Trump's dismantling of DEI
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.1 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
NPR's Pien Huang speaks with Timothy Welbeck, the director of Temple University's Center for Anti-Racism, to understand more about the history of DEI and how it became targeted by President Trump,
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For the past four years, the federal government has embraced the idea that a more diverse, inclusive workforce will better serve the American people. |
| 0:08.5 | Former President Joe Biden championed DEI programs, major initiatives aimed at diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and recruiting, hiring, and retaining employees. |
| 0:19.2 | In a matter of days, and with a few penstrokes, President Donald Trump brought it all to an end. |
| 0:24.1 | I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. |
| 0:34.0 | On Monday, following his inaugural address, Trump signed an executive order terminating all federal DEI programs, calling them illegal. |
| 0:42.0 | On Tuesday, he issued a second executive order that revoked, among other things, a mandate in place since Lyndon B. Johnson's administration, requiring government contractors to adopt non-discriminatory practices in hiring. |
| 0:54.5 | On Wednesday, all employees working in DEI offices were placed on paid leave |
| 0:59.2 | and told to report any additional coworkers that might have been missed. |
| 1:02.3 | We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. |
| 1:08.7 | But that is exactly what these programs accomplish, says Gina Abercrombie Winn-Stanley, |
| 1:13.3 | who served during the Biden administration as the State Department's first DEI officer. |
| 1:17.6 | DEIA is designed to level the playing field to ensure that merit-based decisions |
| 1:24.3 | and merit-based advancement is what happens in federal agencies. |
| 1:28.3 | Alacia Black Hackett, Biden's chief diversity and equity officer at the Department of Labor, |
| 1:33.3 | says the federal government, of all places, needs to reflect the country we are today. |
| 1:37.3 | When you think about who was in the room during the creation of the Constitution of the United |
| 1:43.3 | States of America. |
| 1:44.5 | There was one vantage point, one lens, which was white male men. |
| 1:52.3 | Consider this. President Trump has called DEI programs illegal and moral and discriminatory, |
| 1:58.5 | but the history of these programs spans decades and are rooted in |
| 2:01.4 | attempts to address inequalities and ensure equal representation. |
| 2:08.3 | From NPR, I'm Ping Huang. |
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