President Trump has revoked an Executive Order signed by then-President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1965. The purpose of the order was to enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1965 by creating guidelines for employers to follow in the workplace. This Executive Order essentially birthed what we know of as “Affirmative Action” and its offspring “DEI” which stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Ultimately, the programs from the 1965 EO directly violate the Civil Rights Act that they were meant to bolster.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The 1965 EO encourages preferential treatment based on minority status, which includes all of the aforementioned qualifiers that should not be used to discriminate. In order to give one people group preferential treatment, other groups must be discriminated against. This defeats the purpose of the Civil Rights Act.
An example of how the ’65 EO plays out is with higher education. Ivy League Universities are dominated by white and Asian students. This is seen as a problem as blacks and Hispanics are “underrepresented.” In order to “fix this problem”, whites and Asians are discriminated against in a variety of ways to ultimately exclude them in favor of a lesser-qualified black or Hispanic student.
SOURCES:
Trump rolls back bedrock LBJ civil rights measure, orders anti-DEI probes
Trump rescinds measure used to fight workplace discrimination for 60 years | CNN Business
Executive Order 11246—Equal Employment Opportunity | The American Presidency Project
Yale, Princeton, Duke Are Questioned Over Decline in Asian Students – The New York Times
Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Wikipedia
Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity – The White House
Why LBJ signed executive order 11246 that Trump rescinded | Reuters
Attorney explains fallout of Trump revoking 1965 equal employment opportunity order – YouTube
