While President Donald Trump and his allies at the Heritage Foundation work to gut diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across America, a dangerous narrative continues to spread—that DEI is some handout to Black Americans. But the truth, backed by decades of data and recent studies, reveals a different picture entirely: the primary beneficiaries of DEI have not been Black people, but white women.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has waged a relentless war on what his administration calls “woke” policies. His rhetoric has stoked resentment against DEI, falsely painting it as favoritism for Black Americans. Yet, according to experts and multiple studies, white women have long been the ones gaining the most from these very initiatives. “Actually, everyone but Black folks benefit [from DEI],” Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett said in an earlier published interview. “We were always the intended target to benefit, but the way that most policies are written, people learned how to game the system.”
Reecie Colbert, a political commentator, told the Root that this false narrative has been pushed strategically. “The notion that Black people are the primary beneficiaries of DEI, despite evidence to the contrary, has fueled irrational hostility—often from those who benefited most,” she said.
According to data compiled by Zippia and cited in The Root and Philly Women’s Network, 76% of Chief Diversity Officers in corporate America are white, and 54% are white women. A Forbes analysis found that white women hold nearly 19% of all C-suite positions, while women of color account for just 4%. White women have also received the lion’s share of affirmative action benefits in both employment and education.
A 2025 study cited by the League of Women Voters revealed that as early as 1997, at least 6 million white women held positions they would not otherwise have obtained without affirmative action.
Yet Trump continues to vilify DEI, recently expanding tariffs that hurt companies like Nike and Adidas while using “anti-white” rhetoric to justify his DEI rollbacks. These moves are not just cultural, they are economic. McKinsey & Company reports that companies with diverse teams are 35% more likely to outperform their industry peers financially.
Meanwhile, Black professionals are still fighting to be seen and supported. The 2019 Coqual report, Being Black in Corporate America, found that Black professionals are more likely to face racial prejudice at work, less likely to receive sponsorship, and more likely to be passed over for promotions—even when equally or more qualified. Lanaya Irvin, CEO of Coqual, noted the disconnect. “The barriers Black employees face to advancement seem to be largely invisible to their white colleagues,” Irvin stated in the report. With DEI programs now being slashed from corporations and universities and Trump purging federal workers and programs that support equity, the cost is not being borne by those who’ve benefited most but by those who’ve fought hardest just to be included.
“Despite decades of DEI, white men still hold the vast majority of C-suite positions,” diversity consultant Susan X Jane stated. “No matter what the administration is saying, there is no evidence of anti-white discrimination”. Dr. Walter Greason put it plainly in a previously published interview. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives offered a compromise to narrowly tailor goals in response to white fears,” Greason stated. “And now, those same people who benefited are trying to burn it all down.”
Author
About Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Senior National Correspondent
Stacy M. Brown is Senior National Correrspondent for the National Newspaper Publishers Association's (NNPA) BlackPress USA. NNPA is the trade association of the more than 200 Black-owned community newspapers in America. He is the co-author of Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway and her son, Stevie Wonder (Simon & Schuster) and Michael Jackson: The Man Behind The Mask, An Insider's Account of the King of Pop (Select Books Publishing, Inc.)
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