President Donald Trump has declared war on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes in the US public service.
He’s ordered that all federal employees working on DEI policies be put on immediate paid administrative leave before their offices and programs are shut down within 60 days.
It’s unclear how many employees are impacted, but it could be thousands given there are 2.4 million government workers.
President Trump called for an end to what he labelled the “dangerous, demeaning and immoral” programs and pledged to “forge a society that is colour-blind and merit-based”.
DEI programs were intended to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds and could touch on everything from anti-bias training to funding for minority farmers and homeowners.
Their promoters said they addressed historical under-representation and discrimination against certain groups including racial minorities, but critics argued that the programs were also discriminatory.
Federal workers are being urged to report any suspicions that DEI-related programs are being hidden, covered up or renamed
The Associated Press (AP) reports the executive order picks up where the first Trump administration left off.
One of its final acts was an executive order banning federal agency contractors and recipients of federal funding from conducting anti-bias training that addressed concepts like systemic racism.
President Biden rescinded that order on his first day in office.
“While the changes may take months or even years to fully implement, this new anti-DEI agenda is more aggressive than the first and comes amid far more amenable terrain in the corporate world,” writes AP.
Major businesses from McDonald’s to Walmart to Meta which owns Facebook have already scaled back or ended some of their diversity practices.
Others, like Apple and retailers Target and Costco, have publicly defended theirs.
