6/3- The vague and uncertain end to DEI

 

Reading through these executive orders feels strange, almost like they're not real. It's so different to any action that I feel that we've ever seen an executive office take that I think America is half in shock. My first read-through of these EO's I was pretty confused, I got the general sense that Trump is trying to stop something that he feels is wasting tax-payer money by encouraging what he believes is not-merit based hiring, etc. On the deeper dive into Trump's Executive Orders on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Explained I realized truly how vague the EO's were and how they threaten not only the hiring processes of the public and private sector but that it has possible giant implications for those who are not in the most privileged category in America. "If the Trump administration fully implements these EOs, they will erect new barriers to federal programs and employment, making the federal government less able to meet the needs of the nation."

 I was also shocked to note that even though Trump credited these DEI declarations to the previous president, many of the executive actions revoked were not even from the past president. One of them was very well known to me, the "Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965 (Equal Employment Opportunity)". 1965!

I was immediately uncomfortable thinking through how some of these vague orders could be carried out. The order mentioned revoking funding often. I thought of how many ways our educational system tries to combat inequality on a daily basis and on some of the deepest levels. Will schools be defunded for creating classes for special education students? Can a school department brainstorm ways to assist families who are in financial need? There have already been some schools in the South whose desegregation orders have been ended by the federal government."Why it matters: Lifting desegregation policies set by federal rules and court orders — some of them a half-century old — could lead to a wide range of changes in more than 80 school systems Axios has identified as still being under such requirements." 

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/29/trump-school-desegregation-orders?utm_source=chatgpt.com

I was reading several articles about how this is currently impacting the world and education and saw an article from the Washington Post stating this..

"In recent weeks, the Justice Department backed out of an agreement with an Atlanta bank accused of systematically discouraging Black and Latino home buyers from applying for loans. The Education Department terminated an agreement with a South Dakota school district where Native American students were disciplined at higher rates than their White peers. And federal prosecutors have dropped several racial discrimination reform agreements involving state and local police departments — including that of Minneapolis, where George Floyd was murdered by an officer in 2020."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/01/trump-disparate-impact-discrimination-cases-civil-rights/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

I would highly recommend reading the whole article (in order to do so I just had to use my email address). 

All of these orders remind me of the past article we read by Armstrong and Wildman. It sounds as though Trump would like to be rid of the looming truth that racism exists. He thinks that inclusion and diversity are such foundational points of our country that we no longer require these protections as they are repetitive and immoral and seem to take away from merit-based functioning. "Discrimination CANNOT end absent of an understanding of the privilege dynamic that enables discrimination to continue." Sadly, I fear that in undoing these historical actions President Trump is not only dismissing the privilege dynamic but encouraging it to flourish unchecked.

What a discouraging setback in our country's history.