For a brief moment after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, it seemed our society had collectively decided to do better. Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs proliferated in public and private institutions. Companies hired experts specializing in anti-racism training and equitable hiring practices. Colleges and universities expanded their outreach to students of color and members of the LGBTQIA community. Upon assuming the presidency in 2021, Joe Biden signed Executive Order 13985, mandating that all federal agencies advance racial equity and help support underserved citizens.
And then came the backlash. In 2023, the Supreme Court rejected the use of affirmative action in college admissions. Major employers like Google, Disney, Walmart, and Amazon rolled back DEI initiatives in response to conservative criticism. Here in Texas, Republicans stripped DEI from public universities. Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to stop considering it in hiring decisions. Donald Trump rescinded Executive Order 13985 within hours of becoming president in January of 2025.
So, where does that leave the members of the diverse groups, particularly Black women, who are seeking fairness in today’s workplace? Dr. Jamila Taylor, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said one outcome is that fewer of them have jobs. IWPR released a report in February showing that thousands fewer Black women were employed in the country in December of 2025, compared to the previous January.
“Some 250,000 Black women lost their jobs between January and August of 2025,” Taylor told the Chronicle. “This is almost 55% of job losses for all women during this period, when Black women only make up 14% of the female workforce. These occupations include health care workers, educators, and social workers. Those have been, in our research, the most vulnerable populations.”
Taylor will discuss the effects of the DEI backlash at South by Southwest’s The Cost of Inclusion: Who Pays When Equity Isn’t Trending? panel. She will appear alongside Lee Christian Parker, an executive director at J.P. Morgan Private Bank; Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman of the Sadie Collective; and Angelina Spicer, an L.A.-based comedian and founder of Spicey Moms, a cultural storytelling initiative advocating for equitable maternal mental health and family well-being.
Spicer told us that people don’t realize how deep the connections are between DEI and public health. “The principles are inseparable,” she said. “When we talk about equity in health care, we’re talking about who gets listened to in a hospital room, who has access to culturally competent care, and who is disproportionately at risk of poor outcomes. DEI isn’t abstract in maternal health.”
Taylor agreed, saying that advocates must push for policies that are aligned with DEI values, things like paid maternal and paternal leave, equal pay for equal work, and access to affordable child care.
DEI is also important to public education and has become part of the debate over the booming field of education technology. EdTech, as it’s called, includes hardware and software created to improve teaching and learning. It is increasingly connected with AI-driven computer programs that streamline teaching and make it interactive and individualized.
Symone Campbell, a research fellow at the Siegel Family Endowment and an expert on the implications of EdTech for K-12 students, told us Black families are at risk of being left behind as AI-fueled EdTech surges and DEI is scaled back. Campbell will appear on South by Southwest’s Code Switch: Defending Black EdTech Amid AI Crackdowns panel to look at the innovators developing EdTech supporting Black students and the products they are bringing to market. Campbell said it’s vitally important that Black children receive the same opportunities and investment as their peers.
“One of the main benefits of EdTech is personalized learning,” Campbell said. “But we’re seeing products that aren’t representative of all students. These tools are usually built using personalized data from only certain groups of students, so they’re often not culturally tailored for everyone, reflecting deeper systemic biases in design and implementation. As a result, teachers often understand EdTech’s benefits through the perspectives the tools are trained on. That means students who don’t align with those perspectives can experience the technology as challenging or exclusionary.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to remove mention of a SXSW Edu panel that was misrepresented as being related to DEI. The Chronicle regrets the error.
Code Switch: Defending Black EdTech Amid AI Crackdowns
Tech & ai track
Thursday 12, 11:30am, The Westin Austin Downtown, Paramount I – II
The Cost of Inclusion: Who Pays When Equity Isn’t Trending?
Workplace track
Wednesday 18, 11:30am, Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon B
This article appears in SXSW 2026 Festival Guide.