Within days, after George Floyd's murder by a white officer went viral on social media,

millions of Americans were calling for change, not only to disproportionate police violence

carried out against

people of color, but to the way certain identities seemed destined to shape our access to opportunity

regardless of work ethic or skills. Huge companies like Target, Meta, and Amazon very publicly

committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. And then almost as quickly as they

ramped these efforts up recently, they ramped right back down again. From KERA in Dallas,

this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. President Trump signed an executive order to end DEI requirements

across the federal government, which has a knock-on effect among

federal contractors no longer required to meet those goals. But the pullback in corporate America

extends well beyond organizations looking to do business with the government. And all that change

leaves many people wondering, why did companies go all in on DEI in the first place and why do they perceive

so much risk with continuing now? Pavithra Mohan is a staff writer for Fast Company's Work Life

Section where she's been tracking the wide-ranging retreat from DEI goals at U.S.

Workplaces. Pivotra, welcome to think. Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Just for a little background here, what is the historical link between contemporary programs

that we call DEI and the Civil Rights Act of 1964? So I think, you know, a lot of these programs

really are rooted in kind of the values of the Civil Rights Act. They really did grow out of those efforts to

promote racial equity in the workplace. And actually, a good example of that is one of the

executive orders that President Johnson had put in place that President Trump has now tried to revoke

in one of his recent executive actions. That was a really critical order that addressed discriminatory hiring practices across federal contractors,

and it was really critical to promoting racial equity.

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