But one of his most consequential legacies unfolded far from church pulpits and voting booths. It was inside technology boardrooms and much of Silicon Valley. The Reverend was incredibly instrumental in holding Silicon Valley and the big tech companies accountable, by pushing for them to put into practice diversity, equity, and inclusion. He was well aware that the technology industry was a predominately white male industry not taking into account the millions of people their tech products would affect.
Goldman Sachs got some unwanted attention yesterday for its reported plans to scrap DEI criteria for its board, about a year after erasing diversity goals for its workforce. Many other companies have done the same amid a federal crackdown and several state lawsuits over corporate DEI efforts. ( Starbucks won a dismissal last week after Missouri challenged its DEI initiatives, freeing up time to battle a recent suit in Florida.)
In the summer of 2023, the NHL announced its players would no longer wear special warmup jerseys on theme nights celebrating groups such as the military and the LGBTQ+ community. At the start of the 2023-24 season, the league clarified that Pride Tape, first used by the Edmonton Oilers in 2016 and later sold by the NHL's official shop, was also banned.
Since last March, the Department of Health and Human Services has been using AI tools from Palantir to screen and audit grants, grant applications, and job descriptions for noncompliance with President Donald Trump's executive orders targeting "gender ideology" and anything related to diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), according to a recently published inventory of all use cases HHS had for AI in 2025.
As translated by , ex-Automaton Ubisoft Osaka game designer Kensuke Shimoda shared his pushback in response to a comic by manga artist Sadataro attributing Assassin's Creed Shadows' sales performance to Ubisoft's "DEI" initiatives. For context, Ubisoft has previously stated that Assassin's Creed Shadows "performed within expectations," and, as of July 2025, had amassed over 5 million players. Ever since Shadows dared include an African samurai as one of its two protagonists, it's been the target of anti-woke attacks,
Companies are under attack publicly and privately for policies viewed as "too progressive" or "woke." The reality, however, is that most companies have strongly reaffirmed their sustainability commitments but less so their DEI commitments. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) works in the grey area between the two. Many affirming companies have opted for "greenhushing," staying quiet about their strategies and leadership.
The first year of Donald Trump's second term has been anything but calm amid a flurry of executive orders by the US president targeting alleged "opponents" at home and abroad, and negatively affecting transatlantic trade and business. Trump's so-calledLiberation Day announcement of "reciprocal tariffs" last April shocked governments and companies alike across the world, as did his crackdown on corporate diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
And we just clean out that whole thing I don't know, something has to happen, but it's literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything's demolished, and people are dying there, so I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.
Much of the front half of the year for Target was defined by the company's decision in January to pull back on some diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives as the Trump administration took power. That led Black-owned brands and employees to question Target's commitment to the progressive values that once defined its brand. In May, Target's CEO finally addressed the topic, somewhat, saying its values of inclusivity, connection and drive "are not up for debate."
One of the best-kept secrets about DEI is that it helps men-that includes white men-get into college. If you do not work in admissions, you are likely unaware of this fact, and that's by design; one admissions officer even told The Wall Street Journal it's " higher education's dirty little secret." But it's been true for decades. Women's college enrollment surpassed men's all the way back in 1979, and the gender gap has only widened in the interim.
Let me be clear, the VP said. Anyone who attacks my wife, whether their name is Jen Psaki or Nick Fuentes, can eat sh*t. That's my official policy as vice president of the United States. He then told writer Sohrab Ahmari that all forms of ethnic hatred including antisemitism have no place in the conservative movement. Vance's response comes after Fuentes bashed him for being a race traitor for marrying his wife; Usha Vance is an American citizen born in San Diego to two Hindu
However, this year, the pendulum has swung violently in the opposite direction. Essentially, leadership told many of us to "reword or avoid any mention of DEI," be leery of explicitly mentioning the communities most harmed by inequality or inequity in our work, and avoid citing who is committing the harm out of fear of retribution. Many of us knew the backlash to the media industry's embrace of DEI during the pandemic was brewing.
Menopause often coincides with a critical phase in a woman's career, when experience, insight, and leadership potential are at their highest. But symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, hot flashes, and mood swings can disrupt work and energy levels. The issue isn't the symptoms, it's the silence surrounding them. Women are expected to "power through." Some do, but for many it turns into what is known as the midcareer cliff.
Two years after the Supreme Court banned the use of race in college admissions decisions and in the wake of the Trump administration's attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion, colleges' use of diversity- and identity-related supplemental essay prompts is patchy. After a boom in prompts about applicant's identities, several universities have scrapped the essays entirely for the 2025-2026 admission cycle. Still others, especially selective universities, have kept the prompts, saying they are the best way to get to know their applicants.
On September 11, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator sang a sultry rendition of "Happy Birthday" to an executive at the Virginia headquarters of the Society for Human Resource Management. The brief performance, which took place in a conference room with about 75 employees, came after remarks honoring the 24th anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks. Two former staffers who were present at the gathering, recordings of which were reviewed by Business Insider, said it was uncomfortable to see - and not just because it was sexually suggestive.
Its purpose was to highlight a cohort of individuals working in video games as the bright, bold and inclusive future of the industry. Considering the widespread reach of the annual Keighley-led show, which saw an estimated 154m livestreams last year, Future Class felt like a genuine effort. Inductees were invited to attend the illustrious December ceremony, billed as gaming's Oscars, featured on the official Game Awards website, and promised networking opportunities and career advancement advice.
No question, antisemitism is real, resurgent and too often conflated with criticism of the Israeli government as it has destroyed Gaza to root out Hamas. But it beggars belief that the Trump administration is sincere when it demands UCLA pay the government more than $1 billion because, as it alleges, the school failed to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests in 2024, and engages in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. This is extortion, pure and simple.
Authentic is more than a critique of the empty promise of being authentic at work. It is an invitation to question the structural realities of what it takes to be a person at work. To begin, we must take seriously the health and wellbeing of workers most impacted by harmful policies, performative practices, and opportunistic rhetoric about representation and inclusion.
"We are in an underresourced area, and males were probably more focused on [finding] immediate employment ... so we were trying to think about how to make sure we were doing the best we can to design a program that meets all of our service area's needs," said Kate O'Sick, the community college's dean for student affairs. "We weren't trying to exclude. There was no quota."
Democracy flourishes when Black Americans advance. The evidence is clear: birthright citizenship, constitutional due process, anti-discrimination laws from education to housing to employment and equitable small business investments, are all byproducts of the systemic corrections known today as DEI. Yet, in recent years, DEI has been used as a smokescreen by cynical politicians and activists to roll back progress and consolidate power.
