Nike investigated for alleged discrimination against White workers

The federal agency that fights workplace bias is investigating Nike over its treatment of White employees, making good on the Trump administration pledge to crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion policies and make shielding White men from discrimination a priority.

The investigation is one of the first announced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which put out a call seeking discrimination complaints from White men in December.

The EEOC said Wednesday, Feb. 4 it filed an action in federal court in Missouri to compel Nike to produce information related to allegations that the company discriminated against White workers as part of its DEI program and the targets it set to increase the number of underrepresented workers in its ranks and leadership.

The agency said Nike may have engaged in "a pattern or practice of disparate treatment against White employees, applicants and training program participants in hiring, promotion, demotion, or separation decisions, including selection for layoffs; internship programs; and mentoring, leadership development and other career development programs."

In a statement to USA TODAY, Nike called the move "a surprising and unusual escalation."

"We have had extensive, good-faith participation in an EEOC inquiry into our personnel practices, programs, and decisions and have had ongoing efforts to provide information and engage constructively with the agency," the company said. "We have shared thousands of pages of information and detailed written responses to the EEOC’s inquiry and are in the process of providing additional information."

Nike’s legal team previously called the subpoena "overbroad, unduly burdensome, vague, ambiguous, and disproportionate to the needs of this investigation," according to court filings.

Nike presented a plan to build a more diverse workforce and tied some executive compensation to diversity objectives such as increasing representation of women in leadership positions and targeting 30% representation of racial minorities at the director level and above and 35% representation of racial minorities in its U.S. work force.

First major test of 'unlawful' DEI

In 2024, Andrea Lucas, who now heads the EEOC but at the time was a commissioner, filed a discrimination charge against Nike alleging it discriminated against White employees based on their race. According to the federal agency's court filing, Nike fought a subpoena and only partially responded to requests for information.

The probe is in line with the view of the Trump White House that "unlawful" and "woke" DEI practices permeating the American workplace are not balancing historic inequities but creating new ones.

"Title VII's prohibition of race-based employment discrimination is colorblind and requires the EEOC to protect employees of all races from unlawful employment practices," EEOC chair Andrea Lucas said in a statement. "Thanks to President Trump's commitment to enforcing our nation's civil rights laws, the EEOC has renewed its focus on evenhanded enforcement of Title VII."

Though White workers account for about two-thirds of the U.S. workforce, their discrimination claims make up only about 10% of race-based claims, according to data USA TODAY obtained in 2023 from the EEOC.

DEI advocates said the Trump administration will now have to prove in court what it has championed in the court of public opinion.

"The Trump administration has been highly effective in its political and cultural war against DEI, framing it as a set of illegal preferences that favor unqualified individuals," said David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at the NYU School of Law. "It hasn’t yet shown that it can back up its claims in court, where judges still require rigorous evidence to be presented in accordance with accepted legal standards."

EEOC becomes powerful anti-DEI tool

The EEOC has emerged as a powerful tool in the Trump administration’s arsenal to unwind laws put in place decades ago to remedy racial inequities for Black workers and other marginalized groups.

When the president tapped Lucas to lead the EEOC, she pledged to restore "evenhanded enforcement of employment civil rights laws for all Americans," including "unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination."

"I intend to dispel the notion that only the 'right sort of' charging party is welcome through our doors," Lucas said in a statement after her appointment.

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump campaigned against DEI for creating  "anti-White feeling" and – on his first day back in the White House – moved to wipe out such initiatives, including purging DEI from the federal government and the military, threatening to strip billions of dollars in federal funding and grants from universities and pressuring major corporations to roll back programs or risk losing federal contracts.

The broadside rippled across corporate America as companies accelerated efforts to scale back or scrap DEI programs that could put them in the president’s crosshairs. The rollbacks had a direct impact on the careers of Black Americans and the diversity of executive suites inside the largest companies, a USA TODAY analysis showed.

The anti-DEI push has broad support in the Trump administration. 

America First Legal, cofounded by senior White House adviser Stephen Miller, has peppered top companies with dozens of discrimination complaints and posted on social media seeking more White people to file legal claims. The legal advocacy organization filed a federal civil rights complaint against Nike alleging race and sex discrimination against White men in 2024.

This story has been updated to add new information.