On January 10, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly announced plans to roll back all DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs at the company, which were implemented in the 2010s.
In an internal memo obtained by CNBC, changes in their strategic approach toward hiring include ending representation for women and ethnic minorities as well as abolishing their team focused on DEI.
In a video released shortly thereafter, Zuckerberg also announced several other significant undertakings by the company, including moving the Meta headquarters from Silicon Valley to Texas, working in tandem with the Trump administration to prioritize “free expression”, and a new content moderation model, ending fact-checkers in favor of a community notes model, similar to that of Elon Musk-owned X.
Shortly after this move, thirty thousand Meta employees were fired, and other companies began to follow suit. Now, companies such as Target, Walmart, Ford, Lowe’s, Accenture, Amazon, Boeing, Google, Nissan, and others. Notably, such companies publicly cited the current legal environment as the basis for their DEI policy changes, including the 2023 SCOTUS decision ending affirmative action as well as the current Trump administration, which has long held its anti-DEI position.
Some companies, however, have held strong to their values, such as Apple, JP Morgan, and Ben & Jerry’s.
As a young Black woman, I find the decisions of senior leadership at so many companies to overtly dismiss the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion to be very disheartening. While their capitulation to the current administration is not particularly surprising, given their retaliatory targeting practices, it is still appalling to see how many companies value appeasing the current president more than their employees of color and from other marginalized, minority backgrounds.
Not only have people from such backgrounds contributed significantly to each of these companies, but doing away with DEI confirms that a lot of these policies that were previously implemented – many directly after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and calls for structural change – were simply for PR purposes, not out of care for marginalized people.
People of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and people at the intersection of these identities have faced extremely overt discrimination and explicit bias, as well as covert discrimination and implicit bias. DEI initiatives were not in place to place such communities at a distinct advantage, but rather, to simply level the playing field – one where certain groups of people started off on third base, so to speak, while others were left far behind that positioning. The same is true for affirmative action writ large. In many contexts, such groups are starting off at an extreme disadvantage, which is why initiatives and programs to improve the massive gap are necessary. This is a question of equality versus equity, meaning equal resources for all do not actually ensure fair outcomes; certain considerations are necessary to achieve equitable, fair outcomes – and that is the purpose of DEI.
The weaponization of the term ‘DEI’ – especially in recent months – has been used as a euphemism for far more overt racial slurs. The racist dog whistle has been wielded by white conservatives in the worst of ways. On countless occasions, I have heard, “I don’t want someone Black, I want someone qualified!”
This statement and similar ones have pervaded our social landscape on a daily basis, gaining more traction each day and continually emboldened by the current president.
Not only is this statement clearly extremely racist, but its dichotomy is also simply ridiculous. The notion that one cannot be both exceptionally qualified and Black is radically far from the truth.
On the heels of the 2024 presidential election – one between two options: a 34-time convicted felon, twice-impeached, known white supremacist, insurrectionist, adjudicated sexual predator who has been under federal investigation by the FBI numerous times, and promoter of some of the most harmful ideologies, statements, and acts ever committed in the history of mankind versus a highly qualified attorney, former prosecutor, district attorney, the attorney general of the largest state in the nation and fifth largest economy on the globe, and the first Black female Vice President – it is clear that Black people can be extremely qualified and still overlooked, and the same is true for various other minority groups. It is not far-fetched to conclude racist and discriminatory ideologies are deeply entrenched in American life, including a considerable amount of its people – and that must change.
The backlash against DEI is a microcosm of a much larger issue: cultural resentment and backlash against racial progress. It is no coincidence that immediately after America elected its first Black president, the nation elected a white supremacist the following election. Furthermore, he committed the most heinous acts imaginable – or in many cases, unimaginable – and got re-elected by 77 million people in the last election, gaining 5 million votes since 2020 after committing an insurrection and being convicted of felony charges in New York civil court.
Whether it is an act as seemingly inconsequential as Google Calendar removing cultural events like Black History Month or much larger acts, such as the Project 2025 agenda being carried out, a nation where all people are celebrated is one we must walk a long road toward, but it is not impossible. If companies and people alike stand for equality and justice across the board, a brighter future is on the horizon.
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