Defenders of “diversity, equity and inclusion” called for a shopping boycott Friday of institutions that rolled back DEI practices. Yet, as backlash against DEI’s racial bias continued, these radicals’ misguided crusade went largely unnoticed.

According to USA Today, although “it is difficult to gauge the economic impact of a one-day action with data,” early returns show “Amazon [one of the boycotted companies] sales were up slightly instead of down.” Another national news site quoted a market researcher saying it is “unlikely that … [these boycotts] will create a huge hole.”

This should surprise no one. According to Pew Research, an increasing share of U.S. workers consider DEI a “bad thing,” and fewer say it’s a good thing. This opinion shift leaves radical DEI activists increasingly isolated.

Meanwhile, as the White House has issued executive orders and other statements in favor of the Civil Rights Act, an increasing number of high-profile individuals and institutions are dropping race essentialism in favor of equality under the law.

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Last week, officials at BlackRock, one of the world’s largest investment companies, announced its move away from DEI. Pepsi, Disney and PBS spokespeople made similar announcements last month. These notices follow statements from Walmart, McDonald’s and other Fortune 500 heavyweights about rescinding DEI initiatives.

Apple and others are holding out, but their ranks are generally thinning.

Critics claim Washington has “declared war on diversity.” However, a glimpse at White House actions since Jan. 20 finds President Trump’s administration firmly supporting federal civil rights laws and protecting racial equality.

One executive order reads, “Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil rights laws, they also undermine our national unity.” This and other orders refer directly to the text of civil rights statutes and their legislative intent.

The administration has followed such orders with more statements reinforcing Supreme Court opinions.

In one letter, the Department of Education intended to enforce the high court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, overturning college administrators’ use of racial preferences in admissions and elsewhere. The letter gave K-12 and postsecondary schools two weeks to do what they should have been doing: adhering to civil rights laws and not acting with racial favoritism.

This deadline has passed, and the administration is acting.

The Department of Education has opened an online portal families and teachers can use to report discriminatory events caused by DEI, similar to portals created by policymakers in Indiana and North Carolina. In South Carolina, the Department of Education removed a $13.5 million federal grant from a school district program that used DEI. Several districts in Arizona recently lost a multimillion-dollar federal grant for the same reason. The schools will undoubtedly appeal, but the educators must explain that their activities don’t racially discriminate.

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Some educators haven’t backed down.

Last week, pro-DEI teachers told me they still planned to consider students’ ethnicities and “lived experiences.” The 74, an education news site, reports that school district officials in California, Massachusetts and Oregon intend to keep operating DEI programs, violating civil rights laws and federal orders.

This makes the executive orders welcome policies.

The orders are primarily consistent with state measures adopted around the country. In 2023, Florida and Texas made headlines by prohibiting taxpayer spending on DEI, but policymakers in states such as Georgia, Kansas, Wisconsin and West Virginia followed suit. Ohio, Wyoming, and elsewhere officials are considering similar proposals this year.

DEI is notoriously hard to define, so federal policymakers should take care to identify examples of racial discrimination when they see them. On the state level, lawmakers should continue to consider policies that reject race essentialism in public services such as schools.

Teachers using DEI should be on notice: States and the federal government are no longer ignoring racist activities. As for DEI radicals, they can call for all the shopping boycotts they like, but fewer and fewer will listen.