Diversity, equity, and inclusion: 3 words that have caused controversy in American politics. The D.E.I. movement is federal organization framework designed to promote groups who have been marginalized throughout history. D.E.I for some felt like a new way to create opportunities for minorities while others saw this as an opportunity to hand out jobs to people in the name of diversity.
The only way to really understand the impact of D.E.I and its removal, is to understand the history of civil rights as a whole. Things like employment, owning property, and voting have not always been a right. After the Civil War, there was still a push for racist ideologies causing a delay in social reform. Segregation was implemented through the Supreme Court ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson. The ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson was decided in 1896 and was not overturned until the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Then, it was not until the mid 1960’s where actual civil rights legislation was starting to be implemented. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 gave more rights to minorities including race, religion, and gender. The LGBTQ+ community did not have the ability to get married until the Supreme Court case of Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015.
For women, they could not vote, own property, or do pretty much anything without their husband or father’s consent until the 1900’s. In the 1920’s, women finally got the right to vote when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. Also, it was illegal to discriminate against disabled individuals until the 1990’s with the Americans Against Disabilities Act. The act eliminated discrimination in employment, public transportation, public accommodations, and more.
Access to civil liberties has been a slow, grueling battle for minorities. In America’s 249 years as an established independent country, minorities have been fighting for rights up until the modern day. People have fought against prejudice in laws and employment and fought for their rights. This all connects back to D.E.I. and what its goals were. D.E.I. was a program started to promote equal treatment of people who have been marginalized in the past. An article by CNN states that critics of D.E.I. claim that the policy is just a way to get unqualified people into positions of power.
D.E.I can be tied back to the Civil Rights Movement of 1964, and since then, understanding of different cultures has grown with it. Support for D.E.I movements spiked during President Trump’s first term in office, but backlash from the program formed during President Biden’s term according to Forbes Magazine.
One of President Trump’s first acts in office for his second term was to eliminate federal funding for D.E.I. programs. Instead, President Trump believes in a new ideology when it comes to hiring in the workplace according to Forbes Magazine. The program he believes in is called “M.E.I.” which stands for merit, excellence, and intelligence. The beliefs behind M.E.I. relate to hiring people based on their accomplishments, merits, and overall intelligence level. The idea that the best in a field should get the opportunity. Critics of President Trump question his beliefs in diversity and what he believes is qualified, however, according to The Medium, Trump has appointed more women to his cabinet than any other Republican president between his two terms combined. He also has appointed women to positions in the White House Cabinet that a woman has never fulfilled before. However, his cabinet does lack representation for people of color. According to the Politico, President Trump has not been appointing people for the sake of diversity, but people he believes are the best for office. But again, lack of diversity is a tricky issue, and it could be near to impossible to please every group struggling after the D.E.I. cuts.
D.E.I. is a popular program in more liberal minded establishments. Big companies and colleges utilize the practices to hire and admit people. Companies’ personal efforts of utilizing D.E.I. though is a choice they make. By President Trump eliminating D.E.I federally, does not mean that private businesses cannot chose to continue following D.E.I. practices and ideologies.
Michigan State University’s Executive Director of Admissions, John Ambrose, who is in control of admissions and new students, is unsure to how the policy will affect the future of college admissions but is confident in their ability to continue fueling a diverse academic environment.
“While Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (D.E.I.) initiatives play a role in various aspects of campus life, our admissions process has always adhered to state and federal laws. Proposal 2 (Prop 2), which was passed in Michigan in 2006 prohibits public institutions from considering race, gender, ethnicity, or national origin in admissions decisions,” Ambrose said.
When D.E.I. was eliminated federally and talks about cutting the Department of Education, people were worried about how it will affect them being on the verge of graduating within the next few years. The fear of being overlooked after putting in the work to create a resume guaranteed to get someone into their dream school.
However, as Ambrose mentioned, schools in Michigan cannot consider race, gender, ethnicity, or national origin in admission decisions. There are also a multitude of other laws in place to prevent discrimination at a federal level. The Fourteenth Amendment is in place to clarify what a citizen is. The equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment protects all citizens in America. Title IX protects women from discrimination based off their sex in educational settings like university and college. And while eliminating D.E.I. is something people are grieving over, there are still laws in place to protect people and private businesses can still run their business based on a D.E.I. philosophy.
“The depth of its value can be measured by the contributions that its alumni make to everyday society and that is a direct outcome of the kind of campus environment created by all its community,” Ambrose said.
The elimination of D.E.I. at the federal level is scary for some and something to celebrate for others. However, at the end of the day it just comes back to the citizens and their right to speak against the government. Political change can be scary, but voting and trying to stay as educated on civil matters can be beneficial during times of political turmoil. Staying divided as a society is not the way to solve a problem and cognitive dissonance is a good thing, not bad.
Sources:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-and-wasteful-government-dei-programs-and-preferencing/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2025/02/01/president-trump-shifts-to-merit-excellence-and-intelligence-in-the-workplace-and-away-from-dei/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/22/us/dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-explained/index.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/juliekratz/2024/12/29/history-of-dei-why-it-matters-for-the-future/
https://medium.com/the-political-prism/despite-dei-purge-trump-appoints-more-women-to-cabinet-than-any-republican-president-b6e4e6e9e752
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/27/trump-cabinet-diversity-00191874
