The great DEI retreat

On Jan. 21, President Trump issued an executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The order was a strongly worded denunciation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The document points to three reasons for the administration’s strong stance against DEI.

First, DEI initiatives “violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws.” Those laws, including the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, forbid discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The order contends that DEI can violate both the text and the spirit of civil rights laws.

Second, DEI policies “also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.” President Trump is concerned that many progressives weaponize DEI to gain ground in the culture war.

Finally, DEI can “threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities.” The administration contends that in some fields ending merit-based hiring and advancement not only potentially violates the law, but that it actually undermines human flourishing.

Trump’s executive order calls for four actions. First, it orders the end of all DEI programs in the federal government. Second, it encourages the private sector to move away from DEI. Third, it directs law enforcement agencies to combat DEI initiatives that contradict civil rights legislation. Finally, it directs the attorney general and secretary of education to jointly issue guidance to all state and local educational agencies that receive federal funds so they can ensure compliance with civil rights laws. Additional executive orders have further addressed the dismantling of DEI.

The progressive response has been predictable, painting Trump and his supporters as racist and arguing that DEI promotes social justice. The reality is that DEI has been on the retreat since the latter half of the Biden administration, after peaking during the first half of Biden’s presidency. Biden’s term began shortly after the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, all of which captured the nation’s imagination and raised concerns about the persistence of racial injustice.

The DEI movement claimed to offer the solution to America’s lingering racism, and it was welcomed in many sectors with open arms. Leading corporations began requiring DEI training. The federal government and the U.S. military made DEI a priority. DEI especially took root in higher education circles, where DEI statements were promoted with quasi-evangelistic zeal. When conservatives and others expressed doubts about DEI early on, they were cancelled for being racists who were captive to white fragility and wanted to turn back the clock to the Jim Crow era.

Over time, accusations of racism lost their currency because they rarely reflected reality. By 2023, it was becoming clear to a growing number of Americans that the terms “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” were being defined within the DEI movement according to identity politics rooted in postmodern epistemology and Marxist theory. Progressive academic concepts such as critical race theory and intersectionality were being pushed in service of identity politics. “Anti-racist” scholars such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, as well as journalists such as Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the 1619 Project, were promoting a worldview that was characterized just as much by racial animus as white supremacy, only in a different way.

By 2024, numerous state legislatures were passing laws pushing back on DEI. Major corporations were scaling back their DEI programs. Universities were downsizing or even shutting down their DEI offices. The DEI Industrial Complex was running out of juice, much to the consternation of progressive activists and politicians. When Trump issues executive orders against DEI, he isn’t pushing some retrograde agenda out of right field. Rather, he is channeling the return to common sense that has already been happening, and that contributed to his historic political comeback.

As Christians, we ought to care deeply about racial equality, diversity, and justice. However, we must never baptize faddish secular theories grounded in anti-Christian assumptions, which is the fatal flaw of DEI. Our advocacy should reflect biblical concepts such as the imago Dei, equality based upon our common humanity, justice rooted in impartiality, and God’s delight in saving men from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

These biblical convictions will put us in opposition to actual racists, including some who claim to be conservatives. But they will also put us in opposition to progressives who make idols out of identity and who are far too apt to build their entire worldview around DEI.