Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, particularly at government-funded entities, have been hit with critical federal and legal roadblocks in recent years due to concerns that they violate civil rights laws prohibiting state-sanctioned discrimination.

Yet, despite sweeping court decisions and the Trump administration’s best efforts, DEI is far from dead, as schools, organizations, and businesses rebrand such initiatives to escape legal scrutiny. Amid the changing landscape, conservatives are embracing creativity in tactics targeting such initiatives, long viewed by most in the GOP camp to be little more than arbiters for discrimination that mistakenly equate natural disparities with darker inequalities.