Under Trump, DEI Is a Target. These Black Economic Nonprofits Are Feeling the Heat

By Leah Mallory

In the first 100 days of his presidency, Donald Trump has targeted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, signing several executive orders to ban DEI initiatives at federal agencies and businesses, and has even threatened to withdraw federal funding from schools that do not remove their DEI programs.

These orders have drawn severe backlash from institutions and the general public, leading to lawsuits against the administration, widespread protests, and even rulings preventing the enforcement of such orders.

At the local level, nonprofit organizations that engage in DEI or racial justice programming are concerned that the administration will come for them next.

Related: Amid military DEI backlash, Black veterans slam the Department of Defense’s erasure of identity months.

“I don’t want to really think about the adverse impact that could happen, but sadly, if we lost all of our funding, obviously, we would have to close our doors,” said Lisa Ranglin, founder of RIBBA, a nonprofit dedicated to eliminating the wealth gap in Rhode Island through workforce development, job training, increasing access to capital and other resources.

To maintain their tax-exempt status, nonprofits require federal approval from the IRS. Some organizations even receive government funding to carry out their programming.

RIBBA receives federal funding and is tax-exempt, so they frequently communicate with federal agencies. Langlin said that in December, they stopped hearing from their points of contact at the Small Business Administration (SBA).

“E-mails that we’ve sent have gone unanswered because those people that we were interacting with initially are no longer employed,” she said. “So it is very unsettling because it’s an unknown,” particularly in light of the mass layoffs of federal government employees..

Ranglin said that they have made small changes to prevent being targeted by the administration, but maintain their mission of mending economic disparity.

“Instead of saying the Rhode Island Black Business Association, we’re just going by our acronym RIBBA,” she said. “But we are not moving away from our core work. The work that we do is in great demand. The work that we do for the people that are walking through our doors every day, they’re counting on us.”

Other organizations like the African American Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey (AACCNJ) are advising constituents to get their assets in order.

“Business is a very serious engagement, and if you are on the margins, you can be hit with a tsunami and be wiped out. This is not the time to go at this alone,” said Dr. John E. Harmon, Sr., founder, president, and CEO of AACCNJ. “So if you’re in business, this is not the time to say I don’t do politics, because if you don’t do politics, they’re gonna do you. So your relationships with government agencies, with legislators –– you need to shore that up.”

Attorneys like McGregor Smyth, who is now the executive director of the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), a community lawyering organization, suggest that nonprofits do internal assessments.

“What you want to do right now as a nonprofit is to look at your internal policies and practices and make sure that they’re consistent with the current law,” he said. “Mostly around the anti-discrimination statute, because that’s the best way to protect your organization and to also engage in [your] mission when it’s justice and equity related.”

Head of solutions development at Clientis Technologies and attorney, Shavon Jones, recommended that nonprofits review their mission.

“You have to think about whether you want to rewrite your mission to avoid being targeted, to kind of stay out of the fray,” she said. “ So that’s the first thing you should do, is look at your mission statement.”

However, she said, the main problem that emerges from making these changes is that the administration hasn’t clearly defined what counts as DEI.

“[The administration’s] refusal to say what it is that it considers illegal makes it difficult for anyone to know how to comply with the White House’s executive orders,” she said. “Whatever they’re saying in their executive orders, the language they’re using in their executive orders is just too vague for anybody to know how to apply it so that they don’t get into trouble.”

Ritu Mahajan Estes, the directing attorney of Public Counsel’s Community Development Project, which provides technical and legal assistance to nonprofits, said that despite the changes, civil rights law remains the same. So, for organizations struggling to reconcile the executive orders with changes to their mission, she said they may find some legal protection in the equal opportunity laws.

“We still have the civil rights laws that we’ve had for decades that ensure that entities are not engaging in discrimination,” she said. “A lot of our clients who are engaging in racial justice programming, they’re not doing anything unlawful. They’re not violating any laws. They’re not discriminating by having a mission that centers Black and Brown people, or talks about discrimination, or talks about how important it is to provide equal opportunity and avenues for people to succeed.”

But she emphasized that the programs need to be inclusive.

“You want to make sure that you are not making decisions about who to include in your classes based on protected categories, such as race or gender,” she said. “So you can do outreach in certain communities, but it’s important for you to make sure that people from different communities participate in your classes. You want to make sure that you’re not setting up programs where it’s only limited to certain groups.”

Ranglin said she is unconcerned about the legal risks, stating that RIBBA doesn’t exclude anyone from their programming.

“We’re open to the public, we don’t exclude anyone. All of our programs are open to the general public,” she said. “Anyone can sign up for a program, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation… So no, we’re not worried about anything as it relates to legal ramifications.”

They are actively meeting with constituents to ensure they’re up to date with changes in the administration.

“We have lots of ways that we communicate with our clients. We have monthly meetings. We have one-on-one sessions, but we have emails, and we put stuff out on social media, ” she said.

In February, after being featured on WPRI, a local news station in Providence, Rhode Island, about uncertainty amid the DEI rollbacks, Ranglin said they faced enormous backlash.

“Some of them are racist, and some of the comments were that we weren’t good enough, we should go back to our country, and all this foolish nonsense. It was unsettling,” she said. “We actually did engage with elected officials to talk about the potential impact to us from the adverse impact as it relates to threatening phone calls and emails, and social media comments that we’ve received.”

Despite the hate and an unknown future, RIBBA and other organizations said they remain hopeful and committed to continuing their efforts to help build a more just and equitable country.

“If we stay the course and if we continue as one, Rhode Islanders, we will make it through this and we will see a brighter day,” she said. “There’s going to be challenges along the way, but we are committed to this movement. We’re committed to our neighbors and our clients, and our members. This work must continue, and we’re not running away from it.”

This story is part of the Digital Equity Local Voices Fellowship lab. The lab initiative is made possible with support from Comcast NBCUniversal.

This post appeared first at New York Amsterdam News.

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