The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is encouraging white men to report workplace discrimination. Observers say the EEOC's character and direction are changing under the second Donald Trump administration.
On the 30th, local time, The Washington Post (WP) reported that EEOC Chairperson Andrea Lucas recently posted a video on social media emphasizing the possibility of compensation, saying, "If, as a white man, you have experienced discrimination at work because of your race or sex, report it immediately." It is seen as a highly unusual move for the EEOC to openly encourage the filing of complaints.
Chairperson Lucas has defined the EEOC's new priorities as "eradicating unlawful discrimination stemming from DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs and anti-American bias," and said the agency would set discrimination based on childbirth and religion as key enforcement areas. Lucas' side says it aims to build an agency that values individual rights rather than group rights and does not get swayed by identity politics.
Established amid the Black civil rights movement of the 1960s, the EEOC has enforced federal employment laws that prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, age, and disability status. corporations with 15 or more employees in the United States are subject to the EEOC's regulations, and the agency has secured refunds of billions of dollars in damages for victims over nearly the past decade.
However, analysts say the EEOC has undergone a fundamental shift in orientation as U.S. President Donald Trump, upon beginning his second term, carried out a series of measures. Shortly after taking office this year, President Trump dismissed two Democratic EEOC Commissioners and appointed Republican Brittany Pannucio, securing a Republican majority.
In addition, President Trump ordered a scaling back of policy enforcement based on the "disparate impact doctrine," which recognizes as discrimination any policy that yields unfavorable outcomes for a particular group, a move seen as effectively changing the EEOC's core mission wholesale. The disparate impact doctrine means that when a system works to the disadvantage of a particular group, it is deemed discriminatory even absent a specific intent, and it has served as a key rationale for applying anti-discrimination laws in the United States. But Trump has criticized it as "a harmful law that ignores individual effort and achievement."
The new approach is evident in enforcement results. The EEOC filed 93 discrimination lawsuits in the 2025 fiscal year, the lowest in about 30 years. That is a sharp drop compared with the 200 to 300 suits brought annually in prior years.
The share of race and national origin discrimination cases also fell to a 10-year low, and a significant portion of them involved bias against U.S.-born workers, the so-called "anti-American bias." Intake of transgender discrimination cases was once halted but recently resumed on a limited basis centered on certain cases.
Going forward, the EEOC is expected to focus lawsuits on DEI programs, which President Trump has consistently called to abolish. Early this year, the agency ordered 20 major law firms to submit 10 years of DEI policy trend data, ratcheting up pressure. Experts say these lawsuits are likely to kick into full gear starting next year.
Experts are divided over the changes at the EEOC. Jenny Yang, who served as EEOC Chairperson under the Obama administration, criticized the agency, saying it is "abandoning its historic mission to protect vulnerable workers." By contrast, Shona Bray, legal counsel at the conservative-leaning think tank the Center for Equal Opportunity, said, "The EEOC has long overused policy tools," and assessed that "only now is it finally performing its proper role."