US Equal Employment Alternative Fee’s probe seen as newest effort by Trump administration to roll again range and inclusion insurance policies.
Printed On 5 Feb 2026
Nike is being investigated in the USA over claims that it discriminated towards white staff by means of its range and inclusion insurance policies.
The US Equal Employment Alternative Fee (EEOC) mentioned on Wednesday that it had filed a court docket movement to compel Nike to provide info associated to allegations of “intentional race discrimination” towards white workers.
Really helpful Tales
record of 4 gadgetsfinish of record
The allegations relate to a suspected sample of discrimination in “hiring, promotion, demotion, or separation choices, together with choice for layoffs; internship applications; and mentoring, management improvement and different profession improvement applications”, the US authorities company mentioned.
The company mentioned it took the motion after Nike had failed to answer a subpoena for numerous info, together with the standards utilized in choosing workers for redundancies and setting executives’ pay.
EEOC chair, Andrea Lucas, an ardent critic of racial range initiatives who was appointed final yr by President Donald Trump, mentioned US anti-discrimination regulation is “colour-blind” and protects workers of “all races”.
“Because of President Trump’s dedication to implementing our nation’s civil rights legal guidelines, the EEOC has renewed its deal with even-handed enforcement of Title VII,” Lucas mentioned in a press release, referring to a bit of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prohibits employment discrimination based mostly on race, color, faith or intercourse.
Nike, based mostly in Beaverton, Oregon, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The EEOC’s motion is seen as the most recent transfer by the Trump administration to roll again insurance policies selling range, fairness and inclusion (DEI) within the office.
In one in all his first acts upon returning to the White Home, Trump signed an government order to abolish “radical” and “wasteful” DEI initiatives launched underneath his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Like many company giants within the US, Nike publicly backed social justice causes corresponding to Black Lives Matter previous to Trump’s re-election in 2024.
Between 2020 and 2021, Nike’s share of non-white workers rose greater than 4 proportion factors, probably the most amongst corporations aside from healthcare supplier Danaher, in keeping with a Bloomberg evaluation of firm information reported to the EEOC.
