“A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist to the public. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Miriam Raftery
Photo: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during a press conference in 1964; public domain image via Wikipedia
January 22, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – While the nation honored slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, President Donald Trump ironically issued sweeping executive orders to revoke not only Biden-era diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) guidelines for all federal agencies, but also roll back actions to protect minorities dating back to the 1960s, such as affirmative action, USA Today reports.
The actions drew swift condemnation from Bernice King, MLK’s daughter. She posted on social media, “This is what my father described in his book, ‘Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?’, as #WhiteBacklash. That’s when any work and progress in the areas of racial justice and equity are met with assertions that no change is needed; with insistence that programs purposed for preventing pervasive, historically anti-Black policies and practices are harmful and unneeded; and with lies and distortion to convince people to curtail the work and progress.”
She noted that her father’s “dream encompassed eradicating racism, including in healthcare, policing, banking, and education,adding,”We have not done that. So don’t attribute canceling #DEI to wanting to honor #MLK.”
DEI programs aim to assure that people of all backgrounds are welcome and have resources to succeed regardless of race, color, or gender orientation. It differs from affirmative action programs, which have a goal of remedying historical injustices through preferential hiring practices.
Trump’s order claims that DEI has corrupted federal institutions by “replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy.” His order to eliminate DEI will impact all levels of the federal government, including aviation, medical programs such as Medicare, and federal law enforcement agencies. The federal government employees over 2 million civilian workers, of whom the largest number, 147,000, are in California, according to the Congressional Research Office.
During Trump’s first term, he issued executive orders to ban government contractors and federal agencies from offering diversity training, even setting up a tip line for whisteblowers to turn in employers who defied the order.
Private-sector employers may be targeted next, a Trump official told USA Today.
Already, some private employers, notably Amazon and Meta, have announced that they are dropping or scaling back DEI programs.
But other companies are pushing back, such as Apple and Costco. Both have urged shareholders to reject anti-DEI proposals, and argue that diversity initiatives are good for business.
A USA Today investigation suggests the need for DEI remains. The study found that the top ranks of America’s largest companies remain predominantly white and male.
Civil rights leaders have voiced outrage over Trump’s latest actions.
“We have DEI because you denied us diversity, you denied us equity, you denied us inclusion, “ the Rev.Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, said at the Metropolitan AME church, a historic black church in Washington D.C. “DEI was a remedy to the racial institutional bigotry practiced in academia and in these corporations.”