As the Donald Trump administration steps up enforcement targeting corporations' DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies, global sportswear company Nike has become a target.
On the 4th (local time), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said in a statement that it has launched an investigation into whether Nike's personnel policies have led to "pattern or practice of disparate treatment" against white employees. The EEOC had been requesting related materials since 2018, and recently filed a lawsuit in federal court in Missouri seeking to enforce a subpoena against Nike.
Nike flatly denied the allegations and expressed strong regret over the investigative approach. The company said, "This action is an unexpectedly unusual escalatory step," adding, "We have cooperated in good faith with the EEOC's inquiries, have already submitted thousands of pages of materials and detailed written responses, and are currently providing additional materials." Despite the earlier steps, Nike is seen as unable to hide its bewilderment over the situation escalating into a federal lawsuit.
According to the EEOC, the investigation is monitoring Nike's criteria for selecting targets during workforce reductions, methods for retaining employees' race and ethnicity information, and standards for operating mentoring and career development programs. The EEOC did not disclose whether there were individual complaints filed by specific employees alleging discrimination.
The investigation is part of a broader push to take direct aim at the "illegal DEI programs" warned about by the Trump administration. Andrea Lucas, a Republican EEOC Commissioner, has actively backed the president's anti-DEI stance and last year opened probes into diversity programs at 20 major U.S. law firms. Recently, she even said on social media (SNS), "If there is a white Namsung who feels harmed by a corporation's diversity program, report it to the EEOC."
Legal offensives from conservative circles against Nike are also seen as having amplified the situation. America First Legal (AFL), a nonprofit legal group co-founded by Stephen Miller, known as a political adviser to President Trump, filed a complaint with the EEOC, arguing that Nike effectively used numerical quotas in hiring, training and promotion to force diversity, resulting in the exclusion of white heterosexual Namsung. AFL has filed similar complaints against other large corporations, including Disney, Starbucks and Salesforce, Inc.
What stands out in this case is that the EEOC disclosed procedural steps during the investigation stage. Typically, EEOC investigations proceed confidentially. Labor attorney Christopher DeGroff said, "Procedural steps like subpoena enforcement are usually nonpublic administrative matters," adding, "No conclusions have been reached at the investigation stage, and the EEOC should remain neutral."
Earlier, U.S. corporations moved aggressively to expand racial and gender diversity following the #MeToo movement, in which people disclosed experiences as victims of sex crimes to express solidarity, and the Black Lives Matter movement, which honored George Floyd, a Black Namsung who died after excessive police force.
Around the same time, after being sued by former and current employees, Nike appointed a new chief diversity officer (CDO) in 2020 and announced it would invest $40 million over four years to support organizations working to address racial discrimination in the United States.
However, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that affirmative action in college admissions is unconstitutional, concerns have grown that corporations' DEI policies could also become the subject of legal disputes. With pressure from President Trump also in play, many corporations are said to be scaling back and reviewing race-related programs and reducing CDO hiring.