DEI in Retreat? 


by Brandon Van Dyck, Public Discourse

If the DEI label is losing traction and institutions are substantively evolving, what, if anything, will replace DEI?

A few years ago, the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) vaulted to national prominence. Having first gained institutional traction in the mid-to-late 2010s, DEI initiatives spread exponentially after the summer of 2020, amid the flurry of anti-racist activism that followed George Floyd’s death. Fortune 500 corporations, major nonprofit organizations, large professional firms and associations, and institutions of higher learning launched DEI programs if they had not already. DEI became a nationally recognized brand and multi-billion-dollar industry. 

But for nearly two years now, institutional DEI has been in retreat. The retreat began in the summer of 2023, when the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions. A more decisive shift occurred after the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel. Hamas’s assault was still underway when campus groups across the country publicly blamed Israel. A couple months later, the presidents of Penn and Harvard—institutions not known for protecting conservative speech—equivocated in legalese when asked whether calls for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ codes of conduct. As Israel’s invasion of Gaza unfolded, a stream of commentators argued that Israel, not Hamas, bore primary responsibility for the civilian bloodshed. More than a few said Israel was perpetrating a genocide. 

These developments offended many Americans, who deduced that many progressives, including those in the DEI industry, were insensitive to Jewish suffering and undisturbed by anti-Semitism. In this context, the usually sympathetic New York Times published critiques of DEI, including an August 2024 guest essay, “DEI Is Not Working on College Campuses. We Need a New Approach,” and an October 2024 investigative report, “The University of Michigan Doubled Down on DEI. What Went Wrong?” 

Anti-DEI efforts shifted into overdrive with President Trump’s victory in the 2024 election. Roughly fifteen states had already passed laws targeting DEI, but Trump took sweeping federal action. His administration eliminated DEI departments and laid off DEI staff across the federal government. It ordered federal contractors and grantees to terminate DEI programs. Recently, it has used federal funding to pressure elite universities to implement various DEI-related reforms. 

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