Over the past few years, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies have become a major focus in government, education, and workplaces across the country. It has found itself as a heavily debated topic due to the media. Trump’s recent actions have been seen as controversial, however they are not an attack on diversity, and contrary to popular opinion he is not promoting racism. Trump’s goal in office is to cut national spending and debt. DEI is just one pillar to fall. A businessman does what a businessman does.
May 25, 2020. George Floyd, an African American man was murdered under the knee of Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin. Little did we know what repercussions this would have on mainstream America. In following weeks this caused outrageous amounts of raids, protests and online debates. It was also the most recent push for more DEI policies.
June 25, 2021. President Joe Biden passed an executive order to strengthen and advance DEI in the Federal Government. The federal government took steps to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Agencies reviewed barriers for underserved communities, expanded DEIA training, addressed harassment, promoted pay equity, supported disabled, LGBTQ+, and formerly incarcerated individuals.
March 18, 2025. President Donald Trump passes an executive order titled ‘Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing’. He then put all DEI staff on paid leave before eventually laying them off entirely.
“The executive order said intensely focusing on things like gender, race, and ethnicity is in itself discriminatory,” Fossil Ridge Social Studies teacher Dan Rypma stated.
Trump himself states that by intensely focusing on things like gender, race, ethnicity, diversity, equity and inclusion, the emphasis in itself is discriminatory.
How many times have you yourself taken a DEI training course? Whether for work, school, religious reasons? To most the answer is never, however, our teachers, administrators and about every other adult in the school have gone to a DEI meeting/training, and what to show for it? Nothing. No new perspective, nothing teachers haven’t already heard.
Rypma states, “The initiatives sometimes seemed to be mostly for show and not for actual real change.” Rypma admits these initiatives felt more for the sake of looking educated more than actually being educated on the topic. Money is being spent and no result is coming from it. Even then, how do we track progress, how do we know these things are working or not?
Most minority groups right now feel as though they have lost their voice as a result of this revocation. Their voices don’t feel heard. We still hear you and we still see you. Fossil Ridge Principal Mark Barry, “The ultimate impact… could be that marginalized students are feeling less connected.” Fossil Ridge Principal Mark Barry says “We (Poudre School District) may be backsliding on hiring people that students can see themselves in.”
Although it looks bad from an outside perspective, considering our president’s spotty past we have to drop the bias against the man and look at the real cause. Trump’s actions have eliminated DEI programs at the federal level. He did not specifically tell the states anything, the states still hold their Tenth Amendment right to have their own governments and most states have continued these initiatives, although 19 have now followed Trump’s federal example.
The media outrage and misunderstanding of the entire situation is this, Trump is seen as a racist man because of the things he has said and done in the past. So now every action he takes is an act of racism according to mainstream America. People are also outraged by big corporations following suit and eliminating DEI programs along with quotas they may have had.
“It feels like an attack by mainstream white America on minorities,” Rypma states.
This begs the question: Should companies not hire the most qualified candidate for a position based on their specific criteria? Just as NBA coaches and General Managers assemble the best possible team to maximize their chances of success, shouldn’t corporations take the same approach? Businesses should prioritize hiring the most suitable candidate, someone they believe will contribute the most to their success and help them achieve their goals. Or at least that’s how it seems it should be. The government should be similar in its own right, no? We should hire the best possible candidate to hold a position, strictly on their ability to perform the tasks of that job. Nothing else. Not considering race or gender, but simply the best possible candidate.
No, the United States is not going back to the 1950s, we’re not going back to the days before women’s rights, back to legal segregation or anything of the sort. We will be putting less money however into government-appointed programs created by a white man to make our community feel less racist overall. DEI programs existed to say they existed, not to truly help these groups who have felt marginalized and underrepresented for years.
“Do I think we’ll see quote ‘more racism’ no, I do think we will see less emphasis, less speaking, and less money going toward those things however,” Rypma states. The federal government exists to hold our economy up and run everything behind the scenes so we can all live our lives. They should not be responsible for training people on equality or racism prevention or anything close. It is written in the second line of the constitution.
Any person who feels as though they belong to one of these marginalized or underrepresented groups. Know we see you. Know we hear you, and know you are still just as important as before and that will never change because you are an American. If you feel as though this isn’t true, there are always things you can do.
“Students should think of themselves as citizens… write letters, make phone calls… let people know how you feel,” Barry states. “They work for us. They work for you. They’re your representatives.”
If you feel like things could change or be done differently, make yourself heard. The programs may be gone but your rights are not.
