Biden reverses Trump executive order restricting diversity training

President Biden rescinded an executive order from former President Trump that would have put restrictions on advancing racial equality by limiting diversity training for federal government employees and its contractors.

Trump signed the order in September, which took aim at diversity training for government workers by prohibiting the teaching of “divisive concepts.”

The order was expected to be reversed under Biden as part of a series of initial measures aimed at undoing a host of the Trump administration’s previous actions.

The order applied to the military, federal contractors, and grant recipients. Just after the order was signed, several federal agencies— including the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — either halted or cancelled trainings and events on racism and LGBTQ+ equality.

The order was also met with legal challenges from civil rights groups who claimed it amounted to overreach.

Biden reversed the item as part of a larger executive order he signed aimed at “beginning the work of embedding equity across federal policymaking and rooting out systemic racism and other barriers to opportunity from federal programs and institutions,” according to an administration fact sheet.

The order also reversed the controversial 1776 commission, formed in response to The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 project.

Racial equality was a hot topic during the 2020 presidential campaign, as it coincided with protests against police brutality in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.