One of President Donald Trump’s first actions in office was to start the dismantling of DEI at the federal level. On January 20th, the day he took office. Trump signed an Executive Order “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing”. Trump ordered that all federal DEI staff be put on paid leave and laid off later on.

The next day, on January 21st, Trump signed another Executive Order, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity”, which attacked DEI and revoked several Executive Orders that supported DEI.

On a similar note, DEI and cultural months were removed from several companies recently. The Google Calendar has removed Black History Month, Pride Month, Women’s History Month, and several others. These removals have been recent and have followed the start of Trump’s presidency. Some other companies that are starting to scale back on DEI-related things are Pepsi, Amazon, Target, Walmart, McDonald’s, and Disney.

With the establishments of DEI crumbling, you might ask the question, what is DEI and why was DEI created?

To start with the first question, DEI, which stands for Diversity, equity, and inclusion, is a necessity to promote diversity in education and in corporations. DEI is an extremely important factor in helping people have opportunities. A large issue throughout American history is the large gap of wealth inequality in communities. A glaring one is the wealth inequality within different ethnicities. According to the American census in 2019, the poverty rate of Black Americans was 18.9%, and the poverty rate for White Americans (non-Hispanic) was 7.3%. Although the gap is greatly closing, this is still a large issue that faces our nation. The poverty rate for Black Americans in the mid-1960s was around 40%. Black Americans aren’t the only people who statistically have fewer opportunities; DEI helps to make sure the gap between all groups of people is as small as possible. DEI also exists in many schools to help ensure diversity.

Now about the why, in the 1960s, following the U.S Civil Rights Act, President John F. Kennedy called for affirmative action and gave an executive order against the racial bias in the hiring in the government. A little later, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which banned employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. As this happened, several other laws would eventually go into place to aid underrepresented groups.

DEI started to include gender as the Feminist Movement began to rise. Eventually, in the 1980s, the movement also started to include religious and LGBTQ+ communities. People with disabilities were also included. Entering the 2000s, jobs recognized the need for diversity in the workforce. Diversity allows everyone, regardless of sex, gender, ethnicity, or background, to have opportunities.

This Black History Month is an important month to recognize the fight for DEI and its importance within the USA.

Sources:

https://time.com/7210039/what-is-dei-trump-executive-order-companies-diversity-efforts/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/11/google-calendar-black-history-pride-month#:~:text=Google%20Calendar%20removes%20Black%20History%20Month%2C%20Pride%20and%20other%20cultural%20events,-Company%20says%20listed&text=Google’s%20online%20and%20mobile,LGBTQ%2B%20holidays%2C%20among%20other%20events.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/02/25/apple-shareholders-reject-ban-on-diversity-initiatives-here-are-all-the-companies-cutting-dei-programs/#:~:text=Feb.%207NPR%20first%20reported,to%20diversity%2C%20NPR%20reported%2C%20while

https://apnews.com/article/dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-lawsuits-f2f5e9136ac95d9466ee91c97c7e3be1

https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliekratz/2024/12/29/history-of-dei-why-it-matters-for-the-future/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/08/us/dei-programs-diversity-list/index.html

https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html#:~:text=The%20figure%20shows%20that%20for,group%20was%2020.8%25%20in%202018.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-history-of-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-efforts-in-america#:~:text=Led%20by%20icons%20like%20the,nation%20and%20around%20the%20world.