With the anti-DEI focus by the current administration and with a renewed focus on meritocracy, the current EEOC has taken up the torch to concentrate on merit-based discrimination, especially to restore equal opportunity for all workers, and in particular white males. On December 17, 2025, Chair Lucas tweeted on X:
“Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws. Contact the @USEEOC as soon as possible.
The EEOC is committed to identifying, attacking, and eliminating ALL race and sex discrimination — including against white male employees and applicants. Visit http://EEOC.gov to learn more and read our one-page explainer about DEI-related discrimination.”
After Vice President Vance published an article excoriating DEI, Chair Lucas tweeted “Absolutely right @JDVance. And precisely because this widespread, systemic, unlawful discrimination primarily harmed white men, elites didn’t just turn a blind eye; they celebrated it. Absolutely unacceptable; unlawful; immoral.”
Interestingly, even before Executive Order 11246 was revoked, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs had identified several cases in which federal contractors were found to have discriminated against white employees and male employees. While these groups are not identical, the findings show that discrimination against white males was not going unnoticed.
At the height of DEI movement, there were a number of anecdotal stories of layoffs of older whites at larger organizations to provide a new path for promotions of diverse employees. However, David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the NYU School of Law, stated based on the research of cases and charges, that he has not seen “any kind of systematic evidence that white men are being discriminated against.” “If DEI has been this engine of discrimination against white men, I have to say it hasn’t really been doing a very good job at achieving that,” Glasgow said.
White males are experiencing what other plaintiffs have experienced when filing discrimination cases, bringing a lawsuit against your employer may well damage your career. “People who sue, broadly, tend to have trouble getting new jobs,” said Elizabeth Tippett, a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law.
For example, David Duvall won more than $4.8 million after a jury found in 2024 that the health care executive had been wrongfully terminated by Novant Health Inc. and that “his race and/or sex was a ‘motivating factor.’” He had a new job when he filed his case but was reportedly fired by that employer because of the publicity surrounding his case. He applied to other jobs, but the employers lost interest when they found he had been a plaintiff in a discrimination case.
When a diverse employee sees a white male suing for discrimination, they find contradicting values. White males make up 90% of chief executive officers at S&P 500 companies, as well as about three-quarters of all C-suite employees. The proportion of Black men or women who have held the top job is extremely small, currently hovering at about 1%. Discrimination can affect anyone depending on the circumstances. In that sense, it is a negative action that can impact individuals across any group.
Another area that subtly pushes white discrimination is the call for Americans for American jobs or to stop anti-American bias. The H-1B visa, for example, has become a polarizing government program that the MAGA arm of the Republican party wants to end. A number of non-white H-1Bs have gained U.S. citizenship and are leading major tech companies such as Alphabet, IBM, and Microsoft.
HR should stay alert to employment actions and monitor trends to understand who may be impacted. If something seems off, HR should partner with legal counsel to review the situation and determine whether further investigation is warranted. Maintaining discipline and termination logs can help track activity over time and should be reviewed regularly. HR should also analyze promotion decisions for fairness and compare applicant pools to hiring outcomes to identify any potential patterns affecting specific demographic groups. Ultimately, employment decisions should be made on a level playing field.
Sources: Bloomberg Law 2/12/26; AP 12/19/25