Donald Trump’s war on diversity in the workplace has expanded to include the revocation of a landmark anti-discrimination act that has been in place for 60 years.
Trump’s order on “Ending illegal discrimination and restoring merit-based opportunity” revokes former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 Equal Employment Opportunity Act (Executive Order 11246), which originally banned workplace discrimination based on “race, creed, color, or national origin” and ultimately expanded to include sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
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The order also directed contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed and that employees are treated during employment without regard” to their marginalized identities.
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Trump’s order claimed that inclusion programs utilize “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) or ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation.”
The order claims these programs “undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system. Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.”
Essentially, he is saying DEI programs amount to discrimination against white men.
Trump’s order perpetuates the myth that DEI programs promote unqualified people to positions of power just because they are women or people of color.
Since taking office on January 20th, Trump also signed an executive order on “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” The order called DEI programs “illegal and immoral” and said they “demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination.”
Afterward, the administration ordered that all federal employees in positions associated with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) be placed on paid leave and eventually be terminated.
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