The corporate retreat from diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates is accelerating.
Bank of America is eliminating hiring policies that critics viewed as racially discriminatory after President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning federal contractors from engaging in racial discrimination in hiring practices. The financial giant is removing “aspirational” diversity targets and race-based diversity requirements for hiring and recruitment panels, aligning with Trump’s push for merit-based employment policies.
“We evaluate and adjust our programs in light of new laws, court decisions and, more recently, executive orders from the new administration,” a Bank of America spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg News. “Our goal has been and continues to be to make opportunities available for all of our clients, shareholders, teammates, and the communities we serve.”
Previously, the bank required “diverse slates” in reviewing candidates and conducting interviews for prospective employees. That practice is now being scrapped as part of a broader overhaul. The bank is also renaming its internal “Diversity and Inclusion” office to “Opportunity and Inclusion,” and its latest corporate report replaced multiple references to “diversity” with words like “talent” and “opportunity.”
Supreme Court Ruling & Trump Order Accelerate DEI’s Collapse
For years, critics have argued that the diversity and inclusion programs implemented across America’s largest corporations amounted to illegal racial discrimination. Many corporate giants expanded these efforts following the so-called “racial reckoning” of the summer of 2020, leading to increased legal and political scrutiny of race-based affirmative action policies.
Bank of America’s shift follows a landmark Supreme Court decision last year that struck down race-based affirmative action in college admissions, ruling such policies violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause. Although that ruling directly applied to higher education, corporate legal teams quickly realized its broader implications, prompting a wave of reconsiderations across corporate America.
President Trump’s executive order has further accelerated the rollback of DEI mandates. While private sector companies are not required to abandon programs based on woke DEI ideology, Bank of America is a federal contractor, making it subject to the new restrictions. […]
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