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Editor’s note: The following column was first published in city diary.
On Mondays, President Trump signed an executive order abolishing the “diversity, equity and inclusion” bureaucracy in the federal government.
The move marks a surprising reversal of fortune from just four years ago, when Black Lives Matter, critical race theory, and DEI seemed unstoppable. Following the death of george floydLeft-wing racial activists attacked American institutions, rewrote school curricula, altered government policy, and established DEI offices at major universities, big-city school districts, and Fortune 100 companies. The Biden administration immediately followed suit and demanded a “government-wide equity agenda” that entrenched DEI in the federal government.
No more. President Trump rescinded Biden’s executive order and directed his Cabinet to “terminate, to the fullest extent permitted by law, all DEI, DEIA, and ‘environmental justice’ offices and positions,” and “all ‘plans for equity action’, ‘actions, initiatives or programs.” In other words, President Trump has signed the death knell for DEI within the federal government.
‘ILLEGAL DEI-MOTIVED’ EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION TO BE ERATED BY TRUMP’S NEW ACTING EEOC CHAIR
How do we get here? Patiently building a movement and winning public debate. In early 2023, I worked with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to launch the “abolish DEI” campaign. We start by ending the DEI bureaucracy in New Florida Collegea small public university in Sarasota, where I work as an administrator. The reaction of the racialist left was intense. Protesters invaded the campus and left-wing media outlets published hundreds of articles condemning the move. But we stood firm and argued that public institutions should judge people based on their achievements, rather than their ancestry.
The discussion began to take hold. Polling data indicated that Americans by wide margins supported a “colorblind society” over a “race-conscious society.” Even the New York Times, one of the biggest proponents of left-wing racialism, began publishing articles criticizing the DEI. At the same time, the Black Lives Matter movement was mired in scandals and leading DEI intellectual voices, such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, faced sustained public scrutiny and appeared to fade from the spotlight.
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We continue forward. Governor DeSantis led the way and signed legislation abolishing the DEI bureaucracy at all Florida public universities. A dozen other red states followed, restricting DEI programs and banning DEI-style discrimination in their public institutions. The process became a virtuous cycle: Each state that passed an anti-DEI bill reduced the risk that the next state would do the same. The campaign moved from the realm of debate to the realm of politics.
Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris November 5th sealed the fate of DEI. American companies, including companies like Walmart and Meta, interpreted the event as an incentive for change and voluntarily ended their DEI programs before Trump took office. Mark Zuckerberg made this explicit, arguing that the country had reached a “cultural tipping point,” which convinced him to stop DEI programs. And Zuckerberg, along with many other tech titans, featured prominently at Monday’s inauguration.
In some ways, Trump’s executive order on Monday was already priced in: People knew it was coming. Still, it is a crowning achievement for those who have built this campaign from the ground up. There will be many fights ahead: bureaucracy will try to evade order, and more needs to be done on civil rights reform in general, but for now, we should celebrate. The forces of left-wing racialism are on the defensive and the forces of colorblind equality are on the move.
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None of this was inevitable and nothing will happen either. It has taken courage, hard work and more than a little luck. But this is certainly a time to feel optimistic.
American institutions are not beyond correction, as many feared. The American people were wise enough to realize that their country might not have survived four or eight more years of war. government by DEI. They spoke on November 5 and now President Trump is acting on it.
