refers to a set of measures and frameworks within organizations that seek to become more inclusive and prevent discrimination against historically disadvantaged communities.

DEI’s core values ​​include:

• Diversity: Accepting people from different backgrounds
• Equity: Fair and equal treatment of all people regardless of their background
• Inclusion: Ensure that minorities are not underrepresented or overlooked because of their identities

The executive order states that the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), with the assistance of the Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), must now work to eliminate DEI programs that operate within the federal government.

To this end, federal employment practices, union contracts, and training policies or programs will be formally reviewed.

Reform of the federal hiring process

Trump also signed another executive order on Monday, called Reforming the Federal Employment Process and Restoring Merit to the Government Service. It said current federal hiring practices are flawed and no longer focus on merit or “commitment to our Constitution.”

The order calls on federal agency heads to develop a federal hiring plan, changing the way federal employees are hired or fired, emphasizing merit-based decisions over political considerations within 120 days of the order. The order added that the federal employment plan “will prevent the employment of individuals based on their race, sex, or religion.”

What about the private sector?

As for the private sector, Trump also issued a separate on Tuesday presidential action – instead of an executive order – entitled Ending Unlawful Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.

It mentions “encouraging the private sector to end illegal DEI discrimination and privileges” and directs all federal agencies to identify up to nine public companies or other entities that could be subject to civil investigation.

The action also says the agencies will have to “investigate” private companies, nonprofits and associations, as well as major foundations and colleges with endowments worth more than $1 billion that might adopt DEI’s practices.

What is the 1965 Equal Employment Opportunity Order that Trump is revoking?

“Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965 (Equal Employment Opportunity) is hereby revoked,” Trump’s executive order on DEI programs states.

Order on equal employment opportunities (PDF) was signed by Lyndon B Johnson, the Democratic president from 1963 to 1969. It prohibited federal contractors from discriminating in employment decisions based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

It also called for affirmative action, which is the policy of favoring historically disadvantaged individuals for opportunities in the workplace. The concept of affirmative action was first introduced in 1961 by Democratic President John F Kennedy. Johnson’s 1965 executive order was opposed by segregationists and Republicans who believed in racial segregation.

The order was signed to prevent discrimination against women and minorities in employment. It came in the middle of a boom civil rights movement in the US, which marked the emergence of identity politics in the country after a series of large-scale protests and civil disobedience mainly over discrimination against blacks and women.

In 1964, a year before Executive Order 11246, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which also prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In 1965, African Americans finally gained the right to vote through the Voting Rights Act.

Who are the workers of DEI?

DEI’s federal staff are professionals like trainers in diversity offices. It is unclear how many federal employees DEI has in total, according to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the BBC reported. AFGE is a union of 800,000 federal and Washington, DC state employees across the US and the world.

Many companies and other organizations have since stepped up employment of DEI employees George Floyda black man, was killed in May 2020 by a white police officer on a street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. That was because “companies sought to illustrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion,” according to an article posted on the website of Diversity Resources, a human resources organization based in Colorado.

The White House has now stated that all federal DEI employees will be placed on paid administrative leave until 17:00 (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday. Until that time, all DEI-directed websites will also be shut down. Currently, DEI-directed pages on several federal websites are now offline and displaying error messages.

How do Americans feel about DEI?

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in February 2023 found that 56 percent of American workers surveyed believe that focusing on DEI at work is a good thing. Sixteen percent consider it a bad thing, and 28 percent of respondents were neutral.

“Eliminating these programs is just one more way for President Trump to undermine the merit-based civil service and turn federal hiring and firing decisions into tests of loyalty,” the federal labor union AFGE said in a press release Tuesday.

“Programs that promote an inclusive workforce ensure that the rules apply equally to everyone, plus they help build a federal government that looks like the diverse population it serves.”

However, opposition to DEI programs is growing in the US, particularly among conservatives. The Pew survey was conducted when leading companies were laying off their DEI employees, a sign that organizations are also beginning to reject such schemes.

By November 2021, DEI roles were leaving companies at nearly twice the rate of non-DEI roles, according to a report released by New York-based workforce database Revelio Labs.

Between July and December 2022, Amazon, Applebee’s and X, which was then called Twitter, had the largest outflow of DEI workers.

In June 2023, the US Supreme Court banned affirmative action for college applications, finding that racially biased admissions violated the US Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. This comes after the nonprofit advocacy organization Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) alleged in a lawsuit that Harvard College and the University of North Carolina violated the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because their admissions processes discriminated against Asian-American students. SFFA was founded by conservative legal activist Edward Blum in 2014.

After that, many companies, including McDonald’s, Walmart, Ford, Lowe’s, John Deere and Tractor Supply, also scaled back their DEI programs.

On January 3, 2024, tech billionaire Elon Musk, who Trump picked to lead his Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), posted on X: “DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it.”