Trump rolls back bedrock civil rights measure in sweeping anti-DEI push
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
President Trump issued a sweeping executive order revoking decades of diversity and affirmative action practices in federal government.
Why it matters: This takes the current pushback on diversity, equity and inclusion into the next stratosphere — abolishing decades of government standards on diversity and equal opportunity, and seeking to crack down on the same in the private sector.
Zoom out: Trump's order revokes one that President Johnson signed on September 24, 1965, more than two years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have A Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
LBJ's order gave the Secretary of Labor the authority to ensure equal opportunity for people of color and women in federal contractors' recruitment, hiring, training and other employment practices.
It required federal contractors to refrain from employment discrimination and take affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity "based on race, color, religion, and national origin."
The order came more than a year after Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and just months after he signed the Voting Rights Act following violent attacks on voting rights advocates in Selma, Ala.
The intrigue: The reversal comes after five GOP presidents—including Trump during his first term—kept the Johnson executive order in place, while others expanded it through amendments.
Segregationists during Johnson's time opposed the executive order.
Conservatives since have voiced opposition to it, over claims it forced federal contractors to adopt a "quota system" for employees.
It also comes just as Chuck Robbins, the CEO of Cisco and head of the influential Business Roundtable, defended the value of DEI for corporate America in an Axios interview in Davos.
What they're saying: Civil rights advocates were anticipating this move. Rev. William Barber of the Repairers of the Breach told Axios beforehand that Johnson's executive order was needed to fight discrimination of that era and is still needed today.
"It would significantly erode a civil rights enforcement tool that has been essential, in particular for women's progress," Jocelyn Frye, president of the advocacy group National Partnership for Women & Families, told Axios before Trump's order was issued.
"It sends a message and gives a green light to contractors that nobody is watching."
Zoom in: Trump's order directs all "executive departments and agencies (agencies) to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements."
And it extends out to the private sector: "I further order all agencies to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs."
"The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws. The purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences and discrimination."
It goes a step further and orders federal agencies to compile lists of public companies, universities and large foundations for investigations and possible civil action over their DEI programs.
Between the lines: Close Trump allies want to dramatically change the government's interpretation of Civil Rights-era laws to focus on "anti-white racism" rather than discrimination against people of color, Axios' Alex Thompson has reported.
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kudos to trump for stopping the government from engaging in systematic racism. A huge day for civil rights
Not just racism, but sexual orientation discrimination
For instance, two guys, one white and gay, the other, white and straight, apply for the same position.
The white, straight guy is better qualified than the gay guy, but because there are no gay guys in the department, the gay guy gets hired for "equity" sake.
Trump did the right thing.
Yep. Just enforce the Civil Rights Law as written. The law forbids discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
That it was corrupted by an activist Court that dishonestly turned its meaning on it's head and allowed discrimination has been a stain on our country for decades at this point.
Utter fantasy bullshit. In these moronic "what if's" there's ALWAYS a better qualified white guy who didn't get the job apparently, but that's just pure fantasy invented by those who believe they're getting discriminated against.
What we've had in the past and the reason for these rules in the first place was because of the "good old boy" white male Christian doing the hiring ALWAYS giving the job to another white male Christian. That was WHITE MALE CHRISTIAN affirmative action that went unchecked for nearly two centuries of our nation's history.
When that FACT was exposed, we as a nation took action, affirmative action, to make sure that others were being included in the workplace, college admissions and government jobs. I'm all for having the debate as to whether it's still needed, but to claim current affirmative action is "racist" doesn't tell the whole story without having admitted that "YES! My country has a history steeped in racism and whites; mostly white conservative Christians, have potentially done irreparable harm to Americans of other races and cultures for centuries and now we have to deal with the legacy of that systemic racism in our society."
White conservative Christians suggest just forgetting those facts and that any of that happened and want to just move on because, of course they would! They're the perpetrator of a crime against their fellow man and now they're saying "Hey! Okay, so I mistreated you for a long time, can't we all just get along now?" They don't want to pay any price for their centuries of systemic crimes, they reject the premise of reparations, they whine and bitch like little babies about affirmative action being discriminatory against them because they're so fucking soft and weak apparently, they can't fucking compete against a minority that got a hand up.
But, alas, with Trump in office, the racists Golden God, they will bow down and suck the purple off that tiny little Trumpshroom to prove they're loyal members of the white Christian fascist nation that is intentionally pushing the world towards their hoped for Armagedón where they believe their God will wipe out all their enemies and let them rule over the earth as one white Christian nation superpower. That's what we are helping usher in all so we can claim we stopped that supposedly less qualified gay guy from getting a job, what amazing fucking heroes. /s
Wow...that was one hell of a rant that absolutely missed the point and had to go on a racist hole in the ground.
You can change "white" with black, brown, Asian, etc, whatever, and the example remains true.
Maybe get away from "everything is racist" and you will see a little clearer.
BTW, affirmative action was actually a racist idea putting minorities less qualified over qualified people, no matter the race.
Asians took the biggest hit with the racism of AA.
Yes, that is what some white racists keep trying to convince everyone of. The fact is that that was neither the intent nor what most AA hires found. The AA's hired were quality workers who did the job they were hired for just as efficiently as the supposedly more qualified applicants. There isn't actually ANY FUCKING EVIDENCE that a majority or even a tiny fraction of the AA hires were passing over the truly "more qualified" applicant as actual following work performance attests to. The studies done found "no evidence of weaker job performance among groups of minority or female affirmative action hires".
I find it difficult to take any white person seriously when they claim that it's "unfair" to them that anyone else might get a shot at getting a job through affirmative action.
The facts show that " According to research and data, people of color, particularly Black Americans, often face significantly more difficulty in finding employment compared to White individuals , experiencing higher unemployment rates and facing systemic barriers in the job market due to racial discrimination, even when possessing similar qualifications; this can manifest in fewer job opportunities, lower callback rates on applications, and a harder time accessing higher-paying positions .
Results found that résumés with white-sounding names received 50 percent more callbacks than those with black-sounding names, indicating that, all other things being equal, considerable racial discrimination exists in the American labor market.
Discrimination in the Job Market in the United States | The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
So, some white folk, likely those with little to no moral compass and no sense of justice, don't give a fuck about the realities of systemic racism and injustice in the job market and simply want to bitch and whine about their own perceived discrimination against people that look like them because even tiny whisps of discrimination against them is FAR more important to those sniveling self-absorbed bigots than the plight of strangers.
Yet another rant blaming whitey for the failures of the black community, not acknowledging that the same community does not take accountability into that failure.
Did you stop and think that those call backs did not happen because some employers experienced a higher rate of lower performing black employees than they did from all other races.
I admit there are good and bad with AA, but the fact remains, Affirmative Action is based on discrimination, nothing else.
There is a reason the SCOTUS shot down AA policies. Discrimination
Weighing the pros and cons of affirmative action | The Week
You are basically describing racism in employment hiring.
No, it's called protecting your company from slacker employees
No, that is the very definition of racism. The fact that you apparently can't see it speak volumes.
Considering the fact that studies found "no evidence of weaker job performance among groups of minority or female affirmative action hires", it seems almost certain that "those" you speak of are the exact employer's affirmative action was created for. "Those" who have bigoted racist preconceived assumptions already made about persons of other races and were likely only hiring the "white male Christians" they felt they could trust or felt "comfortable" with for years proving the necessity for affirmative action.
‘No, that is the very definition of racism. The fact that you apparently can't see it speak volumes.’
No, it’s not. It is simply a business owner protecting his business.
It’s too bad some see race in everything and do not take merit or past experiences into consideration
This ‘study’ you cote is from two professors that are highlighted by some obscure ‘poverty justice’ group. Hardly something anyone would take into consideration seriously.
I never said all employees, I specifically said done and those are the ones that are hesitant to make call backs because of past experiences.
The whole idea of Affirmative Action, as I have said several times already, is to direct discrimination onto other races simply to get a preferred race i to a position.
The Supreme Court agreed with me. You don’t like it, take it up with them.
You are saying that blacks dont have enough merit, and the lack of merit should be held against them as a group, and that individual merit for a job is not sufficient.
That is racism.
You should stop digging NOW. Before it gets worse.
‘You are saying that blacks dont have enough merit, and the lack of merit should be held against them as a group, and that individual merit for a job is not sufficient’
No I am saying the exact opposite. The poster I am engaging with seems to think race outpaces everything when choosing an employee. I said merit need to come first
. ‘That is racism. ’
Seeing racism in everything is actually racism.
‘You should stop digging NOW.’
When you or anyone else proves me wrong then I will consider it. That hasn’t happened yet and probably won’t.
Saying "I'm not going to hire black workers because black workers I had in the past were "slackers" is racist.
I am not going to argue with you about this.
‘Saying "I'm not going to hire black workers because black workers I had in the past were "slackers" is racist’
No it’s not. I also did not say that someone would stop hiring blacks. I said hesitant to hire any more.
Would you consider a black, hispanic or asian business owner not hiring whites racist? You do realize most minority groups hire people of same color because they feel they are helping the community. Nothing racist there unless you just see racism in everything.
[✘] Not hiring, oh, sorry, being hesitant of not hiring someone based on them being black (or any other non-white) is the definition of racism.
And yes, a non-white not hiring, or hesitant of hiring a white simply because they're white is racist. Now, not hiring an incompetent, uneducated white guy is not racist - THAT's smart business practice.
Also, your argument on minorities ONLY hiring minorities b/c they feel they are helping the community is old, lame, tired, ignorant and incorrect...just like your president.
Now we will be back to the private sector engaging in systematic racism.
How so? Trump's EO only covers federal offices, not private businesses.
The most qualified person should get the Job or contract, no more giving preference to idiots based on non-performance criteria. Female is not a qualification; skin color is not a qualification. The only qualification should be the best able to perform the work.
I agree. So, how do we keep those who are doing the hiring from discriminating against the "more qualified" applicant simply because they don't like gay people? What if that gay person was the more qualified applicant? How can we prove they're more qualified and not being chosen just because they check some racial or gender box for the one doing the hiring unless we remove the in-person interview out of the process, mask the name and any identifying characteristics listed in the application and hire just based purely on the numbers, some raw data calculation better done by an unbiased computer.
But that's not actually what Trump and his loyal MAGAites want. They want to bring back discriminatory hiring, but just in their favor because they believe they're now the ones being discriminated against. Of course they're not actually being discriminated against, they're being passed over because they're not qualified or educated enough for the majority of the jobs in the job market now, but that fact is too heavy for the weak whiny little white conservative Christians to accept so they can only blame others for all their problems. In their clearly damaged brains, they essentially believe it was the brown skinned gay undocumented transgender liberals (or any combination of) that 'took their jobs!' and want to use their child's bathroom and turn their kids gay! It's 24/7 fear fear fear on rightwing media and they ginned up the fear to such heights this time they got their fascist dictator back in office and will do anything, even attack out capital as we saw last time, to keep him in power.
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
- some judge guy
This is ALL this is about.
Anti white racism…..LMAO, those white folks suffer so much racism how do they deal with it. Thank goodness a savior like Trump has come to their rescue. No more back of the bus or being refused a job cuz their white, back to the best schools… YEAH MAGA.