The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020 was an inflection point, not only for racial inequality in the US, but for DEI programs. Companies had already been working to diversify the workforce for decades, but for many, this accelerated the movement.
As the popularity of DEI programming soared within US companies (many DEI positions in HR became open), so did opposition. Detractors claimed diversity initiatives were unfair to the majority and politicized the work, turning it into a dog whistle during the 2024 presidential election, when Trump and his supporters called for companies to eliminate all “illegal DEI” practices—and despite executive orders that have been issued since, the legal frameworks haven’t changed much.
Since then, at least 70 big-name companies have rolled back or drastically changed the language associated with their DEI programs, while others anticipate changes in the future. Meanwhile, DEI practitioners have grappled with job losses, questions about their function, and personal attacks amid a barrage of misinformation.
Still, the DEI leaders who spoke with HR Brew remain hopeful for progress, even if it looks different.
How we got here. Diversity and inclusion initiatives started gaining traction decades before 2020. In 1987, Roosevelt Thomas Jr., a scholar at Morehouse College, predicted that diversity programs would be essential to business success, and that company cultures must be designed for everyone’s success.
But by the mid-2010s, the US was still struggling with racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination, and representation: Women held just 25% of senior executive roles, while Black leaders held just 3.2%. By the end of the decade, chief diversity officer roles had expanded to include language around belonging, though some practitioners feared it would dilute their work, the Washington Post reported. Some analysts even predicted “diversity fatigue” would set in.
The work was grueling and emotionally demanding, often falling on the shoulders of those most affected by it, leading to high turnover rates among diversity chiefs, HR Brew previously reported.
When Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd in May 2020, more than 270 companies including McDonald’s, Meta, and Walmart responded with racial equity pledges and billions of dollars of investments in diversity initiatives. Job postings for DEI practitioners doubled. But the effectiveness of these efforts, and leadership buy-in, was mixed.
Some executives seemingly expected the corporate landscape to change overnight, while others emphasized it would take years to reverse the underrepresentation of women, people of color, the disabled, and other minorities.
The data says as much: A 2024 LeanIn report estimated it would take at least 22 more years for white women, and at least 44 years for women of color, to achieve gender parity in corporate America. And a 2024 analysis of 84,000 job applications found that workers with more traditionally Black names were less likely to land interviews.
Flying under the radar amid scrutiny. As quickly as DEI’s popularity came, it seemed to fade. In May 2022, 44% of workers said they felt “alienated” by, and 42% resented, DEI efforts, according to a Gartner survey that HR Brew reported on at the time.
Employers began reigning in diversity and HR teams, while practitioners started sounding alarms, calling some investments and commitments performative.
“Genuine inclusion, not performative diversity, will accelerate growth for people-first companies. All others will see their ability to attract and retain talent globally extinguished,” Donald Knight, former chief people officer at Greenhouse, predicted in 2022.
In August 2023, just after the SCOTUS decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions, some conservative activists ran social media campaigns against DEI, while attorneys general in several GOP-lead states threatened companies over DEI practices. At first, the industry brushed it off as “fearmongering.”
“You will always have a subset, for example, of employees, who just for whatever their belief systems are, they push back,” Chandra Robinson, director of HR at Gartner, told HR Brew at the time. Experts warned of negative consequences, like issues with employee retention, for ditching DEI.
By early 2024, some companies had cut DEI programming and removed “diversity” from public documents in favor of language like, “belonging,” “inclusion,” and “cultural transformation.” SHRM, for example, removed the “E” from its DEI programming, and America First Legal, a conservative firm founded by White House aide Stephen Miller, filed multiple lawsuits against companies over their DEI efforts (many were dismissed). The anti-DEI messaging became a rallying cry in the 2024 election cycle, as political actors used it to diminish the work and accomplishments of minorities, including Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
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“People are using DE&I as a slur in the hopes that people will legitimize it and then run away from DEI work,” Lily Zheng, a fairness strategist and author, told HR Brew in 2024.
Since Trump returned to office in January, attacks on DEI initiatives have only accelerated, via executive orders, threats from the Department of Justice, and new guidance from the Department of Labor. Some employers seem to have engaged in even more “diversity hushing,” pursuing the essence of DEI without publicly labeling it as such.
“I don’t think that we’ve experienced, since 1964 collectively, this pull back retrenchment,” said Albert Smith Jr., founder of DEI consultancy en masse Consulting who has worked in the field for over a decade. “We have been on the slow and gradual trajectory towards a more perfect union. And I don’t know if we’ve ever experienced the clawing back of so many rights the way that we’re witnessing them right now.”
Smith added that DEI opponents are using civil rights strategies to roll back progress. “They are only taking our tools and using them.”
Hope for what’s next. Some advocates admit DEI hasn’t been perfect, noting it can be performative and hasn’t done enough to meaningfully change corporate culture. However, this moment may be an opportunity to right the ship, according to seasoned practitioners.
Most companies (66%) still have dedicated DEI budgets, but many industry leaders (43%) report making “substantive” changes this year, according to DEI consultancy Paradigm. Rosa Nuñez, a DEI practitioner who has spent more than two decades in the field, says she expects companies will continue many DEI practices because they’re essential to reduce discrimination and keep talent.
“You have some organizations that have pulled back, but I don’t believe it is a full pullback,” she said. “They’re not being as public about their efforts, but a lot of those organizations that do really care about the work. They’re doing it in-house in a way that is not distracting.”
While Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general at the DOJ, recently said, “either DEI will end on its own or we will kill it,” the practitioners who spoke with HR Brew believe the essence of DEI will survive.
Smith is also hopeful for the continuation of workplace equality efforts. “We’re going through this civil war right now, and we’re hopeful that on the other side of this moment are brighter days,” he told HR Brew.
Ronald Taylor, a diversity executive who has been in the field since the 1990s, said while diversity efforts have always seen some pushback, the current administration has made public attacks acceptable.
“That gives me hope, because I think then we can be like, ‘Okay, no more closeted attack on diversity in corporate,” he said. “You’re gonna throw the kitchen sink at us in this last vain, desperate attempt to make us go away and we're not going anywhere….it’s gonna be dirty, it’s gonna be ugly.”
Regardless of the public discourse, Zheng thinks most Americans believe workplaces should have fair hiring practices and treat workers well, and want an employer that is committed to DEI, according to a 2025 study from the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at the NYU School of Law. Zheng said this gives them hope that diversity efforts will continue.
“We all want workplaces and products and services that we can access. These are universals,” they said. “So long as people and workers want this, there will be people doing it.”
In an ideal world, Nuñez said, we wouldn’t need DEI. But “the reality is that we are the most diverse and the most divided nation right now, and the disparities in the inequalities and inequities in the workplace continue.” In her opinion, DEI will exist as long as it’s necessary, no matter what it’s called.
“So long as companies align themselves with forces of exclusion, polarization, authoritarianism, they’re going to drift further and further away from what people actually want,” Zheng said. “There will be a pendulum swing back.”
This is one of the stories of our Quarter Century Project, which highlights the various ways industry has changed over the last 25 years. Check back each month for new pieces in this series and explore our timeline featuring the ongoing series.
