Politixia
Today, America First Legal (AFL), together with the James Otis Law Group, intervened in a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri on behalf of a Black woman who was deliberately segregated from her White colleagues during a mandatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) training at Washington University in St. Louis—and was later terminated after she reported the discrimination and filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The EEOC filed a lawsuit after investigating AFL’s client’s charge and finding reasonable cause to believe Washington University violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. AFL filed to intervene in that lawsuit, bringing Title VII claims, along with other violations of AFL’s client’s civil rights.
In January 2025, Washington University’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion conducted a mandatory DEI training. Before the training, the University sent participants a survey asking them to identify as either “BIPOC” (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) or “White,” then used those racial classifications to segregate employees for the training.
AFL’s client objected to the segregated training and understood it would not occur. Yet on the day of the training, as the sole “BIPOC” participant, she was segregated from her White colleagues. A University DEI official characterized the incident as a “miscommunication” and defended racial caucusing as an “important part of anti-racism work.”
After AFL’s client reported the racial discrimination and filed a charge with the EEOC, Washington University eliminated her position and promoted a White woman to the same title.
“Universities across the country should pay close attention to this case,” said Nick Barry, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. “Employers do not get a special exemption from federal civil rights law just because discriminatory practices originate in a DEI office. It should be obvious that you cannot segregate a Black employee in the workplace solely because of her race, and you cannot fire her for reporting that discrimination to the EEOC.”
“This case lays bare the fundamental fraud of the DEI regime. In the name of combating racism, Washington University’s DEI bureaucracy racially segregated a Black woman, isolated her from her white colleagues, and subjected her to the very discrimination it claims to oppose,” said Megan Redshaw, Counsel for AFL. “When she objected, Washington University defended racial segregation as ‘anti-racism.’ The Civil Rights Act does not bend to ideological fashion. Segregation is segregation, discrimination is discrimination, and neither becomes lawful simply because it’s given a new name.”
Read the full complaint here.
Read more about this case here.
Learn more about DEI practices at Washington University here.
Find more about AFL’s fight against DEI here.
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