In the face of the Trump Administration’s concerted attack on DEI, advocates of equality might easily despair. That would be a mistake. Whether the acronym “DEI” survives, the value of equality that undergirds it is still stubbornly and inspiringly alive.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]What our society has come to call “DEI” is just the latest embodiment of a project of advancing equality that goes back centuries. That deeper, more durable project has traveled under different banners in different eras, including “equality,” “dignity,” “fairness,” and “opportunity,” or “civil rights” and “human rights.” And as we look at the past, present, and future of this country, we have every reason to believe this project will endure.
Let’s begin with the past. The sweep of American history suggests the ideal of equality has staying power, even in periods of wrenching strife. While the U.S. Constitution speaks of “We, the people,” that collective was limited from the outset by group-based exclusions. Our nation was founded on the assumption that a small cadre of white, propertied men would run it. The work of every generation since then has been, often at the cost of immeasurable suffering, to expand who counts as part of the “We.” After the Civil War, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 14th guaranteed “the equal protection of the laws,” and the 15th granted the franchise to people of color, laying the foundation for subsequent activism during the 1960s civil rights era. The 19th Amendment guaranteed women’s suffrage, and successive waves of feminism led to an expansion of their rights and opportunities. -Stonewall LGBTQ+ movement won sexual minorities greater inclusion, such as employment protections and marriage equality. The disability rights movement fought for, and achieved, legal protections in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which were significantly increased with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
More recently, the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 ignited what’s likely the largest protest movement in our nation’s history. The Black Lives Matter movement, combined with the #MeToo movement two years earlier, galvanized leaders of major institutions. They trumpeted their commitment to social justice, hired diversity professionals, established racial and gender equity task forces, announced ambitious diversity targets and philanthropic commitments, and demanded that suppliers meet diversity benchmarks to earn their business. Teachers and administrators from preschool to graduate school scrambled to diversify their ranks and create more inclusive classrooms. Some proclaimed this head-spinning change a social revolution—the “Great Awokening.”
Over the centuries, advocates of equality have fought the scourges of slavery, segregation, voter suppression, internment, legalized domestic violence, sexual harassment, rampant workplace discrimination, and cycles of political and vigilante violence. Through it all, the value of equality endured. Focusing too narrowly on the recent defeats relating to DEI obscures that panorama. Given that the equality ideal has survived the most horrific assaults, it seems wildly unlikely that this is the moment the project shudders to a halt. A spirit of inclusion is part of our proud national heritage, which should be a solace and resource to us in times when that value is under siege.
Turning to the present, the value of equality is embedded in the national psyche and in the organizations that structure our daily lives. Multiple public opinion polls conducted in 2024 and 2025 showed roughly half to two-thirds of the country in support of DEI programs, despite the smear campaign against them. Even when Americans express unease about the acronym DEI, they firmly embrace the values it describes. A Siena College Research Institute survey found that while only 50% of respondents favored efforts to promote “DEI,” that number rocketed to 80% when respondents were asked whether they support “having diverse workplaces,” “equitable sharing of power in community meetings,” and “including people of all backgrounds when discussing the state of our nation.” An Axios poll in January 2025 similarly found that 61% agreed “diverse employees have a positive impact on organizations” and 75% agreed “more needs to be done to guarantee everyone is advancing.
Ideas of inclusion and diversity also permeate everyday institutions, including schools, universities, foundations, nonprofits, and corporations. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, discovered to its chagrin in December 2024 that 486 companies in the Fortune 500 had diversity statements or commitments on their websites. To be sure, that number is likely lower now. Many companies have retreated from DEI under legal and political pressure. What makes fewer headlines is that most companies that have sidled away from the acronym continue to affirm the values of DEI under a different name. In announcing a shift in strategy, Harley-Davidson said it would continue “to ensure we have an employee base that reflects our customers and the geographies in which we operate.” Boeing stated that it maintains “procedures aimed at encouraging an equality of opportunity.” Lowe’s has proclaimed that it remained “committed to fostering an environment where individuals are treated fairly, valued, respected, safe, and inspired to serve customers and the communities where we live and work.” These statements sure sound like diversity, equity, and inclusion to us.
The education sector is equally if not more committed: a 2025 review of 262 colleges and universities found that 245 of them still maintained DEI offices and programs.
Looking to the future, demographic change will make the work of equality indispensable for anyone seeking to navigate an increasingly complex society. More than half of Americans under the age of eighteen are people of color, with demographers debating a possible “majority-minority” nation by the 2040s. Nearly a quarter of adults in Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. Women outnumber men in the college-educated workforce. Globalization will continue to ensure students and workers routinely interact with people from a dizzying array of linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
The increasing diversity of our nation will heighten the need for all of us to speak, to learn, and to work across our differences. Institutions that want to recruit the best talent will need to find qualified people in unfamiliar places. Organizations that want to market goods to diverse consumers will need to communicate with cultural savvy. Schools and universities will need to create inclusive classrooms and help students navigate identity-related conflicts. Workplaces will need leaders who understand how to manage diverse teams and address barriers to equal opportunity in hiring and promotion. Whatever label you attach to this work, the project of building more inclusive and egalitarian institutions will become an even more essential endeavor for the foreseeable future.
Excerpted from How Equality Wins: A New Vision for an Inclusive America. Copyright © 2026 by Kenji Yoshino and David Glasgow. Reproduced by permission of Simon Element, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.
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