Black folks: Trump has wasted no time going after diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the federal level. According to a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, his administration is ordering all federal employees in DEI roles to be put on paid leave by Wednesday night.
It also requests federal agencies to submit a written plan by Jan. 31 for getting rid of the employees. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the memo, per The Guardian.
“Send a notification to all employees of DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility) offices that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all DEIA initiatives, offices and programs,” according to the memo.
Trump’s first executive order, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” outlined how he would overturn executive actions from Joe Biden in 2021 that promoted DEI programs within the federal government.
Although the exact number of employees that will be affected is still unknown, Black and brown people will be disproportionately affected. Former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris massively expanded the federal government’s DEI bureaucracy, which is what Trump is targeting.
On his first day in office, Biden signed Executive Order 13985—or “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government”—to battle systemic racism and work to achieve “equity for all.”
NBC Washington reported that “some of the DEI efforts during the Biden administration included diversity officers, employee resource groups, targeted recruitment to underserved communities, internships, fellowships and mentorships.”
In response, the American Federation of Government Employees National’s President Everett Kelley released a statement saying Trump is now working to “undermine the merit-based civil service and turn federal hiring and firing decisions into loyalty tests.”
Ridding the federal government of Black people and filling it with white loyalists is what Trump said he was going to do while campaigning for President.
Seeing it come to fruition, however, is extremely jarring.