What caused the great revolt against DEI in America?

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs are under accounting.

The DEI movement became the focus of America’s culture wars following the death of George Floyd in 2020, sparking a national conversation about race and months of unrest. Such programs have become commonplace in American government, academia, and workplaces.

The push against DEI has been building for years, and several major corporations have reinstated their policies as early as 2024, including John Deere, Ford, Harley-Davidson and Walmart.

On Monday, as President Donald Trump returned to the White House for a second term, one of the many executive orders he signed on Day 1 ended federal DEI programs.

A The choice of Fox News A poll conducted earlier last month found that 45% of voters believe it is “extremely” or “very” important for Trump to focus on ending DEI programs. Another 18% of respondents said that removing the initiatives is “somewhat” necessary.

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So why do half of Americans believe that eliminating DEI is a priority and most are concerned about the programs? As with most battles in the culture wars, experts are divided on the cause.

Some point to Trump as the driver behind the backlash against DEI, while others argue that the way the programs were forced on Americans led to the rebellion.

Naomi Wills, an executive at Nextech and a DEI advocate who specializes in race and gender issues, believes the main reason for the recent backlash against DEI is that business leaders have a strong sense that Trump could win the presidency again. Trump has been very vocal about wanting to roll back DEI initiatives, she said, and that sentiment only grew as the campaign gained steam.

“President Trump is not only opposed to DEI, but presidents are allowed to have their say,” Wills told Fox Business. “He’s a president with a well-documented history of retaliation.” It creates a feeling of fear, it creates a feeling that we will fall into line whether we want to or not. I don’t think they are such big famous companies. If Trump were not president, he would have made these announcements publicly.

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Author and global marketing strategist Lola Bakare told Fox Business, “We’re seeing the effects of the new administration’s choices like a hurricane, leading to many companies making poor, fear-based reactive decisions.

“I encourage people to resist this administration’s anti-inclusion bias and to think about the ulterior motives behind this administration’s decision to eliminate so many programs, positions, people’s jobs in one day by executive order,” she added. Without even examining the reality of the effectiveness of those programs.

However, psychotherapist and author Jonathan Alpert says he is seeing harmful effects from the programs.

“As much as possible, diversity programs should remind us that everyone deserves to be treated with equality and respect, no matter who they are,” he told Fox Business. Unfortunately, the trend over the past few years, in many US institutions, has been to turn DEI programs into political commissars, pursuing people of differing views, and in many ways sowing further division in the process. An institution worth understanding.”

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Alpert says he’s also seen it in medical practice, where patients and therapists themselves make many of the rules of DEI, easily lost in this cultural minefield instead of promoting fair and equal treatment for everyone. He added that he had seen patients fearing “the ever-changing DEI rules” and fears that they would be “repealed”.

Jeremy Knauf, founder of Spartan Media, said he’s seen two different responses to the removal of DEI programs, and both are equally protected. The first response is “well, that sounds like a good idea because we shouldn’t be making decisions based on criteria like race, gender or sexuality anyway” and the other response is basically “anyone who disagrees with that”. These policies are blatantly racist, sexist and homophobic monstrosities.

As he told Fox Business, from a public relations perspective, the latter is why these policies are seen as dangerous and harmful, and why there has been push for their removal in recent years.

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“While we’ve had such policies in the past, they’ve basically been reduced to bludgeoning companies and individuals into various political agendas, and frankly, most people are tired of the constant rhetoric and attacks,” Knaf said.

He added, “As the saying goes, these activists have been treating everyone with vinegar for decades, so the results were completely predictable.” “I’m surprised it took this long.”

Fox News’ Rachel Wolff contributed to this report.