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The Guardian
14-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Creating art under Trump will become harder but it will remain vital
One of the most pernicious effects of a bully's intimidation is making victims afraid of being true to themselves, because it's the essential and authentic parts of them that incite the bully's contempt. During his first week in office Donald Trump issued a blitzkrieg of executive orders. Among them, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity and Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.' According to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, among the things these orders direct the administration's agencies and staff to do are: Terminate diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, positions, and programs in the federal government; terminate equity-related grants and contracts; and repeal prior executive orders designed to ensure equal opportunity in the workplace, including a decades-old executive order from the Johnson Administration ... ' In the art scene these moratoriums had almost immediate consequence. Cheryl Edwards, a visual artist and curator based in Washington DC, had been working on an exhibition titled Before the Americas which was to be mounted at the Art Museum of the Americas, a cultural venue managed by the Organization of American States (OAS), an organization established in 1948 that includes all 35 independent nations of the western hemisphere. In 2021 Edwards was approached by the current museum director, Adriana Ospina, and the previous director, Pablo Zúñiga, to, in her words, curate an exhibition to include African American artists in the DC area. They agreed on a framework engaging the question 'Because we are people in a society that existed before slavery, how does that manifest itself in the work of artists in this area and the work of artists in their collection?' She was given a budget of $20,000 (with a $5,000 curator's fee), the money being allocated by the previous US ambassador to the OAS under Joe Biden, Francisco O Mora. Edwards's show was scheduled to open on 21 March, but she was informed by Ospina on 6 February that her show was 'terminated'. Edwards attests this happened 'because it is DEI'. Similarly, Andil Gosine, a Canadian artist and curator, who is also a professor of environmental arts and justice at York University in Toronto, invested several years into an exhibition at the same museum. His show, titled Nature's Wild with Andil Gosine, was essentially a collaborative project with 50 artists, writers and technicians exploring the themes he had examined in his book of the same title. It was to include artwork by a dozen artists from across the Americas, many of them LGBTQ+ people of color. He received a phone call from Ospina on 5 February informing him that the show had been canceled, despite none of the funding for it coming from OAS (that came from Canada Council). For him that that was 'heartbreaking news'. He says: 'This is the most time, money and heart I've put into anything. This was going to be the pinnacle of my last 15 years of work in the arts.' With his background in international relations (working at the World Bank after graduate school) Gosine understood that the museum's response had to do with fear of losing their budget by showcasing queer artists in the wake of yet another executive order, this one promising a process of 'Reviewing United States Support to all International Organizations'. He explains: 'This is a content question, a gamble on how to deal with a shifting political tide: to conform enough, sacrifice some people, sacrifice your values to survive, and then maybe not get the budget.' According to the Congressional Research Service, in 2023 OAS had a budget of $145.2m, with the US contributing 57% of that. Having the United States rescind their support would clearly lacerate the organization's operations. Nevertheless, Gosine thinks that their anticipatory acquiescence may be for nought. He asks how an organization that is fundamentally concerned with human rights and social justice can reinvent itself enough to mollify this vengeful and disdainful regime. The cancelation of art exhibitions negatively impacts the lives of curators, but these executive orders have an even more corrosive effect on the lives of artists – particularly those whose immigration status is in flux. Erika Hirugami, a formerly undocumented Mexican-Japanese immigrant, doctoral candidate at UCLA, and Los Angeles-based curator who has been working in the arts for 10 years, told me that the pressures placed on immigrants impel them to erase themselves, anticipating law enforcement officials incarcerating and deporting them. She attests that she knows more than 80 artists who 'are terrified because having an exhibition at a museum that says that this artist is undocumented signals a reality that generates a kind of violence'. To better understand this, it helps to think of the work of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who extensively studied European art museum visitors in the 1960s, concerned with why most art museum visitor profiles seemed to be correlated with a certain socio-economic class. What he found was that given the proliferation of middle-class aesthetics throughout the museum, the majority of working-class people self-selected to not attend, feeling that the museum was not the place for them. He called this de facto rejection of the poor and working class 'symbolic violence', meaning a non-physical violence expressed through the imposition of social norms by a group with greater social power. Worse still, these norms are internalized by all social groups who come to believe that social hierarchy and inequality are natural and inevitable. Hirugami explains that for artists who are undocumented, this administration has sought to normalize living in fear. Practically this means that some artists now forgo being paid for their work for fear of having their means of remuneration traced. Thus, their labor goes unrecognized and unpaid. To protect themselves some artists, according to Hirugami, go 'zero social', making themselves digitally invisible by taking down their websites and social media pages. Arleene Correa Valencia, a formerly undocumented artist living in Napa, California, understands this dread. 'There's no handbook to how to lose that fear,' she says. Valencia was an enrollee in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, and a college student during the previous Trump administration, when she was under almost constant threat of losing her scholarship and means of staying in the country legally. Even now, having achieved permanent resident status, she still worries. 'I still feel like I'm very much a target, especially having come to my residency as a Dreamer. There is this feeling that I did it the wrong way.' Less than two months after taking charge of the federal government, Trump and his agents have devised ways to not only erase certain artists and certain types of art; but also to compel these artists to erase themselves, in the name of self-protection. This is exactly the opposite of their most essential work: to engage the public to experience their work and to move them toward transformation. What is a possible solution? Valencia turns toward her art. She says: My practice has changed in that now I'm more grounded in knowing that my people have this beautiful language of painting. And with that I also, tattooed my head to recognize, my Indigenous background and my connection to Mexico. This is the time where we have to make our markings known, not just on our bodies, but in our work, marks that are true to ourselves.' Indeed, it's crucial to refuse the option of doing violence to oneself by denying those very aspects of the self targeted in the culture war being waged by this administration. To maintain who you are can be its own kind of victory.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. Companies Scaling Back DEI Efforts Amid Trumps Orders
President Donald Trump signs an Executive Order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. Credit - Chris Kleponis—Getty Images President Donald Trump has been targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at the federal level, and the impact is being felt far and wide. On Jan. 20, Trump's first day back in the Oval Office, he signed an Executive Order titled 'Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,' which states that the efforts 'demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination.' Trump then directed all federal DEI staff be placed on paid leave and, eventually, laid off. In another Executive Order, titled 'Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,' Trump reversed multiple previous efforts from the past 50 years that attempted to increase diversity and address discrimination. Read More: What Is DEI and What Challenges Does It Face Amid Trump's Executive Orders? Though a federal judge has, for now, largely blocked the Executive Orders that seek to end government support for programs promoting DEI, the seeds of anti-DEI measures have already been planted. A post titled "DEI is dead under the Trump Administration" was uploaded to the White House's social media accounts on Feb. 20. Trump has fired multiple military officers as a part of his campaign with new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) shuttered its DEI office in December 2024, before Trump returned to the White House. In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said it 'never should have been opened." Trump's efforts at the federal level have not just affected the government. His focus on DEI—which he had also targeted throughout his campaign—comes as major companies also scale back on their DEI initiatives, some in small ways, others by dismantling full branches of their organizations . Here are the major companies that have scaled back, or fully shuttered, their DEI efforts amid Trump's targeting of the initiatives. Pepsi wrote in an internal memo, reported by Reuters on the week of Feb. 17, that it will end DEI workforce representation goals at the company, impacting managerial roles and those at its supplier base, according to a memo from PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta. The diversity page on PepsiCo's hiring website is now labelled as 'missing.' The memo also stated that the business—which includes many snack and beverage brands from Gatorade to Doritos—will prioritize sponsorships that promote business growth. Pepsi's stance is in contrast to its rival Coca-Cola, who has remained committed to DEI initiatives, stating that one of its goals as a company is 'to be 50% led by women globally by 2030' and 'to have race and ethnicity representation reflect national census data at all levels.' On Feb. 11, Axios reported that media giant Disney would be shifting its DEI efforts, utilizing a note to employees sent by chief human resources officer Sonia Coleman. Coleman reportedly said that Disney will stop its 'Reimagine Tomorrow' initiative—launched to highlight stories and talent from underrepresented communities—and replace certain diversity-related performance factors at the company. Coleman also reportedly said the company will remove content disclaimers that run before certain movies, including Dumbo, which express that the movie 'includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of peoples or cultures'— a practice that began at Disney in October 2020. A memo from PBS CEO Paula Kerger confirmed in February that the public broadcaster will be ceasing its DEI initiatives, which Kerger said was to 'ensure that we are complying with the President's Executive Order.' She also announced that DEI staffers Gina Leow and Cecilia Loving would be leaving the company. PBS receives funding for its children's programming through the U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation, filtered through the private Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The news came not long after Trump's head of the Federal Communications Commission ordered an investigation into both PBS and NPR over sponsorships and commercials. Prominent banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Huntington, and Citigroup are scaling back on DEI efforts, both in terms of public facing mentions of DEI and internal programs focusing on diversity. In JPMorgan Chase's annual regulatory filing for 2024, the company said it 'has been and expects that it will continue to be criticized by activists, politicians, and other members of the public concerning business practices or positions taken by JPMorgan Chase with respect to matters of public policy (such as diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives).' Tech giant Google scrapped its diversity hiring goals amid Trump's Executive Order. Google brings certain services to the federal government. Per a memo to employees from the company's chief people officer Fiona Cicconi—published by The Verge—Google is reevaluating its DEI programs 'to comply with recent court decisions and U.S. Executive Orders on this topic.' Google's calendar product also no longer displays some observances, including the start of Black History Month on Feb. 1, Women's History Month on March 1, and Holocaust Remembrance Day. The parent company of Instagram and Facebook announced in January, prior to Trump's White House return, that they were scaling back their DEI programs. This includes cutting the Meta DEI team, ending inclusion programs more generally, no longer using the diverse-slate hiring approach for hiring, and ending goals to source business suppliers from diverse-owned businesses. In early January, the Washington Post reported that Amazon had removed several mentions of DEI, Black people, and LGBTQ+ persons from its 'Policy Positions' page. A memo sent to employees and obtained by Bloomberg shared that the company was 'winding down outdated programs and materials' and 'focusing on programs with proven outcomes.' In an escalation, Amazon's annual report for 2024, filed in February 2025, had no mention of diversity or inclusion, despite the fact that the company's 2023 report included mention of the two phrases as something they 'focus on…to hire and develop the best talent.' Read More: Civil and Human Rights Organizations Sue Trump Administration Over DEI, Gender Orders In Nov. 2024, Boeing announced it would be dismantling its DEI team. The company's former vice president of DEI, Sara Bowen, left in November. Announcing the move on LinkedIn, she said: 'It has been the privilege of my lifetime to lead Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the Boeing company these past 5+ years. Our team strived every day to support the evolving brilliance and creativity of our workforce. The team achieved so much—sometimes imperfectly, never easily—and dreamed of doing much more still. All of it has been worth it.' Discount chain Target announced soon after Trump returned to the White House that they would be ending their DEI hiring goals, stopping annual reports to external groups like the Human Rights Campaign—which measures inclusion for employees—and ending a program focused on carrying more products from Black and minority-owned businesses. The news came before Florida's new Attorney General, James Uthmeier, filed a lawsuit with America First Legal against the store chain, claiming they 'misled investors' by DEI initiatives, arguing that it cost shareholders money. Shortly before Trump returned to the Oval Office, fast food company McDonald's announced that it would retire its 'Supply Chain's Mutual Commitment to DEI pledge in favor of a more integrated discussion with suppliers about inclusion as it relates to business performance.' They also stated that the diversity team will now be called the 'Global Inclusion Team,' and that they are stopping general representation goals within the company to focus on 'embed[ing] inclusion practices that grow' the business. In late 2024, before Trump's Executive Orders but amid his and some other Republicans' calls for DEI initiatives to end, Walmart announced it would phase out several diversity programs and goals in its workplaces. The retailer will no longer offer DEI training to its employees, the Washington Post reported, and the company will reportedly no longer sell some of its LGBTQ+ merchandise, according to CNBC. In August 2024, Harley-Davidson announced that it had ended its DEI programs. In a statement posted to X, the company said that they do not have hiring quotas and 'no longer have supplier diversity spend goals.' 'We are saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks, designed to divide the Harley-Davidson community,' the statement read. Retail company Lowe's shared in an internal memo, obtained by the Associated Press, in August 2024, highlighting the fact they would be scaling back DEI policies as a result of the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling against affirmative action and due to pushback the company was receiving online. Contact us at letters@
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Civil rights groups sue Trump over anti-DEIA executive orders
A trio of civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday charging that three of President Donald Trump's executive orders attacking diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in the federal government violate their free speech rights and hinder their ability to help marginalized communities. Through Trump's orders barring references to transgender people or support of DEIA programs within the federal government, public funding for several nongovernment organizations, including the three plaintiffs, are at risk of being cut. As a result, the civil rights organizations — the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and AIDS Foundation Chicago — said in their lawsuit that they will be less able to help "people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and/or people with disabilities overcome systemic barriers to access housing, education, employment, and healthcare stemming from discrimination, biases, and inequalities.' Lambda Legal and the Legal Defense Fund, which are representing the civil rights organizations, said in a separate statement that the 'orders will severely limit the organizations' ability to provide critical social and health services.' Two of the orders specified in the lawsuit are the 'Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing' and the 'Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,' which Trump signed on Jan. 20, his first day back in office. The third executive order cited in the lawsuit, 'Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,' was issued Jan. 21. The lawsuit names as defendants Trump and more than a dozen key members of his administration including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 'Protecting the civil rights and expanding opportunities for all Americans is a key priority of the Trump Administration, which is why he took decisive actions to terminate unlawful DEI preferences in the federal government," Harrison Fields, a White House principal deputy press secretary, told NBC News in a statement Wednesday. "Every man and woman in this great country should have the opportunity to go as far as their hard work, individual initiative, and competence can take them. In America, grit, excellence, and perseverance are our strengths.' Previously, Trump's executive orders have labeled DEIA programs to help marginalized groups as 'discriminatory' and his supporters have tried to spin what critics have called attacks on the transgender community as attempts to protect cisgender women. 'While the President may have his viewpoint, as flawed and discriminatory as it may be, the First Amendment bars him from unduly imposing his viewpoint on federal contractors and grantees,' the lawsuit states. Also, Trump's executive orders 'could prohibit Plaintiffs from engaging in any targeted effort to help a specific group of people facing unfair disadvantages." Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said in the press release announcing the lawsuit that targeting DEIA was 'discriminatory at best and an attempt at institutionalized economic oppression at its worst.' Janai Nelson, who heads the Legal Defense Fund, agreed. 'The three orders we are challenging today perpetuate false and longstanding stereotypes that Black people and other underrepresented groups lack skills, talent, and merit — willfully ignoring the discriminatory barriers that prevent a true meritocracy from flourishing,' Nelson said. The lawsuit also noted that the language in Trump's executive orders 'are 'extraordinarily vague.' In the press release announcing the lawsuit, Lambda Legal and the Legal Defense Fund included testimonials from a Black man with HIV named Will, who was identified as an AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) program 'participant and caseworker for another organization.' 'Now, as I work in the HIV field," he said, "I am deeply concerned about the threat these orders represent to AFC's ability to serve our communities if they can't even name the issues our people are facing.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
19-02-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
Civil rights groups sue Trump over anti-DEIA executive orders
A trio of civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday charging that three of President Donald Trump's executive orders attacking diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in the federal government violate their free speech rights and hinder their ability to help marginalized communities. Through Trump's orders barring references to transgender people or support of DEIA programs within the federal government, public funding for several nongovernment organizations, including the three plaintiffs, are at risk of being cut. As a result, the civil rights organizations — the National Urban League, the National Fair Housing Alliance, and AIDS Foundation Chicago — said in their lawsuit that they will be less able to help "people of color, women, LGBTQ people, and/or people with disabilities overcome systemic barriers to access housing, education, employment, and healthcare stemming from discrimination, biases, and inequalities.' Lambda Legal and the Legal Defense Fund, which are representing the civil rights organizations, said in a separate statement that the 'orders will severely limit the organizations' ability to provide critical social and health services.' Two of the orders specified in the lawsuit are the 'Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing' and the 'Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,' which Trump signed on Jan. 20, his first day back in office. The third executive order cited in the lawsuit, 'Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,' was issued Jan. 21. The lawsuit names as defendants Trump and more than a dozen key members of his administration including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, and Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 'Protecting the civil rights and expanding opportunities for all Americans is a key priority of the Trump Administration, which is why he took decisive actions to terminate unlawful DEI preferences in the federal government," said Harrison Fields, a White House principal deputy press secretary, told NBC News in a statement on Wednesday. "Every man and woman in this great country should have the opportunity to go as far as their hard work, individual initiative, and competence can take them. In America, grit, excellence, and perseverance are our strengths.' Previously, Trump's executive orders have labeled DEIA programs to help marginalized groups as 'discriminatory' and his supporters have tried to spin what critics have called attacks on the transgender community as attempts to protect cisgender women. 'While the President may have his viewpoint, as flawed and discriminatory as it may be, the First Amendment bars him from unduly imposing his viewpoint on federal contractors and grantees,' the lawsuit states. Also, Trump's executive orders 'could prohibit Plaintiffs from engaging in any targeted effort to help a specific group of people facing unfair disadvantages." Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said in the press release announcing the lawsuit that targeting DEIA was 'discriminatory at best and an attempt at institutionalized economic oppression at its worst.' Janai Nelson, who heads the Legal Defense Fund, agreed. 'The three orders we are challenging today perpetuate false and longstanding stereotypes that Black people and other underrepresented groups lack skills, talent, and merit — willfully ignoring the discriminatory barriers that prevent a true meritocracy from flourishing,' Nelson said. The lawsuit also noted that the language in Trump's executive orders 'are 'extraordinarily vague.' In the press release announcing the lawsuit, Lambda Legal and the Legal Defense Fund included testimonials from a Black man with HIV named Will, who was identified as an AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) program 'participant and caseworker for another organization.' 'Now, as I work in the HIV field," he said, "I am deeply concerned about the threat these orders represent to AFC's ability to serve our communities if they can't even name the issues our people are facing.'
