Major League Baseball removed references to ‘diversity’ from its careers website, the latest organization to acquiesce to the Trump administration’s executive order aiming to purge diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in America.
‘Our values on diversity remain unchanged,’ MLB said a statement Friday. ‘We are in the process of evaluating our programs for any modifications to eligibility criteria that are needed to ensure our programs are compliant with federal law as they continue forward.’
‘Our values, particularly our values on diversity, remain unchanged. But another value that is pretty important to us is we always try to comply with what the law is,’ MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said last month after an owners’ meeting.
‘There seems to be an evolution going on here. We’re following that very carefully. Obviously, when things get a little more settled, we’ll examine each of our programs and make sure that while the values remain the same that we’re also consistent with what the law requires.’
In 2023, a right-wing legal group founded by Trump advisor Stephen Miller brought a complaint against MLB with with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that baseball’s Diversity Pipeline Program, Diversity Fellowship Program, Diversity in Ticket Sales Training Program and the Diverse Business Partners Program were racially discriminatory. MLB is just one of many companies that Miller’s America First Legal has taken action against over DEI policies in recent years.
Earlier in the week it was discovered that Trump’s Department of Defense had taken down a webpage celebrating the military achievements of Jackie Robinson, who broke MLB’s color barrier in 1947. The page was later restored and the Pentagon blamed the use of artificial intelligence for the content being ‘mistakenly removed’ amidst the department’s scrubbing.
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