A new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows growing public skepticism toward the effectiveness of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Conducted July 10–14, 2025, the survey of 1,437 U.S. adults revealed that only about one-third believe DEI efforts reduce discrimination against women, Hispanic people, or Asian Americans. Four in 10 say DEI initiatives help address bias against Black people. Yet nearly 30% believe these initiatives increase discrimination, including against White people.

The AP-NORC poll also noted a sharp drop in the number of Americans who acknowledge racial discrimination against Black and Asian people. In 2021, 61% said Black Americans faced a great deal or quite a bit of discrimination. That figure now stands at 40%. For Asian Americans, it dropped from 46% to 30%. Despite this decline in perception, 74% of Black respondents say their communities continue to experience significant discrimination. The polling results come amid escalating concerns about Project 2025, a sweeping 900-page policy blueprint published by the Heritage Foundation and widely viewed as a roadmap for a second Trump administration. According to the Legal Defense Fund’s Thurgood Marshall Institute, Project 2025 poses a direct threat to Black communities by proposing to dismantle civil rights protections, privatize education, and expand executive power with minimal oversight.

The LDF’s report, ‘Attack on Our Power and Dignity: What Project 2025 Means for Black Communities,’ warns that the agenda would eliminate racial data collection in federal agencies, weaken anti-discrimination laws, and roll back protections for workers, students, and voters. “The assault on Black communities envisioned by Project 2025 will almost certainly condemn us to demise,” said LDF President Janai Nelson. Education is a central battleground. Project 2025 calls for eliminating the Department of Education and replacing federal oversight with state control, even in states with a documented history of racial discrimination. It also seeks to defund school programs that address systemic racism or acknowledge White privilege. These efforts echo past segregationist rhetoric.

In a February 2025 Newsweek opinion piece, Dr. Stephanie R. Toliver of the University of Illinois cited former North Carolina Justice I. Beverly Lake’s 1954 warning that inferior education was preferable to racial integration. Toliver drew a chilling parallel to the present: “Just as Justice Lake once saw inferior education as an acceptable price to pay for preserving racial purity, today’s rhetoric proposes that a substandard education is a small cost for maintaining racism, homophobia, trans violence, and anti-Blackness.” Human Rights Watch also issued a 2025 statement linking the rollback of DEI initiatives to the broader global assault on anti-racism efforts. The organization called the Trump-era movement against DEI a “clear example” of mainstreamed racism, urging governments to reckon with the legacies of slavery, colonialism, and apartheid by adopting reparations and structural reforms. As perceptions of discrimination wane and support for DEI programs declines, civil rights advocates warn that these attitudes reflect not progress, but apathy, denial, and a dangerous rewriting of history.

“Our democracy stands at a crossroads,” Nelson said. “A path of infinite promise towards a more inclusive, equitable, and durable democracy on the one hand, and one of immeasurable and, potentially, irretrievable demise on the other”