Is DEI really dead?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2025
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Many prominent US companies have been pulling back on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
US President Donald Trump and his allies have regularly attacked DEI policies.
When he returned to the White House in January, President Trump ordered government agencies to eliminate such initiatives - and it appears some of the country's biggest corporations are following suit.
Presenter: Ed Butler Producer: Lexy O'Connor
(Image: Hands holding "equality for all" cardboard sign". Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi there, I'm Ed Butler. |
| 0:03.6 | Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:07.1 | Today, three words that are causing turmoil in corporate America, diversity, equity and inclusion. |
| 0:15.4 | We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government |
| 0:24.2 | and indeed the private sector and our military. |
| 0:28.6 | Also known as DEI, these are the company policies designed to level the playing field |
| 0:33.8 | between employees of different backgrounds, including historically marginalised groups. |
| 0:39.7 | You should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender. |
| 0:45.9 | Very important. Yes, as soon as he took office, President Trump has begun to sign executive orders |
| 0:53.2 | dismantling federal government DEI programs. |
| 0:56.8 | And now the pressures on the private sector, too, to pick aside. |
| 1:00.3 | So is DEI really dead? |
| 1:02.8 | That's to come on Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:06.6 | All right, y'all, I have some amazing news for you. |
| 1:08.9 | You know what we do. |
| 1:09.7 | We kill woke policies at the biggest companies on Earth. |
| 1:12.4 | And I have got a huge one for you guys today. |
| 1:14.9 | Yes, over recent months, after being targeted by conservative critics, many of America's corporate giants have been changing their policies. |
| 1:24.5 | Walmart stepped back, Harley Davidson, meta, Amazon, Google, Target. Everyone's |
| 1:31.4 | adjusting their languages. So there's a lot of changes happening behind the scenes. |
| 1:36.0 | Dominic Madori Davis is a reporter for the online news site TechCrunch. She's been following |
| 1:42.1 | the story and says the current backlash stemmed from events back |
... |
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