Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced it was filing a subpoena to compel Nike to release more information — including about its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies — related to allegations that Nike discriminated against white workers.
Specifically, the court filings note that Nike may have engaged in “a pattern or practice of disparate treatment against white employees, applicants and training program participants in hiring, promotion, demotion, or separation decisions, including selection for layoffs; internship programs; and mentoring, leadership development and other career development programs.”
There’s much at stake here.
The liberal, and old-fashioned, approach to Civil Rights is to create a system in which racial minorities get a leg up through DEI — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. In this view, it was good and proper for people with darker skin pigmentation to get extra points in hiring and promotion decisions.
The newer approach — the right approach — to Civil Rights, which is in play now with the Trump Administration, is to view DEI policies as a dressed-up form of discrimination. While well-meaning, it perpetuated discrimination. The only way to end discrimination, in this view, is to simply stop discriminating.
That’s no doubt what the EEOC is looking for by requesting Nike’s personnel information. Nike has not been fully responsive with the EEOC probe, which extends back to 2018 under the Biden Administration, prompting the agency to now escalate matters.
I suspect the government will find, in digging through Nike’s records, a full-blown picture of what DEI achieved in the workplace, which was a systematic denial of civil rights to a class of people based on skin color. That is illegal.
Keep an eye on the Nike case as these two views on civil rights collide.
VOTER ID
This week, the SAVE America Act voter identification bill will come up in the House. While liberal voting-rights activists say the bill will make it harder for citizens to vote, the bill would only require a government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot and proof of citizenship to register to vote.
I don’t see how that would make it more difficult to vote. And most of the country is with me on that.
A 2025 Pew Poll showed 95 percent of Republicans and 71 percent of Democrats favor the idea.
We ought to make this happen, but you know every Democrat in Nevada’s congressional delegation will vote against it when they get a chance. More’s the pity.
GOODBYE, MARK
The lone Republican in Nevada’s congressional delegation, Rep. Mark Amodei, announced last week that he will not seek re-election.
“Serving the people of Nevada has been the honor of my lifetime,” he said. “Nobody is prouder of our Nevada Congressional District than me. Thank you for the honor. Every achievement worth doing began with listening to Nevadans and fighting for our values.”
Nevada’s going to miss Mark. He’s only 67, so he may still have a role to play in the state.
ONE MORE THING
(Sherman R. Frederick is a longtime Nevada journalist and a member of the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame. You can read more from him at shermanfrederick.substack.com. He can also be reached directly at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
