The New York City Law Department insisted that all references to DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) be scrubbed from the city\u2019s much-anticipated racial equity plan out of concern it could open up the city to legal challenges from the Trump administration, City & State has learned.<\/p>\n
Internal documents obtained by City & State reveal that earlier drafts of the 375-page \u201cNew York City Preliminary Racial Equity Plan\u201d<\/a> included explicit references to DEI and the city\u2019s goals of hiring more people of color, which the city Law Department flagged as risky due to President Donald Trump\u2019s ongoing crusade<\/a> against \u201cwoke\u201d DEI policies.<\/p>\n Mayor Zohran Mamdani released the preliminary plan at a press conference Monday morning. But in the months leading up to that, over the course of more than a half-dozen revisions, all mentions of DEI were removed from the report and other language was softened.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLaw initially recommended defining \u2018Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion\u2019 principles given the term was used in the plan,\u201d reads an internal comment on an earlier draft of the plan. \u201cIt was then removed from definitions after use of \u2018DEI\u2019 was fully scrubbed from all parts of the plan during round six of review. Only \u2018equity and inclusion\u2019 was kept in parts of the plan with Law agreeing to very limited use.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, entire sections relating to city agencies\u2019 DEI-related goals and strategies were stripped out of the version of the plan released to the public. For instance, NYCHA\u2019s plan to \u201chire a dedicated DEI trainer to develop DEI trainings and lead trainings at central office locations and at developments\u201d was removed from the public version of the plan.<\/p>\n The Law Department also softened language related to preferences for Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises in city contracting. In some cases, the changes were extremely minor; the Law Department changed one of the plan\u2019s Racial Equity North Stars from \u201cMinority-owned business enterprises are no longer underutilized in city contracting\u201d to \u201cMinority-owned businesses are not underutilized in city contracting.\u201d<\/p>\n In other cases, they were significant, as the Law Department rewrote agency goals that called for expanding the use of M\/WBEs. The Department of Education originally set a goal to \u201cprogressively expand opportunities for M\/WBEs with a particular focus on the disparities with certified Black-owned and Hispanic-owned firms.\u201d The Law Department replaced that with a restatement of the department\u2019s current goal and a note that the city would comply with federal law: the DOE \u201chas had a 30% goal for M\/WBE utilization and will continue to implement and evaluate goals going forward to ensure they are consistent with federal, state, and local law.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the Law Department\u2019s proposed changes seem designed to avoid potential federal employment discrimination lawsuits brought by the Trump administration. For instance, the Law Department objected when a city agency listed one of its goals as having a workforce that reflected the population it serves. \u201cThe legal issue is that a goal of having a workforce that reflects the population could sound like we are aiming to match the racial demographics in the city,\u201d the Law Department wrote in an internal comment on the draft plan. \u201cThis is not an allowable goal and can be successfully challenged under Title VII and the equal protections clause.\u201d The goal was ultimately changed to \u201can equitable recruitment plan and unconscious-bias free hiring process.\u201d<\/p>\n This is not an unreasonable concern. Following the release of the city\u2019s preliminary racial equity plan on Monday, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon wrote<\/a> on social media: \u201cSounds fishy\/illegal! Will review.\u201d The top Justice Department official later reposted the MAGA-aligned account Libs of TikTok\u2019s message suggesting Mamdani would \u201cFAFO,\u201d<\/a> which stands for \u201cfuck around and find out.\u201d<\/p>\n But other changes to the racial equity plan seemingly had little to do with potential employment discrimination. For instance, earlier drafts of the document described the 2020 protests following the police killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville as \u201cprotests against systemic racism.\u201d The Law Department changed that line to \u201cprotests against excessive force.\u201d<\/p>\n City agencies pushed back on many of the Law Department\u2019s aggressive edits and were sometimes able to convince the office led by the city\u2019s corporation counsel Steven Banks to reject proposed changes. At one point, the Law Department recommended deleting the following section about NYC Health + Hospitals\u2019 resources for trans, gender non-conforming and non-binary patients: \u201cWe have also developed various resources including \u2018Transgender and Non-Binary Patient and Resident Room Assignment Guidance\u2019, \u2018Trans Guide to Care\u2019, \u2018LBGTQ+ Affirming Clinic Toolkit\u2019, and the \u2018Pronoun Guide\u2019. Finally, we successfully advocated for the inclusion of transgender inclusive health benefits information in NYC Employee Benefits Summary Plan\u2014implemented in the fall of 2017.\u201d After objections to the recommended changes, the corporation counsel weighed in: \u201cCounsel defers to Law, but has no objection to the language coming back in.\u201d In the end, that language made it into the plan.<\/p>\n Linda Tigani, the chair and executive director of the city\u2019s Commission on Racial Equity, said she was still reviewing the plan but was concerned about City & State\u2019s findings that language related to DEI had been removed. \u201cRemoval of any explicit references to DEI or race in the preliminary plan is very concerning and not in compliance with what the law requires which is to acknowledge and combat systemic harm and racism in NYC,\u201d she said in an email.<\/p>\n New York City approved a series of ballot proposals in 2022 that amended the city charter to require the mayor to work with city agencies to release a racial equity plan every two years. The ballot proposals also created the Commission on Racial Equity, which is charged with responding to and evaluating the racial equity plans.<\/p>\n