In his first day in office, President Donald Trump has already begun following through on his promise to end the agenda of diversity, equality and inclusion from in? this country.
Just a few hours after his inauguration he stated, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
Trump also said he would end DEI inside the federal government and eliminate funding for these programs. While his actions should not affect DEI programs within the private sector, large U.S. companies such as Walmart and Meta have already scaled back their own DEI initiatives.
This is not the time for our country to stop acknowledging the need for DEI programs. Initially spurred by the racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, these initiatives have corrected a great deal of harm done to racial, sexual and gender minorities and improved our country’s ability to responsibly tackle social justice issues.
Stripping away these programs will only lead to the degradation of the livelihoods of minorities. They been a pervasive force of good, but now Trump wants to take that away.
DEI programs have played a crucial role in the workplace, allowing for the institution of basic diversity and sensitivity training, inclusive hiring practices and leadership accountability.
Managers and coworkers have been given the space to confront their unconscious biases and create safer, more effective work environments. Nonetheless, important problems such as the massive gender and racial wage gaps and hiring biases persist, indicating there is so much more work left to be done.
While federal DEI initiatives have allowed more attention to be placed on social justice issues facing our nation, the struggle for justice for marginalized people continues.
Former President Joe Biden had an immensely qualified cabinet that was also the most diverse in American history, and his administration passed some of the most progressive human rights legislation and executive orders in recent decades.
He signed a law fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals which protects the citizenship of children of undocumented immigrants, an executive order terminating Trump’s transgender military ban and an executive order promoting access to voting. Additionally, under his leadership, 90 federal agencies released Agency Equity Action plans identifying the ways they would advance equity within their agency.
DEI initiatives directly influenced this legislation, so the assertion that they are a waste of time is a ludicrous misunderstanding of their importance.
As a country, diversity is one of our greatest strengths, and we need to take whatever action we can to preserve the human rights of marginalized people in our universities, our workplaces and our government institutions.
While Trump may scale back these programs and continue to play identity politics in order to divide us, we must remain steadfast in our commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion within our own communities.
This story was written by Joseph Schamber. He can be reach at [email protected]
