There’s no easy way to run a construction company. But it becomes almost impossible, James Posey said, when you’re fighting with local governments trying to squeeze you out of work in favor of white-owned companies.
During his more than 20 years in trucking and asphalt, Posey has pressured agencies like TriMet and the Port of Portland to expand contracting with minority-owned businesses like his. Both agencies have since set goals to do more business with companies owned by women and people of color. Over the years, Posey has seen other local governments add policies aimed at addressing racial injustices.
Now, as President Donald Trump threatens to withhold federal funds from cities, counties and others unless they end their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Posey, co-founder of the National Association of Minority Contractors of Oregon, is worried local governments in Oregon are taking a big step back.
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The clash over these programs has arrived in Oregon, as local governments weigh whether to dismantle policies meant to address long-standing racial disparities or risk gaping budget shortfalls caused by the loss of federal funding for transportation, safety net programs and others.
The response from state and local authorities has varied. Some have revoked their programs. Others have rewritten their policies. Gov. Tina Kotek rejected the Trump administration’s demand to abandon DEI in schools. Multnomah County has so far refused to change its policies, even with its last annual budget including $126 million in federal funding for public safety, health and other services.
“I think it’s really critical that we stand up for people,” Multnomah County Commissioner Shannon Singleton said. “We’re continuing to see more and more vulnerable groups be targeted at the federal level.”
Sixty local governments across the country, including Portland and Multnomah County, are challenging the Trump administration’s grant restrictions in court. The outcome could be consequential in Oregon, a state with a history of policies hostile to minority populations and home to one of the country’s whitest cities.
In Oregon, Black, Latine and Native American people are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, while experiencing a persistent wealth gap compared with their white counterparts.
Black people make up just 6% of Multnomah County’s population and have faced decades of discrimination by local authorities. The construction of Interstate 5, the Memorial Coliseum and the expansion of Legacy Emmanuel hospital displaced families and businesses in Portland’s historically Black Albina neighborhood. The area later saw redlining, cutting residents off from bank loans, and further displacement from gentrification.
About a quarter of Multnomah County’s Black population are below the poverty level — tied with Pacific Islanders for the highest of any racial group and more than double the rate for whites, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent five-year estimate. Black renters in Oregon are twice as likely to be evicted as their white counterparts, according to Portland State University data.
Under federal pressure, numerous local governments and businesses are ending programs and policies meant to reduce those inequities.
“How do you solve a problem if you exclude the people who have been most affected by it?” said Posey, the head of the local branch of the NAACP who said he was speaking for himself.
‘If there was fairness in representation’
DEI programs weren’t always so controversial. They are an outgrowth of the civil rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, when the federal government took an active role in fighting discrimination based on race, gender, religion and national origin.
Presidents Kennedy and Johnson both signed executive orders requiring government contractors to take “affirmative action” to ensure they do not discriminate against employees over jobs, termination, training and pay. Large corporations like Xerox also launched policies aimed at diversifying their workforces and weeding out discrimination. Notably, Xerox prioritized hiring Black employees after 1964 riots attributed to racial tensions in the company’s then-hometown of Rochester, New York. And it later expanded its efforts to diversify its workforce.
“One primary role of the government is to uphold the rights of all people,” said Leann Johnson, a consultant who previously oversaw the Oregon Health Authority’s equity office. “And that is still not happening.”
Johnson said opponents of DEI programs misconstrue it as a “quota” system that puts unqualified people into jobs they are not qualified for — which, she added, is illegal. Instead, she said, a good DEI program seeks the broadest opportunity for the most qualified individuals while using a hiring process that does not unfairly screen out candidates.
For example, she said some people with disabilities might not apply for a job that requires applicants to have a driver’s license and be able to lift 20 pounds — when the position just involves sitting at a desk.
She also recalled a situation where an employer realized that people of color who applied for jobs didn’t make it past the first interview. Situations like that might require an organization to reevaluate its hiring process and help managers understand biases they may be unaware of.
Many work environments were built decades ago for predominantly middle-aged white men, said Lois Castillo, a Chicago-based DEI consultant and the author of the forthcoming book “Unbreakable: A Changemaker’s Guide.” As a result, many have conscious and unconscious biases built into them, she said.
A landmark 2004 study found that employers were 50% more likely to call back job applicants with white-sounding names than applicants whose names suggested they were Black. Researchers conducted a similar study 20 years later and recorded similar results.
Other research has questioned the effectiveness of DEI programs and found they can cause resentment among white people and men. Some studies have found that unconscious bias training can backfire if employees aren’t given additional training on how to manage their biases.
Support for addressing racial injustice reached a high-water mark after the 2020 killing of George Floyd. But a backlash followed. Corporations have abandoned their efforts and multiple Republican-led states have restricted the use of DEI programs.
Castillo said consumer products giant Procter & Gamble shows the benefits of a well-run DEI program. About half of the company’s leadership are women, and Castillo said its extensive research has helped the company understand the needs of its diverse customer base.
Similar lessons can be applied to government agencies that risk misunderstanding the needs of their own diverse communities if they get rid of their DEI programs, she said.
Emmett Wheatfall, a former Clackamas County diversity manager who retired in 2019, said DEI can call attention to government actions that affect disadvantaged communities, like the placement of a highway. Without DEI programs, he said, it would be easier for a hiring manager with biases against certain groups to exclude them from jobs.
“We wouldn’t need all these employment laws, if there was fairness in representation, opportunity and access,” he said.
‘Only foments friction’
Local DEI programs in Oregon and elsewhere emerged in response to disparities in jobs, uneven public service delivery and a desire to build community trust. They also proliferated as governments and companies worked to comply with federal anti-discrimination requirements, said Edward Hones, a Seattle-based employment lawyer.
A year before Trump began his second term, Clackamas County was already dismantling its equity office. Established in 2020, the office set up trainings, offered resources to employees and commissioned research on how the county could better engage with underrepresented communities.
Its opponents in 2023 moved to defund what they called a bloated program, with Commissioner Mark Shull saying it “only foments friction.”
Deschutes County eliminated its internal DEI committee in February 2025, despite an audit finding white male county employees earned more than other groups and the county had lower retention of non-white women.
In April, the Port of Portland’s board of commissioners voted to revoke its social equity policy in order to avoid imperiling an estimated $145 million in federal funds. However, commissioners called it a difficult decision and said the port’s values would not change.
A spokesperson for the Port of Portland said in an email that “we’re continuing to evaluate our administrative policies to ensure we’re fostering a workplace where everyone can thrive, while maintaining access to funding that has a critical impact on Port operations, the people who work here, and the infrastructure our region relies on.”
‘Legacy of symbolic gestures’
Other jurisdictions seem to be walking a fine line between maintaining their DEI programs and avoiding the loss of federal funds.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson announced July 31 he was ordering the city to revise language for city DEI programs. He made the announcement in a letter to community groups, writing that his directive was intended to keep $349 million in federal funds by making sure city “programs or policies do not violate federal anti-discrimination laws, as likely to be interpreted by the current federal judiciary.”
Wilson added that his order meant the city “cannot give preference to groups with ‘protected-class status’ based on characteristics such as race or gender, unless the City pursues a disparity study that legally supports that preference.”
“Let’s be clear: In Portland, we believe in diversity, we believe in equity, and we believe in inclusion,” Wilson wrote, noting that the city was still participating in lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s orders.
The city will need to adjust language in about 75 programs or policies, with some needing minor changes such as clarifying a service is available to all Portlanders, according to a city news release.
But the Portland branch of the NAACP blasted Wilson’s order. In a letter to the mayor, Posey called the move part of a “legacy of symbolic gestures with limited substantive impact” by mayors who condemn racism but don’t take action.
Posey said in an interview that it “sends the message that we don’t count.”
“When the government is not going to back you and you don’t have the promise you will get a fair shake, you are dead in the water,” Posey said.
‘Lack of clarity’
Earlier in July, the Washington County Board of Commissioners voted to adopt a new policy that left out any mention of diversity, equity or inclusion. Instead, the policy committed the county to upholding “access and opportunity for all” as well as state and federal civil rights laws.
Washington County is the state’s most diverse county, with $135 million in annual federal funds at risk. Commissioners earlier backed away from fully rescinding the county’s 2020 DEI policy after receiving community pushback. Before the vote, community members worried the new policy wouldn’t be enough.
Kipperlyn Sinclair, a Hillsboro city councilor, told commissioners the new policy could cause confusion with cities and community organizations that still use DEI principles but partner with the county.
“The lack of clarity and public dialogue around these changes is unacceptable,” she said.
D.I. Lee, an executive at the Institute for Diversity Certification Inc., said in an interview that large companies, such as JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, have also changed descriptions of their DEI programs but keep them in place because he said they help their profitability.
Lee’s company offers diversity training, and he said it has seen more calls from businesses in Republican-led states that say they’re keeping DEI strategies under a different name.
‘Mixed, but meaningful’
Hones, the lawyer, said the impact of local DEI programs has been “mixed but meaningful” with some municipalities seeing better engagement with marginalized communities.
“However, these efforts often struggled with consistent funding, clear metrics and integration into core operations, which can make them vulnerable to political shifts,” he added.
The city of Portland in 2012 launched programs to increase contracting with women and minority-owned businesses. But a 2020 audit found that while the program made some progress, it fell short of its goals and suffered from mismanagement and waste.
Following an uproar over workplace racism in 2017, Multnomah County leaders approved a plan intended to make the county more welcoming and inclusive for employees. The county has since changed hiring practices and numbers show its workforce has become more diverse.
However, a recent audit found that the county’s efforts still lack accountability. It also found that Black employees were less likely to pass their trial service period, LGBTQIA2S+ employees were more likely to quit and Asians were less likely to be supervisors, among other findings.
Jackie Tate, president of AFSCME Local 88, said more accountability for managers has long been an issue for the union, which represents county employees. She also said management should give more support to employees so they can pass their trial period.
“The county has a lot of good rhetoric around equity,” she said. “The problem is that when you really want to do these things, it involves letting go of power and making institutional change.”
Singleton, the county commissioner, called the county’s employee equity initiative a “work in progress.”
A court filing from the county in the lawsuit against the Trump administration describes how there are rules in place to ensure people can access services without facing discrimination.
The county is a large safety net service provider for vulnerable residents, including a Community Health Center where over 60% of patients are people of color and 38% require interpretation services, according to the filing. The county’s Healthy Birth Initiative has also been shown to reduce infant mortality for Black patients enrolled in the program, the filing states.
While decisions for local leaders whether to dismantle or alter their DEI programs are financial, Singleton said there are other questions to be considered.
“What does it say to our community?” she said. “And I think we need to really be having those conversations.”
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This article appears in August 20, 2025.