Federal agency probes Nike over alleged discrimination against White employees
By Ramishah Maruf, CNN
New York (CNN) — The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is probing Nike in response to unspecified allegations that the company discriminates against White employees, the agency said Wednesday.
The agency said it is investigating potential discrimination against White workers that may have occurred in part due to “NIKE’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion-related 2025 Targets and other DEI-related objectives.”
The subpoena enforcement action is another sign of a shift in views on discrimination under the Trump administration, which has sought to end diversity initiatives and instead examine whether such programs unfairly target White people.
“Thanks to President Trump’s commitment to enforcing our nation’s civil rights laws, the EEOC has renewed its focus on evenhanded enforcement of Title VII,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said in a statement.
In the Wednesday filing, the EEOC did not identify individual victims. Rather, the filing refers to “all White employees, former employees, prospective employees, and current and prospective training program applicants and participants who have been, continue to be, or may be in the future adversely affected by the [alleged] unlawful employment practices.”
Nike called Wednesday’s actions “a surprising and unusual escalation” in an emailed statement and said it has already “shared thousands of pages of information.”
“We are committed to fair and lawful employment practices and follow all applicable laws, including those that prohibit discrimination,” the statement said. “We believe our programs and practices are consistent with those obligations and take these matters seriously. We will continue our attempt to cooperate with the EEOC and will respond to the petition.”
Lucas first issued a discrimination charge against Nike in 2024, when she was a commissioner, according to the filing. Since becoming chair, she has shifted the priorities of the EEOC to address discrimination against White people. In an infamous December social media post, Lucas commissioned potential victims of “DEI-related discrimination.”
“Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws,” she said in the X post.
The EEOC said it is requesting information from Nike going back to 2018 over “race-based workforce representation quotas” and allegedly deciding layoffs and promotions at least in part due to race. The agency also asked for information about 16 mentoring and career development programs that were “race restricted.”
The wide-ranging probe is a signal that no employer, no matter how prominent, is free from scrutiny over the Trump administration’s anti-DEI goals, said Sam Mitchell, a Chicago-based lawyer who argues employment disputes cases.
“Nike is being made an example of,” Mitchell told CNN.
The EEOC said the agency filed the enforcement action after Nike failed to voluntarily provide all the information required by the subpoena.
In a 2025 legal filing, attorneys representing Nike argued the subpoena should be revoked “because its itemized requests are unduly burdensome, vague, overbroad, disproportionate to the needs of the investigation, seek irrelevant and time-barred information, and constitute an impermissible fishing expedition.”
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