Demonized by Trump, DEI professionals go 'discreet' to find jobs

On the website of diversity consultant BWG Business Solutions is a sentence that would have felt out of place five years ago, when companies were bragging about their DEI efforts: "Due to the increasing scrutiny and politicization of equity efforts, the public listing of clients and partnerships has been removed from this website."

BWG's founder, Janice Gassam Asare, isn't the only one changing the way she's doing business now that the Trump administration has placed diversity, equity and inclusion in its crosshairs. The attacks are forcing professionals in the field to rebrand themselves to get contracts, battle over the remaining staff positions and reimagine what the industry will look like going forward. Some in the field are repositioning how they market themselves, including leaning away from talking about race and gender, and prioritizing their leadership expertise, according to interviews with more than a dozen DEI professionals. 

"I like to call it DEI done discreetly," said Gassam Asare.

Read more: How President Trump's executive orders pose a threat to disabled workers

Some longtime BWG clients started letting contracts lapse in early 2024, as pushback against DEI entered the U.S. presidential election. Gassam Asare said that corporate clients are now less interested in long-term consulting that includes a comprehensive equity audit — analyses that assess how policies impact various gender or racial groups — and surveys with staffers. They're more inclined to ask for workshops that don't require a long-term financial commitment. It's led to a 60% drop in the amount of money she's bringing in via contracts compared to two years ago. 

"Companies aren't sure what the future of DEI is going to be," she said, "so they don't want to invest in what they fear could be illegal."

For Keith Wyche, who writes and speaks about workplace culture and was previously a corporate vice president at Walmart, the current environment is prompting him to emphasize other parts of his resume.

"Personally, I do make sure that I lean into my leadership skills, I lean into my career and background in change management transformation so that I'm not labeled a DEI guy," he said.

An attack on DEI

In his first days in office, President Donald Trump made good on his pledge to fight what he called an "anti-White feeling" in the U.S. He's signed executive orders aimed at pressuring corporations and other groups to end policies that constitute "illegal DEI discrimination," saying the initiatives disguise race and sex-based discrimination, undermine meritocracy and divide people into an "identity-based spoils system." He revoked a longstanding requirement that federal contractors follow affirmative action commitments and dismantled diversity programs across the government.

A slew of U.S. businesses including Amazon.com and Walmart rolled back their diversity and inclusion efforts as they increasingly face campaigns and legal attacks over their efforts.

Corporate leaders are understandably jittery. In one of Trump's early executive orders, the president directed the head of every government agency to identify up to nine large public companies, nonprofits, universities and professional associations they think should be investigated over DEI policies. 

Read more: President Trump's executive orders threaten social and community efforts beyond DEI

And the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, created in the Civil Rights era to fight discrimination in the workplace, has questioned some of the country's biggest law firms over their diversity focused hiring practices. Elsewhere, anti-DEI activists like Robby Starbuck are drumming up social media campaigns that have ended in companies like Deere and Tractor Supply scaling back their initiatives.

And yet, at a January gathering of about 60 corporate CEOs, the moderator asked who in the audience was dismantling programs within their corporations. No one raised their hand.

"Most CEOs tell us: 'We're going to do the work of diversity, equity and inclusion. We may not boast about it, you may not get a DEI annual report anymore, you may not see us use it as a branding opportunity. But we're going to do the work," said Cid Wilson, president of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, a pro-DEI group working to advance the inclusion of Latinos in corporate America. 

He's spoken to some 200 corporate leaders about the topic in recent months, and he's come away with what he described as interest in figuring out how to "navigate this tighter lane." Wilson added: "That's been a very difficult maze." 

Since the U.S. Supreme Court banned race-conscious admissions in colleges in 2023, company leaders worried about whether diversity programs would face legal challenges, even if laws hadn't actually changed yet. Big companies, including Wall Street banks, began opening up programs focused on women and minorities to include everyone and scouring their internal and external communications to weed out language that could draw scrutiny.

 "If you're the general counsel, arguably you are the second most powerful person in corporate America right now," Wilson said.

Companies are notably pulling back on hiring DEI-specific roles. The number of new positions at S&P 500 companies was down more than 70% in 2024 from a peak three years earlier, according to a Bloomberg News analysis. This year, just six new roles were added through the start of April. "If your job title's got inclusion in it, it's either been changed or eliminated or repurposed," said Chantalle Couba, who advises leadership at private sector companies, nonprofits and higher education institutions on human capital issues.

Nearly all of the professionals interviewed said they expect the industry to transform further, though it's not entirely clear what that new reality will look like. Most agree that the days of plush budgets and listening sessions about race at work are gone, at least for now.

"My hot take is that we haven't done diversity well," said Misty Gaither, who previously oversaw DEI at Indeed and now works as an independent consultant. She hopes this moment allows companies to move away from narrowly focusing on hiring diverse talent, which often draws pushback. The better strategy is making sure that performance reviews are equitable for those that fall into marginalized groups or ensuring talent development is accessible throughout an organization. 

"Moving away from more performative, topical things that have been bold headlines but really doing the hard work, the less sexy work," Gaither said. "I think that is something that can be a positive output from what we're seeing in this current landscape."