It’s been a little over a year since President Donald Trump signed his executive order to dial back on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives—known as DEI—on the federal level, ultimately affecting Black people and other minorities.
The rollbacks have made their way to the business and educational worlds. Corporations nationwide made vast moves seemingly in support of the narrative pushed by the administration that “DEI is evil” when those same initiatives gave Black people, women and others of disadvantaged communities a way to shine and contribute.
“Over my life, I benefited from programs that were trying to fix what they had denied me; I don’t apologize for that at all. We keep having the same discussion and arguing the same argument—which is, we’re talented individuals; we happen to have a skin
color or a gender that’s different than the standard [in US leadership],” Ursula Burns, founding partner of Integrum and chairwoman of Teneo, said to Bloomberg.“One of the most frustrating things is that we actually give validity to these small minds, that we have to defend the fact that we are doing a good job like everybody else who is afforded the fundamentals: good education, reasonable health care, reasonable food, safe places to live.”
Organizations have worked overtime to back Trump and MAGA loyalists to take those liberties away from Black people and beyond. Shortly after the order was signed on day one of his second term, lawsuits were pushed against nonprofits like the Fearless Fund, which curated grants and opportunities for Black women business owners to succeed.
Then there was Target, which scaled back
its policies after once being labeled an advocate for diverse businesses. Moves like that are what make Jacob Walthour Jr., CEO of Blueprint Capital Advisors, feel that there has been a shift.“They’ve stolen the narrative. Not only our contributions today, but the labor, the creativity that we put into making this country what it is. We make advancements, and then we hit one of these periods where we have to deal with the backlash and the retribution, whether it was post-slavery, whether it was Reconstruction, whether it was Jim Crow,” Walthour said.
But there is a reason for worry about advancement.
Walthour pointed out that despite the backlash of DEI, Black people continue to thrive on numerous levels.
“You’ve got more Black senators than ever before. You’ve got
more Black legislators in the House of Representatives than ever before. In my industry, you’ve got more Black people running venture capital funds, private equity funds, private credit funds than ever before,” he said.“Do we believe the narrative they’re telling, or should we figure out how to keep our narrative alive and well—and defend it and make sure it’s continually amplified so our children know what the possibilities are for their lives and their careers?”
Though their unemployment have increased higher and faster than those of men, white women, or Latina workers, Black women have taken matters into their own hands.
A recent report from Wells Fargo found that Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs. Businesses owned by Black women grew by 13% between 2024 and 2025, with revenue streams increasing by roughly 6%.
“One of the benefits of the last few years is that we now have data. We know this is not a charitable endeavor to create diversity. We know 87% of teams make better choices if they’re diverse,” said Lisa Wardell, board director at American Express, Covista and Univar Solutions. “Our job is to remind people. This is a data-driven assignment now for corporate America and, frankly, for the federal government too.”
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