In War On DEI, Law Is Being Used As A Weapon — These Leaders Are Fighting Back

“Nothing that you are seeing right now is normal,” says Gabrielle Perry, a political commentator, nonprofit founder, and organizer. “We are seeing the Latino community buying groceries in bulk so that they do not have to leave their homes frequently. We are seeing Native American people’s citizenship being called into question. We are seeing Black people in mass being laid off from their jobs at the federal level.” In each of these situations, the law is being weaponized as a tool of fear and anxiety, but it’s the latter threat — the legal war against diversity, equity, and inclusions in workplaces — that hits home for Perry. “DEI has now become synonymous with Black people and that’s not an accident,” says Perry, who is the founder and executive director of The Thurman Perry Foundation, a nonprofit organization that lost a $35,000 grant that they normally receive annually. “White people, particularly white men, are suing nonprofits and universities for awarding any aid to anyone on the basis of race or gender,” she tweeted out afterwards. Though Perry’s organization wasn’t sued, her funders are responding to this moment with an abundance of caution which means pulling “risky” investments. And after Trump’s executive order urging the roll back of DEI at the federal level, everyone else seems to be falling in line and investing in anything Black is deemed a “risk”. 

Fear is a powerful motivator and the threat of having the full force of the American legal system against you is enough to make anyone cower. For example, even when Latine Americans do have citizenship, there is a fear of being rounded up anyway with no clear path to resistance. And even when there is no legal grounds to strip employees of their right to equity and inclusion, Trump’s grandstanding has stoked enough uncertainty that his rhetoric is working. Multiple brands have announced they are either ending or curtailing their DEI efforts in what seems to be a pre-emptive show of compliance to the Trump administration. That’s exactly what makes these shifts so dangerous; conservatives don’t even need to have constitutional cover for their onslaught. Republicans only need to make the average American fear their proposed policies enough to shift their behavior proactively. 

These attacks are not new. Over the past few years, Republicans have come after “woke culture,” critical race theory, affirmative action, and now DEI. Trump has positioned DEI as standing in the way of others’ freedoms, a falsehood that his base has run with in recent years. “The distortion of our words and work is right out of the playbook for opponents of freedom for all people,” says Susan Taylor Batten, President and CEO of ABFE. She encourages people to refocus the conversation around the true history of this country and Black organizations’ consistent investment in fighting for all people regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, ability, and more. Similarly, Dr. Alvin Tillery believes we need to shift our strategy for how we communicate what is happening. Tillery is a tenured professor at Northwestern University and founder of The Alliance for Black Equality. “I see so many beautiful Black kids on social media posting things like, ‘Donald Trump is a DEI hire.’ No, he's not,” Tillery corrected. “DEI hires are qualified and legitimate. Donald Trump is a white supremacy hire.” When conservatives co-opt progressive messaging, the answer isn’t to fall in line with their revisionism. “We don’t need to respond to racism by saying we’re excellent,” Tillery warns. “Rebranding our work won’t protect us or these programs because this fight isn’t rational. We have to fight back.” 

Perry also expanded on this moment and how these attacks are bleeding into all facets of American life — not just Black communities. “People began to see this coming to a head on a national lens last February when the Fearless Fund venture capital lawsuit hit national headlines,” Perry expounded. The Fearless Fund previously extended grants to small businesses led by women of color and was sued by Edward Blum and his conservative organization, the American Alliance for Equal Rights. The claim was essentially one of reverse-racism; that by only opening their grant program to Black women, Fearless Fund was discriminating against others in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. “At the time,” Perry said, “I knew it was horrible what was happening to her but I had no idea that was going to trickle down to my little organization in Louisiana. [Arian Simone] made the absolutely selfless decision to settle and to close her doors because she knew that if she took it to the Supreme Court, so much would be stacked against her, and that it would affect all of us.” Blum and the AAER claimed victory, labeling the Fearless Fund’s work as “divisive and illegal” and painted the founders — working to resource the most marginalized among us — as exclusionary (Unbothered has reached out to Blum and the AAER and they have yet to respond). Unfortunately, the decision has hurt Black founders anyway as funders pull resources in fear of litigation and as the federal government remains on the attack. Litigation is expensive and sets precedence which can completely shift the landscape facing Black-led organizations. It takes deep coffers to go up against a high-powered law team and, if you lose, a single legal decision can hurt thousands of organizations. For many, it’s easier to avoid lawsuits altogether.

“The cruelty is the point,” Gabrielle Perry reiterated. “Trump is testing what will hold and what won’t. Who’s going to push back and who won’t.” Perry urges that there needs to be a strong and unrelenting response to these attacks, something Democrats haven’t been doing with nearly enough force. Tillery agrees and brought up some important historical context to emphasize how much more could be done right now. “We have more power in 2025 than Dr. King and Fannie Lou Hamer and Rosa Parks and Ralph Abernathy had in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act passed,” Tillery called out. “There were three Black members of Congress, then, and it was a segregated institution. Today there are over 60 Black members of Congress including five Black senators who have the ability to filibuster. Why aren't we putting pressure on them right now to step up?” 

Though Black organizations and leaders are feeling this moment intimately, there is so much more at stake. “Equity cannot be banned because it’s guaranteed by the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause,” says Dr. Alvin Tillery. “All this is doing is softening up the consciousness of those who want to overturn that and the Civil Rights Act.” By arguing against birthright citizenship, Trump is directly attacking the fourteenth amendment which was codified after the Civil War to extend citizenship to the formerly enslaved. A Missouri attorney general co-signed this move by saying that the fourteenth amendment has been “perverted.” Dr. Tillery is a child of the integration era and a lynching survivor.  “I have a lot of skin in the game,” he shared. “The people in Trump’s orbit never wanted the racial caste system to end in the first place. The Republicans never let go of this dream of wiping the civil rights laws off the books.” That’s what this moment is about, as far as Dr. Tillery is concerned and I couldn’t agree more.

With such a coordinated — and, so far, successful — series of attacks, we need the same level of a concerted effort to not only respond reactively but to also organize a proactive vision. The people and groups leading the resistance to these efforts need the tools to do it. “Nonprofits are the last line of defense against the Trump administration, and that is why he is attacking us first,” says Perry. Susan Taylor Batten co-signed this message relating it to what she calls “the redlining of Black-led organizations as relates to giving.” 

Since 1971, ABFE has been convening, supporting, and amplifying Black-led social change organizations and, in her role at the helm, Batten has seen and advocated against funding gaps facing Black nonprofit leaders. Black organizations receive 76% less unrestricted funding than their white-led counterparts resulting in a $20 million gap. Batten warns that this existing gap will only widen in the face of attacks like these, which will ultimately affect not only Black Americans but everyone who benefits from the work those organizations do. “Whether it's the civil rights movement or the women's movement,” she reiterates, “Black led organizations were always in the front of the line around advocacy and pushing for rights and opportunity for the broader society.” Many women, disabled people, veterans, seniors, and more would live far different lives if it weren’t for Black leaders envisioning a better America. At every turn, we have been one of few groups looking to actually make America great. 

With Republicans controlling all three branches of government, the future may seem bleak but resistance is still possible. Tillery’s organization, the Alliance for Black Equality, is launching mass actions targeting blue state politicians, demanding they fight to hold conservatives accountable, defend pre-existing protections, and expand them to keep all Americans safe. Gabrielle Perry, likewise, is encouraging any and everyone to join forces with likeminded people because our strength is in real community. “Coalitions are literally just people working together and it can be small or neighborhood-based,” Perry says. “We need coalitions.” For example, Perry offered that if a local school’s free lunch program is being stripped then community members can and should pool money together, reach out to local churches, and fund the program themselves. This level of pooling resources — particularly to organizations like The Thurman Perry Foundation — can fill the void created by loss of funding elsewhere.

Susan Taylor Batten wants people to know that it’s not illegal to support and fund Black communities. In response to the years-long rollbacks on DEI, book bans, and the SCOTUS decision on affirmative action in 2023, ABFE is teaming up with Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, Hispanics in Philanthropy, and Native Americans in Philanthropy on an initiative called READI – The Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative. This coalition is coming together to protect race-explicit programming and grantmaking and ABFE will soon be launching a legal and security fund designed to proving legal and other strategic support to nonprofits “who find themselves in the crosshairs, and need advice or counsel resources to continue their work,” says Batten. As they champion this work, Batten urged funders to not pull back or operate from fear. “We need at this moment, leaders of conviction, who won't sacrifice racial equity for anything,” says Batten.

We cannot preemptively fall in line with this dangerous series of threats. Our job at this moment is not to comply but to resist. To fund the programs that need to be funded unapologetically. To defend our right to right these historic wrongs. To never make the job of fascism too easy. To be constantly aware of our rights and to never hold the door open for those wanting to drag us out of the figurative house. It’s our job to make sure, at the very least, that we don’t leave without kicking and screaming.