More than 200 diversity officers, some from Fortune 500 companies and some from nonprofits, gathered last summer at NYU Law School and on video to talk about the future of their diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs, which had become legal. and social objective. Worried, they wondered how to do it protect themselves. Did they need to rethink internship programs for underrepresented workers, or remove some diversity language from their websites?
Those concerns grew significantly this week. In his first days in office, with a series of sweeping moves, President Trump targeted diversity efforts.
Mr. Trump ordered federal officials overseeing the government’s DEI efforts to be placed on leave. His efforts did not stop with government employment. It revoked an executive order signed in 1965 that prohibited hiring and discriminatory hiring practices for private government contractors. Perhaps most alarming to business leaders was the order’s focus on private corporations, whether they do business with the government or not. “We’re already seeing that this flurry of orders has created fear and confusion,” said David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at NYU Law.
The executive order directs the federal government to look at private-sector DEI initiatives: Each federal agency, it says, will identify “up to nine potential civil compliance investigations” that could involve publicly traded corporations, nonprofits and large foundations , among others.
“This discrete number is a way to strike fear into the hearts of organizations,” said Kenji Yoshino, a constitutional lawyer at NYU who advises several Fortune 500 companies on DEI. “They just don’t want to be one of those nine. Until those nine are announced, it will keep others from taking risks.”
Civil rights advocates believe that DEI programs that are most legally vulnerable are those that give employment benefits, such as jobs or promotions, to specific groups based on their race. In 2023, a Supreme Court ruling struck down race-conscious preferences in college admissions and was followed by a wave of lawsuits against companies’ diversity efforts.
By executive order, Mr. Yoshino said, “Trump is flexing his executive branch muscle” after the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision.
Many companies, reading the writing on the wall, had begun to change their approach to DEI before Mr. Trump took office. Meta told employees earlier this month that she would end her work at DEI, including eliminating the role of chief diversity officer and removing diversity hiring targets. Tractor Supply, John Deere and Harley Davidson also pulled into DEI. Amazon also recently scaled back some of its diversity programs, with a vice president, Candi Castleberry, writing in a memo to staff in December: “We have ended outdated programs and materials.”
Several companies, including Walmart, said they would stop sharing data with the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit that tracks corporate LGBTQ policies.
Mr. Yoshino said he doesn’t think sharing data with the Human Rights Campaign poses any legal risk and believes companies that reverse the commitment are doing so to avoid social backlash. He sees many other DEI programs as legally safe as well, including unconscious bias training and scholarships or retreats that are dedicated to the advancement of black employees but are open to anyone to participate.
Nearly a dozen companies did not respond to requests for comment on the future of their DEI programming, and some declined to comment citing fear of drawing attention to their work.
A managing partner at the Jenner & Block law firm, Ishan Bhabha, said that since the executive order was received, he has received “tons” of calls from clients who are concerned about whether their DEI programs are in compliance. He said it’s early days and there could be legal challenges to the executive order or the administrative actions behind it, but “an executive order like this gives a good idea of what this administration’s priorities are going to be.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment, but the text of the executive order condemned the “illegal DEI” policies, saying they “deny, discredit, and undermine traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an illegal, corrosive and harmful system of identity-based looting.”
Several companies have remained steadfast in their support of DEI, including Costco, Patagonia and Microsoft. For those chief diversity officers who are duplicating their work, there is a new sense of isolation, as well as whiplash. Less than five years ago, after the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, dozens of companies began announcing new commitments to fight racial injustice. Walmart created a Center for Racial Equality. Consulting firm Bain launched a new DEI practice. Glassdoor reported a 54 percent increase in job postings for DEI roles in 2020, compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Some diversity leaders are beginning to think about how companies can continue their efforts without attracting legal scrutiny. Mr. Glasgow said he is beginning to wonder if it is time to drop the term “DEI” now that those three letters have become politically charged.
“If you’d asked me a year ago, I probably would have said don’t change it,” Mr Glasgow said. “Over time I’ve become a bit more convinced that the acronym can be useless because empty terms make easy targets.”
Those trying to save the goals of DEI’s programs said they are trying to remain optimistic despite the chill in their field.
“The backlash has been against a very narrow set of activities,” said Bo Young Lee, who was previously in charge of diversity at Uber and is now president of research and consulting at AnitaB.org, which supports women and non-binary people in tech. . That “tight band,” she said, included sharing data with the Human Rights Campaign index, as well as providing internships for racial minorities and LGBTQ people. She sees paid parental leave, for example, as a diversity policy now deeply embedded in corporate culture and safe from attack.
Denise Young, former head of worldwide human resources at Apple, said corporate diversity leaders are facing a more complex environment for their work, but she believes most will find ways to continue to bring in diverse talent because they know it’s good for business.
“It’s the political environment we live in now, but it doesn’t change the needs of business,” said Ms. Young. “Talent comes in every form of human existence.”