Amazon’s quiet-as-kept removal of protections for Black and LGBTQIA+ workers signals a seismic shift in corporate diversity policies as President Trump’s administration rapidly implements the Heritage Foundation’s controversial anti-everything seasoned Project 2025 blueprint—one that he once sloughed off as nonsense. And now it appears he is salivating at the opportunity at a hard reset to an absolute return to white heterosexual male normativity as America’s default setting.
“Project 2025 in full effect, it’s time we make a mass exodus people,” wrote Twitter user @chantgod, responding to Jeff Bezos’ policy changes.
The online retail giant stripped multiple equity commitments from its websites, including solidarity pledges with Black employees and gender-affirming healthcare documentation. Amazon’s diversity section morphed from “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” to “Inclusive Experiences and Technology,” while spokesperson Kelly Nantel confirmed—one could argue disingenuously—that the company “update[s] this page from time to time.”
Within 24 hours of taking office, Trump has already ordered all federal DEIA employees placed on administrative leave and demanded agencies purge diversity programs by Wednesday evening. His executive order declared DEIA initiatives “undermine our national unity” and promote an “unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.”
The Heritage Foundation’s 900-page Project 2025 manifesto, which Trump previously called “ridiculous and abysmal,” now guides his policy. Of his 26 Day One executive orders, Newsweek reports that 16 mirrored the program’s proposals directly. Not to be outdone, Corporate America has also aligned with the new reality. Meta pushed the ejector button on its DEI initiatives while loosening restrictions on anti-LGBTQIA+ content. McDonald’s cited the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling to justify ending its programs. Ford, Harley-Davidson, and Lowe’s followed suit.
In a callback to the anti-Communist McCarthyism era, a memo obtained by CBS News revealed agency heads must identify attempts “to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language”—matching Project 2025’s directive to eliminate terms like “equity” and “inclusion” from federal documents. In other words, these bosses’ jobs will be to snitch on anything related to those terms.
“What this is about is saying we’re no longer going to have protections in the government against discriminatory practices,” warned Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League, at an emergency civil rights roundtable Wednesday morning.
The concept of DEI, which has origins dating back to the Civil Rights era, was constructed to provide people from historically marginalized communities a chance in majority-white corporate atmospheres and other settings. The reality is that Blacks, other non-whites, and queer people were not being hired via the meritocracy these Trump acolytes are screaming about. Daniel Oppong, founder of DEI consultancy the Courage Collective: “That is the genesis of why some of these programs exist. It was an attempt to try to create workplaces where more or all people can thrive.” However interestingly enough, it will also be straight white women, who were the greatest beneficiaries of DEI initiatives, that will feel the impact.
And make no mistake, as Will Stancil tweeted, “Guys when Chris Rufo and Trump say “We’re destroying DEI, we’re salting the earth underneath it” and they’re repealing regulations that reach back to 1965, they’re not talking about corporate diversity trainings. They are talking about civil rights.”
The administration’s push extends beyond government, pressuring private companies to align with federal policy. Senator Mark Warner expressed concern: “To throw it all out and somehow go back to a workforce that’s simply made up of a bunch of folks that look like me, I’m not sure that’s in the best interest of our country.”
Amazon’s removal of its gender-affirming care benefits outline, based on World Professional Association for Transgender Health standards, particularly alarmed LGBTQIA+ advocates. The company also deleted statements supporting legislation combating racial bias in policing and expanding voting rights.
“We are not afraid. We are not intimidated,” Morial declared. But with major employers rapidly dismantling diversity infrastructure built over decades, advocates worry Project 2025’s vision of reshaping American society has already begun. Civil rights leaders now prepare for extended battles as more companies seem poised to follow Amazon and others’ lead, marking what many see as an unprecedented rollback of hard-earned social progress and workplace protections for marginalized communities.
Published: Jan 23, 2025 05:20 am