Nike investigated for ‘discrimination against White people’

The enforcement action is one of the most prominent early tests of the Trump administration’s promise to scrutinize corporate DEI initiatives and to prioritize cases in which White workers allege discrimination. In December, the EEOC took the unusual step of publicly encouraging White men who believed they had faced discrimination at work to come forward with complaints.

“Title VII’s prohibition of race‑based employment discrimination is colorblind and requires the EEOC to protect employees of all races from unlawful employment practices,” EEOC chair Andrea Lucas said in a statement announcing the Nike action. She added that, under President Donald Trump, the commission had “renewed its focus on evenhanded enforcement of Title VII.”

What the EEOC is seeking from Nike

The EEOC says it began investigating after receiving allegations that Nike’s diversity goals and related initiatives may have unfairly disadvantaged White workers. As part of that probe, the agency issued a subpoena seeking information going back to 2018, including:

• The criteria Nike used to select employees for layoffs.
• Details on how the company tracks and uses employees’ race and ethnicity data, including whether such data factors into executive compensation.
• Information about 16 internal programs that allegedly offered race‑restricted mentoring, leadership or other career‑development opportunities.

After Nike did not voluntarily provide all of the requested information, the EEOC filed its subpoena enforcement action in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The case is titled EEOC v. NIKE, Inc., Case No. 4:26‑mc‑00128.

The company has not yet publicly commented on the enforcement action.