Photo // DNYUZ
President Trump signs an executive action declaring Feb. 9 “Gulf of America Day.”
By: Cienna King
Photographer & Staff-Writer
DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This program was created in the 1960’s to maintain equality in the workplace and ensure that people of color, women, LGBTQ+ people and others belonging to protected classes were given equal opportunities. In a 2024 Pew Research survey 52% of workers said that increasing DEI at work was a good thing. This, however, is beginning to change.
On Jan. 21, President Trump put “DEI workers” on paid leave. The following day, DEI-related offices and programs that Trump claimed were “dangerous, demeaning and immoral” were shut down, being marked for terminations 60 days from the executive order. According to the BBC, Trump claimed that DEI policies were “illegal.” This has also begun to affect private companies, with some, like Meta, McDonald’s, Walmart, Amazon and Target, rolling back their DEI initiatives.
These rollbacks have resulted in boycotts from consumers who oppose the removal of DEI policies, with a particular focus on Target. The NAACP published The Black Consumer Advisory on Feb. 15, providing lists of companies that have rolled back DEI policies as well as others that remain committed to DEI, urging consumers to support pro-DEI businesses like Delta Airlines, Apple and Ben & Jerry’s.
The NAACP’s campaign identifies possible negative outcomes of DEI rollbacks, including loss of DEI-related roles, reductions in supplier diversity and community investments and abandonment of equitable hiring practices.
In addition to this, Google Calendar has notably deleted certain cultural holidays and events, including Black History Month, Pride Month and others. Google Maps has also changed the display name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America”. Google received backlash from the change and defended themselves on their X account by stating, “we have a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” According to CNN, Mexico has also threatened to sue Google over the updated name of the Gulf.
The change in DEI is also affecting the film industry. On Feb. 11, Disney announced that it would change content warnings shown ahead of many of their older movies. According to Variety, the updated version reads, “This program is presented as originally created and may contain stereotypes or negative depictions” instead of the previous “includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of peoples or cultures.”
The Department of Education has also issued a warning on DEI. In a Feb. 14 letter, the department stated that public K-12 and higher education institutions must discontinue all DEI policies and programs or be at risk of losing federal funding.