The Verizon logo is displayed outside a Verizon store. The FCC approved its $ 20 billion agreement to buy Frontier Communications, one day after Verizon told the American regulator that it would end many of its diversity policies.
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Verizon has become the last large company to end policies around Diversity, equity and inclusion, or “DEI”, in order to keep the American government happy.
This seems to have worked: Friday, the Federal Communications Commission approved the $ 20 billion agreement from Verizon to buy a wide -band supplier frontier. The FCC said that the agreement will allow Verizon to upgrade technology providing Internet access to 25 states, including rural communities, and deploying access to fiber optics at least 1 million houses per year.
The FCC has also praised the changes that this agreement will make to internal policies in Verizon. In its announcement approving the agreement, the FCC specifically cited Verizon’s commitment “to end the practices linked to Dei”.
The approval one day after Verizon sent a letter to the FCC, describing how it ends many efforts linked to diversity, equity and inclusion. The telecommunications giant deletes the references to DEI of its training equipment and its external websites; End the bonuses and objectives linked to the increase in the percentage of workers who are women or minorities; And dissolve its internal human resources service devoted to policies related to diversity, while reallocating these employees to general “HR talent objectives”.
“We are committed to creating a culture that exploits and values the unique forces and talents of each person,” said the legal director of Verizon, Vandana Venkatesh, in Thursday’s letter to the president of the FCC, Brendan Carr. (Verizon spokespersons did not respond to requests for comments from NPR.)
“However, we recognize that the regulatory and political landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion (‘dei’) has changed,” added Venkatesh in his letter.
It is an understatement. Five years ago, after the murder of George Floyd sparked national demonstrations against systemic racism, American companies rushed to promise workers and customers that this would create more equitable opportunities for people from all horizons – in particular minorities and women who have traditionally faced discrimination. But now President Trump and his administration have declared war on such promises.
In the hours following its inauguration of January, Trump signed two decrees to end what he calls programs and policies of “Illegal Dei” within the federal government. The actions of its administration have accelerated an current DEI retirement through American companies, where some private employers are federal entrepreneurs, and therefore subject to decrees – and others, such as Verizon and Rival T -Mobile, actively seek the approval of the US government for commercial relations.
At the end of March, T-Mobile also told the FCC that it ended some of its objectives and programs related to the Dei. A day later, the FCC approved the T-Mobile agreement to buy the Lumos fiber operator.
The FCC played a particularly active role in the Trump administration campaign against diversity programs. Earlier this year, Carr opened surveys on Comcast, which owns Nbcuniversal, and Walt Disney Co., which owns the ABC television network, on what it called concerns that they “promoted prompt forms of discrimination.”
But even many companies which are not regulated by the FCC or which actively seek the approval of the American government for business, discreetly abandon their dei efforts. As NPR reported in February, many American companies have now rubbed the very word “diversity” of their most boring public documents.
