A brief history of the origins of the anti-DEI movement

It may seem like the crusade against DEI initiatives sprang out of nowhere in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision on affirmative action. But the arguments of DEI opponents—who claim the initiatives give minorities an unfair advantage and actively discriminate against white males—echo messages that have been circulating for more than 150 years.

The Reconstruction Era. After the Civil War and abolishment of slavery, structural barriers prevented newly freed slaves and their families from accessing housing and work. Meanwhile, many white Americans felt wronged by Reconstruction and felt that freedom and equality would harm White people, according to the Equal Justice Initiative.

Despite opposition, including from then-President Andrew Jackson, Congress passed the 14th Amendment, granting Black Americans the right to citizenship and equal protections.

During this time, a concept emerged known as “white backlash,” which describes white Americans’ anger about civil rights progress. Some scholars argue it persists to this day.

The Civil Rights movement. Fast-forward to the 1950s, and Black Americans still didn’t have equal protections or employment access. While many made gains in the federal workforce, racial segregation (and the racial wealth gap) persisted, stemming from a 1913 order from President Woodrow Wilson.

Jim Crow laws in the South made it especially difficult for Black Americans to thrive, contributing to a 10-to-1 wage gap between them and white Americans (a ratio that stands at 6-to-1 today).

When President John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, he committed to correcting some racial inequities. He signed an executive order on affirmative action and created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity to reduce workplace discrimination based on race and ethnic background, but many protested. Some Southern states ignored his direction, and continued hiring mostly white workers.

In 1964, under President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Civil Rights Act narrowly passed Congress. The legislation aimed to prevent workplace discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, and gender, and expanded the committee created under Kennedy to become the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Yet, 31% of Americans opposed the law, including 66% white Southerners (66%), according to Gallup. Some felt it “went too far” and would give Black workers preferential treatment in the hiring process.

Enter the lawsuits. In the 1970s, for example, United Steelworkers of America was sued by a union worker named Brian Weber for setting aside a portion of training positions for Black workers. Weber, who was white, asserted that he was denied a position because of his company’s affirmative action plan, but the Supreme Court ruled against him.

“A really important part of the language of backlash that white people used in the 1960s was that they really emphasized their own fears, which were typically unfounded about what the consequences of racial equality would be,” Lawrence Glickman, American history professor at Cornell University, told CBS News in 2020. “A lot of proponents of the white backlash saw racial equality as some special gift, some special demand by African Americans, when it was simply a demand for social justice and equality.”

Sound familiar?

The Reagan Administration. The 40th president didn’t just coin the “Make America Great Again” slogan, but the concept of “reverse discrimination,” according to the Washington Post. He and many white Americans believed the Civil Rights Movement had turned into “anti-white racism,” and tried to reverse some of the work done in the 1960s. Like many of today’s DEI opponents, they focused on affirmative action and color blindness.

Reagan’s Justice Department filed suit over affirmative action programs (like the current DOJ has indicated it might), but the Supreme Court rebuked it. His Labor Department (which was re-staffed similar to changes in 2025) also didn’t enforce affirmative action mandates. He did not want companies tried for discrimination, but rather to address complaints internally.

Reagan tried to reverse course on Johnson’s affirmative action policies, but civil rights leaders and businesses protested, vowing to stick with their diversity programming, the Washington Post reported.

“We want a color-blind society. A society, that in the words of Dr. King, judges people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” Reagan said during a 1985 radio address. While he admitted that discrimination was still a problem for the country, Reagan also asserted that the laws put into place in the 1960s were unfairly excluding white workers.

2025. Companies are facing another wave of anti-DEI sentiment. Some, like Costco and Apple, have loudly rebuked it, while others, including Target and Meta, have folded under pressure.

“It’s the latest term that serves as a proxy for race, and it’s used as a politically expedient slur, as a way to stoke white grievances and to give a convenient scapegoat to whatever ails our nation,” Timothy Welbeck, the director of Temple University’s Center for Anti-Racism, told the New York Times.

Robby Starbuck, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Christopher Rufo—the names of the movement have changed over the past 150+ years, but the message has not. What remains unclear, however, is how businesses will move forward.