With the inauguration of President Donald Trump and his immediate signing of a multitude of executive orders upon entering office, among the most prominent of his directives were to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion departments in all government agencies.
Due to ongoing pressure from a Supreme Court decision that struck down affirmative action in higher education, and influencer shaming fueled by whistleblowing workers, a steady stream of DEI rollbacks flowed through Corporate America last year. Following the president’s orders this week, the stream has become a flood — with only a few resisting, including two on Wall Street. ABC News reports:
Amid ongoing pressure over its DEI initiatives, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson told ABC News in a statement: “We strongly believe that organizations benefit from diverse perspectives, and Goldman Sachs is committed to operating our programs and policies in compliance with the law.”…
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, in an interview with CNBC, said he’s “very proud of what we’ve done.”
“We will continue to reach out to the Black community, the Hispanic community, the veterans community, LGBTQ, we have teams with second chance initiatives — where I go, with blue states, red states, governors, they like what we do,” said Dimon…
Anti-DEI activists also argue that “aspirational” goals for increasing diversity and representation are a guise for quotas, which are largely considered illegal, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“You can be fair in hiring and promotions with candidates of all backgrounds and perspectives without resorting to quota systems and considerations based on immutable characteristics,” said Paul Chesser, the director of the Corporate Integrity Project at the National Legal and Policy Center, in an emailed statement.
NLPC has 11 shareholder proposals pending at various companies for their spring annual meetings, most of which call for the removal of DEI goals or metrics from the compensation formulas for their top executive officers. Examples of the proposals, which are all worded similarly, include Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s, and PepsiCo.