Quotes
There will be generations who don’t even know what they missed out on because there has been such an erasure and such a revision and such a redirection of federal resources,
he said
Conservatives would say it is wrong to target someone based on their race – but that is exactly what Trump is doing,
she said
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are American values, ... It's about economic opportunity. It's about merit for everyone, based on what you know, not who you know."
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said ... adding,
A diverse federal workforce that looks like the nation it serves, with the lowest gender and racial pay gaps in the country. We should all be proud of that."
American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley decried Trump's DEI crackdown, saying
The injection of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy,
reads a Day One executive order revoking dozens of former President Joe Biden's executive actionsPresident Trump's executive orders rescinding affirmative action and banning DEI programs are a major milestone in American civil rights progress and a critical step towards building a colour-blind society,
Yukong Mike Zhao, president of the Asian American Coalition for Education, said in a statement
We're really freaked out and overwhelmed,
said one employee at the Department Health and Human Services (HHS).But that doesn't mean I want my colleagues to get fired,
the employee addedWe have been told by seniors to keep doing our jobs,
she saidIlegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system,
Trump’s order read
This gleeful hatred of the federal workforce will lead to nothing good,
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who represents 140,000 federal workers in Virginia, told reportersWe are aware of efforts by some in government to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language,
said emails sent to government employees and obtained by NBC News
There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information,
the email saidThese programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination,
said the OPM template letter for agency heads to distribute to employees
We are not going back. We owe it to our ancestors. We owe it to our children."
Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, warned