It would be silly to think, in this time of spectacular fools, that the Donald Trump administration mandate to kill diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs was simply a workplace issue. What’s happening is bigger than that, says Vernā Myers, and it will have implications for years to come. The US government has declared war on American culture.
The removal of DEI efforts doesn’t just impact the workforces at specific companies, it also impacts what those companies produce, their cultural output. Removing diversity programs limits the voices present when decisions are made about features on social media platforms or what TV show to make. But for Myers, a longtime consultant and cultural strategist who served as Netflix’s vice president of inclusion strategy from 2018 to 2023, the administration’s anti-DEI agenda is “not about how DEI is practiced.”
“This is about the principles of equality and inclusion for all,” Myers says. “This is, ‘We are going to take down the structure of values that DEI is associated with, and by doing so we are going to pull back your civil rights.’”
Trump made a target of DEI on day one, signing an executive order to end “radical and wasteful” preferencing in federal agencies. He followed that up with another order aimed squarely at DEI programs in the private sector. His attorney general Pam Bondi has called for investigations into companies that uphold DEI standards.
A federal judge subsequently blocked Trump’s DEI orders, but that hasn’t stopped companies from scaling back on their initiatives. Warner Bros. Discovery changed the title of its DEI program to simply “Inclusion.” Paramount put a stop to several policies. Disney changed the diversity and inclusion factors it used to determine executive compensation. Per a report in Axios, the company also altered some of the content advisory disclaimers that ran before older titles on Disney+.
Companies like Meta, meanwhile, were eager to embrace a corporate culture of “masculine energy,” because it aligns with the Trump administration’s “warrior” ethos. It also preemptively ditched its third-party fact-checking program and paid moderators in favor of a system that is similar to Community Notes on X. The move, coupled with changes to its Community Guidelines, has exposed users across Facebook, Threads, and Instagram to more hate speech and abuse.
In Hollywood, there is a shift happening, a move toward programming geared to Trump’s America. Law-and-order shows are making a comeback (Prime Video’s On Call; A+E’s Ozark Law) as broadcast-style TV slowly reasserts its dominance. Even the first breakout show of the year—Paradise on Hulu—is all about keeping order in a world ripped apart by nuclear warfare and climate disaster. Rolling back the studios’ diversity initiatives will likely only ensure this continues.
Last month, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr, a Trump loyalist who previously said he would end the agency’s DEI efforts if appointed, opened a probe into NBC parent company Comcast, promising to take action against the telecom giant if it found “any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI.”
