The United States has transformed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) into the new N-word. Those three letters have been made into a racist dog whistle used to justify discrimination against Black people under the guise of merit and fairness.

Donald Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the legislative rollback of DEI was never about fairness, but about maintaining white male control in education, workplaces and the government. Trump’s use of the word DEI has become a coded way to discriminate against women, Black people and disabled people.

DEI has undergone a lengthy transformation since its conception during the Civil Rights Movement. John F. Kennedy introduced the term “affirmative action” in his 1961 Executive Order 10925, requiring government agencies to ensure hiring and treating individuals fairly, regardless of their race, creed, color or national origin.

Over time, this evolved into what we now refer to as DEI; policies focusing on a wide range of underrepresented and marginalized peoples. DEI serves as a means to level the playing field for these groups.

The backlash against these initiatives is not new; it stems from a long history of rejecting progressive policies. Racially coded language is deeply rooted in the Civil Rights era and continues to seep into the 21st century.

Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, employed political strategies that skewed the course of Civil Rights. During his presidency, Nixon became known for his “Southern Strategy,” in which he intentionally appealed to white voters by aligning with racist sentiments without overtly opposing Civil Rights through coded racism.

These “issues” are callbacks to specific ways Nixon opposed Civil Rights under the nose of marginalized groups. Nixon pushed for “law and order,” and while this may seem to be about lowering crime rates, this phrase symbolized the opposition to the Civil Rights protest and the suppression of Black communities.

Along with this, Nixon’s “states’ rights” advocacy was just thinly veiled opposition to federal Civil Rights laws. By pushing for this, he appealed to white voters who resisted desegregation.

Lee Atwater, advisor for former presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, once said of the southern strategy’s evolution, “From a direct appeal to racism to one that is ‘much more abstract’ and uses issues like states’ rights, busing and later taxes and cutting social services to communicate the same message: ‘Blacks get hurt worse than whites.’”

Donald Trump parallels much of the Nixon administration’s racially coded rhetoric and policies to transform DEI into a new racial dog whistle.

Trump has continuously suggested that DEI causes incompetence and ignores “merit-based hiring,” which echoes Nixon’s views on affirmative action. Executive Order 11478 stated, “It has long been the policy of the United States Government to provide equal opportunity in Federal employment on the basis of merit and fitness and without discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

This executive order was later amended by Executive Order 13672 to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Although the executive order aligned with Trump’s views on merit-based hiring he still revoked it, along with other DEI executive orders.

Trump’s view that DEI lowers competence and standards has led him to use it as a scapegoat for economic, social and institutional failures. During his White House briefing, he blamed the Boeing plane crash on DEI hiring. When asked why he thought that he said, “Because I have common sense, OK? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t. We want brilliant people doing this.” However, according to Boeing’s 2024 report their team is still mostly white males.

Linking DEI to this tragedy perpetuates the idea that Black professionals and other marginalized groups are underqualified for their jobs.

Trump even blamed DEI for the California wildfires. Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say, “DEI means people DIE,” in regards to Kristin Crowley, the chief of the LA Fire Department, being an out lesbian woman.

DEI has become is a political rallying cry, claiming that white citizens are victims of DEI. This rhetoric is part of a pattern in American history where efforts to create racial equality are twisted into attacks on white people. In a book titled, “White Rage,” author Carol Anderson says that, “every time African Americans have made advances towards full participation in our democracy, white reaction has fueled a deliberate, relentless rollback of their gains.”

Victimizing white citizens ignores the systemic barriers Black people face. It does all that while weaponizing the idea of the Black community’s advancement by evoking fear from the white community that the societal structure that favored them would flip.

Besides, Trump’s meritocracy advocacy is misplaced. The fight for a “meritocracy” is consistently applied selectively. Merit is important when hiring individuals covered by DEI; however, legacy, loyalty and wealth seem to go unquestioned.

This is evident in Trump’s hiring practices. Trump hired his family with little consideration for their work experience. For instance, Trump appointed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a senior advisor despite his minimal experience in the field.

Trump meticulously selected individuals for cabinet positions based on loyalty rather than experience. The Trump administration implemented detailed “loyalty tests,” rejecting applicants who did not align with his views. For example, Pete Hegseth, known for his support of Trump, was nominated as Secretary of Defense despite his limited defense policy experience.

Clearly–the rollback of DEI is not about maintaining meritocracy if these are Trump’s hiring methods. Rather, it’s about allowing organizations to return to traditional hiring structures that favored white males. These DEI rollbacks claim to eliminate racial preferences, but the Trump administration has seemingly forgotten that there is already a racial preference, and there has always been a racial preference.

If Trump cared about fairness and merit, legacy admissions would be removed and systemic hiring practices would be addressed. However, the opposite is happening. The removal of DEI is done to assert the dominance of white males in education, government and business.

So, the next time you hear Trump say DEI this and DEI that, what he meant to say is n—- this and n—- that.