In Union County, South Carolina, the sprawling cotton mills that once put bread on the table for many are long gone. Union is also what is termed a "food desert", where many residents live far from the nearest supermarket. So in 2016, local non-profit director Elise Ashby began working with farmers to deliver discounted boxes of farm-fresh produce across the county, where 30% of the population is black and roughly 25% live in poverty.

To fund this, Ms Ashby first relied on her own savings and then some small-scale grants. But in 2023, the Walmart Foundation - the philanthropic arm of one of America's largest corporations - awarded her over $100,000 (£80,000), as part of a $1.5m programme to fund "community-based non-profits led by people of colour".

But now, those same companies are pulling back. Walmart announced in November that it was ending some of its diversity initiatives, including plans to close its Center for Racial Equity, which supported Ms Ashby's grant.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the 'Old Donald' administration of trying to radically rewrite well-established civil rights law when it issued a sweeping directive barring colleges and K-12 schools from considering race in virtually any way.

The guidance from the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights was sent as a 'Dear Colleague' letter to school officials throughout the country Feb. 14. It threatened to deny federal funding to any school or college that considers race in hiring, discipline policy, scholarships, prizes or any other aspect of campus life. It gave schools a two-week deadline to comply, setting off confusion and panic on campuses nationwide.

The suit asks a federal district court in Maryland to ban the department from acting on these threats, saying the letter is an unconstitutional infringement on free speech and a twisting of long-standing antidiscrimination law. It was filed by the American Federation of Teachers, its Maryland affiliate and the American Sociological Association, working with Democracy Forward, which has filed several suits challenging 'Old Donald' administration actions.

Apple investors rejected a proposal Tuesday that called for the company to 'cease its DEI efforts.'

Investors had been widely expected to reject the proposal during the company's annual shareholders meeting ' in alignment with Apple's recommendation ' despite rising tensions around corporate DEI programs. The company did not disclose the vote tally.

In the first days of his second term, 'Old Donald' issued two executive orders meant to end DEI in the federal government and beyond. The orders have led to a widespread purge of federal workers, while corporations and universities have grappled with how to interpret the orders targeting 'equity-related' government contracts and 'illegal DEI.'

On Friday, a federal judge temporarily blocked key portions of "Old Donald's" orders, but companies are still bracing for investigation and enforcement by the new administration against their efforts.

'With 80,000 employees, Apple likely has over 50,000 who are potentially victims of this type of discrimination,' NCPPR's proposal states. 'If even only a fraction of employees file suit, and only some of those prove successful, the cost to Apple could reach tens of billions of dollars.'

In a proxy statement ahead of its shareholder meeting, Apple said its DEI efforts are essential to its 'culture of belonging' and encouraged shareholders to reject the proposal.

Cook noted that Apple did not use "quotas" for hiring - a practice that has come in for some of the fiercest criticism - while saying the firm's strength came from a culture where "people with diverse backgrounds and perspectives come together".

More than two dozen companies have received anti-DEI shareholder proposals this proxy season, including Airbnb, Coca-Cola and General Motors. And Todd Russ, the treasurer of Oklahoma, announced this month that his state would follow suit with shareholder proposals calling for 'political neutrality,' targeting Amazon, Alphabet and Netflix, which Oklahoma invests in through its $2 billion Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

A few conservative think tanks are responsible for the lion's share of anti-DEI shareholder proposals filed in the past year, according to Andrew Jones, a senior researcher at the Conference Board, a business think tank. Although such efforts have garnered negligible shareholder support, they have strategically focused on pushing back programs at big-name firms ' including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Costco, AT&T and Progressive ' in hopes of 'amplifying the opposition that's happening elsewhere,' Jones said.

But many companies continue to telegraph their commitment to diversity efforts, including Costco, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, which all encouraged shareholders to reject anti-DEI proposals. Last month, more than 98 percent of Costco shareholders rejected an anti-DEI proposal from NCPPR during its annual meeting.

'Old Donald'’s preference for white men, even those with glaring flaws, was evident when he recently hired a white man who wrote last October that “competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.”

Yes, “The Daily Show,” is a comedy show. But host Jon Stewart made a serious point after 'Old Donald', with no evidence, blamed a fatal air crash on diversity, equity and inclusion or DEI efforts to bring women and racial minorities into the federal workforce.

Darren Beattie, now at the State Department, was fired from the 'Old Donald' administration in 2018 after speaking at a conference that had drawn white nationalists. Now, he is back in the 'Old Donald' administration after deriding all diversity efforts as “coddling the feelings of women and minority and demoralizing competent white men.”

Can anyone imagine 'Old Donald' hiring a black man who made such a prejudiced statement about whites?

The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by Andrew Bailey, a Republican, accuses Starbucks of engaging in 'systemic racial, sexual, and sexual orientation discrimination' through hiring quotas, advancement opportunities and board membership.

As of August 2020, the company's U.S. workforce was 69.2 percent female and 30.8 percent male, according to the company. It was 46.5 percent Black, Indigenous, people of color or unspecified, and 53.5 percent White. As of September 2024, the workforce was 70.9 percent women and 28.4 percent men, and 47.8 percent White.

Citing the same statistics, Bailey said in the lawsuit: 'In other words, since 2020, Starbuck's workface has become more female and less white.'

Starbucks began rolling out a number of diversity and sensitivity programs in 2018, after the high-profile arrest of two African American men at a Philadelphia store. The company closed 8,000 U.S. stores for a day for employees to undergo racial-bias training.

After George Floyd's murder prompted a racial justice movement in 2020, the company made a commitment to have people of color in least 30 percent of all corporate jobs and at least 40 percent of all retail and manufacturing roles by 2025. The company also committed to having female representation in at least 55 percent of all retail roles, 50 percent of all corporate roles and 30 percent of all manufacturing roles within that same time frame.

In October 2020, Starbucks announced that it would link executive bonus compensation to 'success in achieving the Company's Environmental Social Governance (ESG) goals' as an effort to hold senior leadership more accountable for inclusion and sustainability ' moves that the lawsuit called discriminatory.

'Old Donald' has slammed — without evidence — diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for contributing to the plane crash.

Most of Musk's DOGE agenda focuses on eliminating jobs and spending, which would be a problem where airspace safety is concerned. In reality, the U.S. has an air traffic controller shortage,

Alex Fitzpatrick's thought bubble: There's general agreement in aviation circles that FAA systems and processes need updating and investment. But rapid changes could bring new safety risks if made without proper testing and implementation.

Ali Velshi's comments arrived after Melissa Murray, an MSNBC legal analyst and law professor at New York University, argued that the attacks on DEI are 'about rolling back the gains of the Civil Rights Movement' and 'reestablishing, reentrenching a form of racial and gender hierarchy.'

'Before we had diversity in the federal workforce, before there were any pilots other than the Tuskegee Airmen ' there were no commercial, there were virtually no commercial Black pilots, there were no women,' Velshi said.

'Nonsensical': Aviation expert bashes 'Old Donald''s deadly Potomac crash theories 'We have a long list of problems that need to be addressed. ' Instead, we're talking about a nonsensical issue that is not based in fact,' says FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher Bill McGee, who says criticisms of DEI distract from and work against a critical staffing shortage at the FAA. McGee also discusses the dangerous politicization of the FAA and the increasing influence of Elon Musk over the aviation industry.

JD Vance backs 'Old Donald''s DEI claims after D.C. plane crash

"The president made very clear that he wasn't blaming anybody, but he was being very explicit about the fact that DEI policies have led our air traffic controllers to be short staffed," Vance said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "That is a scandal."

'Old Donald' did not provide evidence to back up his claims during a Thursday afternoon press conference where he railed against his predecessors and DEI initiatives, and drew widespread condemnation from Democrats and industry representatives.

Angry 'Old Donald' Snaps at Journos who Harshly Expose His Plane Crash Drivel

He then seethed at reporters who dared to ask tough questions about his claims. This is an early indication that he will fall back on far-right obsessions at the most sensitive moments. We talked to Juliette Kayyem, a former senior Department of Homeland Security official who has a new piece for The Atlantic about what might have led to the crash.

'Old Donald''s air-crash response shows how deep he sits in the right-wing bubble

It wasn't surprising that 'Old Donald' turned a gathering ostensibly focused on sharing information with the public into a conversation focused on himself and his politics, that it became an airing of grievances and an effort to pass the buck. No one even moderately familiar with 'Old Donald' would be taken aback by that. Instead, it was jarring ' a visceral reminder of how different Trum's approach to the position is than any prior president save himself.

That someone on the right would blame the collision on DEI was predictable, given the alacrity with which such allegations have arisen in the past. Whenever anything goes wrong, some on the right blame it on DEI. 'Old Donald' wasn't even the first Republican elected official to make the claim.

'We had the highest standard that you could have' for hiring air traffic controllers, 'Old Donald' said of his first term in office, 'and then they changed it back. That was Biden.' What Joe Biden promoted, he said, reading from the Federal Aviation Administration's website, was expanding the pool of job candidates to include more people with disabilities. Part of the FAA's 'diversity and inclusion' hiring plan, the agency described that goal as being as 'integral to achieving [its] mission of ensuring safe and efficient travel.'

Driving the news: Buttigieg defended his record as Transportation Secretary, saying, "we put safety first, drove down close calls, grew Air Traffic Control, and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch."

"As families grieve, 'Old Donald' should be leading, not lying," Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg also said that "one of ['Old Donald''s] first acts was to fire and suspend some of the key personnel who helped keep our skies safe."

"Time for the to show actual leadership and explain what he will do to prevent this from happening again," he added.

Sean Duffy, the former reality TV star turned transportation secretary, was asked Thursday morning about how normal it was for military helicopters and other aircraft to get clearance to cross a potentially busy flight path.

“I don’t want to go into too much detail about the information we have from the FAA, but obviously it is not standard to have aircraft collide. I want to be clear on that.”

Duffy was quickly lambasted for stating the painfully obvious.

“I’m starting to think the guy from MTV’s The Real World and Road Rules All Stars might not have a lot of expertise in transportation issues, particularly aviation safety,” one X user wrote.

“Just imagine if Pete Buttigieg said this,” said another, in reference to Biden’s transportation secretary.

Those investigations can be lengthy. The final report on TWA Flight 800, for example, took four years.

It comes after a conservative group, the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), called on the technology giant to abolish its DEI policies, saying they expose firms to "litigation, reputational and financial risks".

Apple's directors say the NCPPR's proposal is unnecessary because the company has appropriate checks and balances in place.

"Old Donald's" administration moved Tuesday to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off.

Several companies have pulled back DEI programs amid backlash from a conservative activist.

Companies that have withdrawn or toned down DEI initiatives include Meta, McDonald's, and Walmart.

Many of these companies have faced pressure from conservatives to roll back their policies. Meta and Walmart are two of the latest companies to roll back their diversity, equity, and inclusion plans.

The move away from DEI policies is part of an ongoing wave of backlash against diversity programs at American companies.

Tech companies such as Microsoft, Meta, and Zoom cut DEI programs last year, and law firms, including Winston & Strawn, faced lawsuits for affirmative action.

The lawsuit against McDonald's echoes dozens of other cases challenging corporate and government DEI efforts unleashed in the wake of the 2023 Supreme Court decision barring affirmative action in college admissions. Advertisement

Last week, as McDonal's announced changes following an audit of its DEI policies, it said it had spent last year assessing how the 2023 Supreme Court ruling 'may impact corporations such as McDonald's and that it had 'benchmarked our approach to other companies who are also reevaluating their own programs.'

DEI encompasses a wide range of practices designed to diversify companies, schools and organizations and improve access to opportunity for people who have been historically marginalized.

Joe Biden took office promising to create an administration that looked like America, and he delivered. Half of his cabinet appointments are people of color, according to Inclusive America, a nonprofit organization that puts out a government diversity scorecard. His cabinet included the first Black defense secretary (Lloyd Austin), the first female Treasury secretary (Janet Yellen), the first Native American cabinet member (Deb Haaland, interior secretary) and the first Senate-confirmed openly gay cabinet member (Pete Buttigieg, transportation secretary).

Too often, critics have labeled this commitment to diversity as politically correct window dressing or a source of government bloat. But when diversity is done right, it can be a crucial strategy for bolstering American power. The United States attracts the world’s best and brightest because they can rise here and eventually help run the place. Newcomers to China, Russia and Iran can’t expect the same thing. That makes diversity in the ranks of the federal government a big comparative advantage.

I recommended the person from the African American background because I recognized that the other student was likely to have more internship opportunities. I didn't change or lower the standards but gave someone an opportunity, all other things being equal."

The longtime media figure began his article by slamming Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs as “literally destroying businesses.” Gasparino then took aim at the vice president, writing that “the American public may soon be subjected to DEI writ large in the next president of the United States, if Kamala Harris finds her way to the top of the Democratic ticket.”

The bottom line: Companies started caring about diversity a lot more after a flurry of lawsuits — with employees alleging race and sex discrimination — in the 1990s and early 2000s, as this Harvard Business Review piece explains.