EEOC Sues School Over Firing of Black Employee After DEI Training
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has sued Washington University after it fired a Black worker who opposed mandatory DEI training that separated her from her colleagues. This act violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, or sex.
“Federal law protects workers who complain about race discrimination in the workplace, regardless of whether those complaints are made inside or outside the employer’s organization,” David S. Davis, director of the EEOC’s St. Louis District, said in a press release.
About the lawsuit
The employee in the lawsuit worked as a senior program manager at the private research university in St. Louis at the Siteman Cancer Center. She told the university and the EEOC that she was separated from her colleagues because of her race during a mandatory training session provided by the University’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Subsequently, her supervisors transferred her job responsibilities to other employees and eliminated her position, and she was eventually fired.
“Despite expressing in advance that being separated from her white colleagues during a DEI training would make her uncomfortable, a black employee was subjected exactly to that treatment. After she filed a charge with the EEOC, the employer decided to eliminate her position,” said acting EEOC General Counsel Catherine L. Eschbach.
The EEOC under the Trump Administration
The EEOC investigates businesses and private-sector employers that violate federal law and engage in employment discrimination. Since President Donald Trump hired Andrea Lucas as an EEOC commissioner, the EEOC has seemingly changed its understanding of DEI.
Nike faced a federal EEOC investigation in Missouri after the Trump administration moved in court on Feb. 4, 2026, to compel information tied to allegations of anti-white discrimination.
Lucas, who was appointed to the commission by President Trump during his first term, claimed that the retailer used internal processes to promote racial representation, even though it removed white executives from the company through layoffs, according to The New York Times.
In a statement to the leaders of Fortune 500 companies, Lucas urged corporate America “to reject identity politics as its solution to society’s ills,” according to NPR.
Image: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
