Alarmed, Employers Ask: What Is ‘Illegal D.E.I.’?

Companies navigate a legal minefield as President Trump wages war on diversity programs, but they still have to guard against complaints of bias.

Companies that just one year ago celebrated Black History Month and stocked Pride products on their shelves are in a new phase — what some lawyers refer to as “rainbow-hushing,” meaning dropping or quietly rebranding their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

They are retreating, or clamming up, as they brace for lawsuits encouraged by President Trump’s war against D.E.I. Employers are walking a narrow path: They are trying to keep enough of their diversity efforts in place to remain protected from future discrimination lawsuits, while also avoiding Mr. Trump’s ire, federal investigations and lawsuits from anti-D.E.I. conservatives.

Some corporate initiatives that fall under the D.E.I. label — like mandatory training on avoiding bias and discrimination — were created to break down discriminatory barriers as the work force became more diverse.

“D.E.I. programming grew popular because it was responding to real challenges organizations were facing,” said Musa al-Gharbi, a sociologist and an assistant professor at Stony Brook University who has written extensively on diversity programs. “Basically they’re being told to do nothing about these problems. That seems nonviable from a legal standpoint.”

Many types of D.E.I. programs could draw lawsuits now that Mr. Trump has signed an executive order threatening federal investigations for “illegal D.E.I.,” a term that has caused widespread confusion and has lawyers scrambling to interpret what it might mean.

“We’re in a brave new world,” said Jon Solorzano, a partner at Vinson & Elkins, who is counseling dozens of companies on their approaches to D.E.I. “People are freaked out.”