African-American mobilization against the end of Dei at Wall Street in 2025
On August 27, 2025 in Manhattan, the historical mobilization of African-American religious leaders around Wall Street marked a crucial stage in the defense of the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the United States. Orchestrated in direct response to the recent decisions of Policy DEI under the Trump administration, this demonstration carried by many evangelical pastors and community figures has also distinguished itself by highlighting the very concrete repercussions of these decisions on the black active population, in particular women.
Between February and May 2025, more than 300,000 black women were ousted from the US labor market according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their unemployment rate increased from 5 % to 6.3 % in the space of a few months, the strongest increase recorded among all demographic groups this year, even though the overall economy continued to add jobs. It is the combination of the abolition of thousands of federal jobs, a wave of reductions in large companies and the dismantling of Dei initiatives that has fueled this crisis, black women historically occupying key functions in public administration and social bond trades.
The convergent media analyzes such as Forbes, Fortune, MSNBC and the National Black Chamber of Commerce confirm that this massive decline is not fortuitous, but results in new guidelines towards public and private policies: closing of DEI antennas, abolition of diversity positions, abandonment of inclusive hiring requirements, and accelerated marginalization of already under-represented profiles. In 2025, it was estimated that the workforce of black women in the Federal Public Service decreased by around 33 %, while 69,000 federal jobs linked to diversity had been suppressed in mid-year.
Beyond the figures, the event of August 27 and the entire movement which surrounds it shed light on the systemic risk for American social cohesion. Many speakers during the march have highlighted the vulnerability of groups which, despite a high level of qualification – black women are among the most graduates in the country – remain hit hard by the erosion of guarantees of professional equality. Economic and civil organizations now call for immediate strengthening of support, training and statistical monitoring programs, as well as the revival of public and private investments to avoid a lasting deepening of inequality.
Origin of the event: the reaction to the presidential decrees of January 2025 having abolished or emptied of their substance the programs of I in federal agencies and companies under public contract, leading to a wave of cascade recoil in diversity policies across the country.
Standing facts and interest: The unprecedented and documented nature of this massive decline of employment for a particularly vulnerable category – black women – has mobilized civil society, questions the future of professional inclusion and alert on the dangers of a return to discriminatory policies of the past.
