For nearly every American company right now, navigating the approach to diversity, equity and inclusion is a little like this: They’re perched on chairs, and the floor is lava, and the lava is the froth of lawsuits, investigations and social media backlash that could arise with any next step.
And they are not all responding the same way.
There’s a multilayered pressure campaign facing private sector D.E.I. programs. First, President Trump issued an executive order instructing the federal government to investigate “illegal D.E.I.,” although it is not entirely clear what that term means. (The best guess lawyers have is that it means all programs, whether internships or mentoring workshops, that exclude people on the basis of race.) The Justice Department, in a memo last week, suggested that it would be involved in enforcing the D.E.I. executive order.
Then, there are changes Trump has made at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the independent agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws. This agency used to focus heavily on complaints of discrimination against people from minority groups and women. In an about-face, it is now likely to focus on investigating claims of discrimination against white workers and majority groups, in the form of D.E.I.
“Employers should be proactive and intentional about evaluating the way that they are carrying out these initiatives,” said Jocelyn Samuels, a Democrat whom Trump removed from the commission. “But at the end of the day, I think they are critical.”
The war on D.E.I. has left executives scratching their heads about what posture to adopt — and what they choose depends on a whole smattering of factors, including the politics of their consumer base and their appetite for a fight. Today, I’ll lay out the three main responses emerging in corporate America: retreating, quietly sticking with it and standing up for it.
Retreat
For companies like Target, the retreat from D.E.I. goals and strategies has been sweeping. The suite of diversity goals, mentorship programs and racial justice initiatives announced with fanfare in 2020 has been tossed away as companies scramble to avoid legal scrutiny or a social media backlash.
