When George Floyd was killed at the hands of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin back in May 2020, it became the catalyst for America to pay attention to the plight of Black people in this country. Not only were Black Lives Matter protests taking place on both national and international levels, the federal government and corporate America were finally showing solidarity by implementing intentional diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Chauvin was later convicted for murdering Floyd in 2022 and is serving out concurrent federal and state sentences in a federal prison in Arizona. Considering that Black folks rarely get justice when they lose their lives at the hands of cops, his guilty verdict and sentencing was seen as a rare victory for our community.
But if Trump and his supporters continue to have their way, all of this progress will be erased. In 2023, the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious college admissions which galvanized conservative groups to go after corporate “wokeism.” Since being re-elected, Trump — along with his fellow Republicans— have worked tirelessly to undermine everything accomplished after Floyd’s death through a slew of disturbing actions.
Trump’s executive orders have led to DEI rollback
Trump wasted no time signing off on executive orders that direct the Attorney General to identify and possibly investigate private sector companies with “egregious and discriminatory” DEI programs. The orders also discontinue nearly all DEI-related activities in the federal workforce, in addition to rescinding a number of DEI-related executive orders issued by prior administrations — undoing what was put in place after Floyd’s death.
This has prompted notable companies, including Target, Walmart, Meta, and McDonald’s to get rid of their programs that center diversity. It has also led to many executives altering their language around DEI efforts. For example, SHRM (also known as the Society for Human Resource Management) got rid of the word “equity” from its “Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity” approach, referring to its “commitment to leading with Inclusion as the catalyst for holistic change in workplaces and society.”
Police misconduct database has been taken down by Trump
In January, Trump signed an executive order that removed a federal system for doing background checks on police. The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD) was founded in 2023 and contained the professional records of federal law enforcement officers.
Its primary goal was to allow prospective employers — including federal agencies and local police — to check their backgrounds for misconduct. But once Trump was re-elected, he made sure the system was taken offline. After Floyd’s death, there was a national outcry for police reform. Former President Joe Biden issued a “police accountability” executive order in 2022 with the database being just one item among many in the order. Despite Trump removing it, the National Decertification Index (NDI) still allows departments to check officers’ records in other states, NPR reports.
An open letter to exonerate Derek Chauvin
Chauvin’s conviction in the murder of Floyd felt like justice for Black folks, but that now may be in jeopardy. Conservative media pundit Ben Shapiro recently launched a petition requesting Trump to pardon Chauvin.
“We write to urge you to immediately issue a pardon for Officer Derek Chauvin, who was unjustly convicted and is currently serving a 22-and-a-half year sentence for the murder of George Floyd and associated federal charges,” Shapiro wrote in a letter to the president.
Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who serves as a senior adviser to Trump — posted about Shapiro’s petition on X and stated it was “something to think about.”