In December, a 9,000-word essay about white male millennials shot across the internet.
The author, a ticket scalper and frustrated screenwriter, marshaled interviews and data to describe how the professional trajectories of members of his generation had been crushed by what he called the institutionalization of diversity, equity and inclusion mandates, a “profound shift in how power and prestige were distributed.”
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The essay also caught the attention of Andrea Lucas, the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency, born of the Civil Rights Act, that enforces laws against employment discrimination.
Lucas has closed the door of the E.E.O.C. to groups that are disfavored by the president.
“Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws,” Ms. Lucas said in a video posted on Dec. 17 on social media. From her desk at E.E.O.C. headquarters, she referred viewers to the commission’s primer on “D.E.I.-related discrimination.”
The video, which recalled the television commercials of personal injury law firms, generated volleys of shock, outrage and gratitude online. To Ms. Lucas, 40, it was an urgent public service announcement, central to her mission as an agent of President Trump’s executive authority and part of a robust response to what she described as the excesses of the left.
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Critics of Ms. Lucas, including former commissioners of the E.E.O.C., say she is distorting the intent of the Civil Rights Act, paying lip service to equal treatment while using her position to write MAGA grievances into federal law. They noted that as she has solicited complaints from white men — historically a small share of complainants to the E.E.O.C. — the commission has dismissed cases that would defend transgender employees and job applicants with criminal records.
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“She has closed the door of the E.E.O.C. to groups that are disfavored by the president,” said Josh Boxerman, who handles civil rights work at the National Employment Law Project, a workers rights group. “That is extraordinary. And it is radical and harmful.”
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“We are very concerned that it will continue that path of wide-ranging rescissions and rollbacks of hard-won and thoughtfully considered worker protections,” said Mr. Boxerman of the National Employment Law Project.
“She has made it clear that longstanding agency policy, judicial precedent — these things matter less than fulfilling the Trump agenda,” he added.
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Read the full story at nytimes.com.
