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‘Gag orders all around’: Confessions of a comms professional on DEI backlash
This article is part of our Confessions series, in which we trade anonymity for candor to get an unvarnished look at the people, processes and problems inside the industry. More from the series →
It’s been a month since President Trump signed an executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion policies, seemingly sending the backlash toward DEI into hyperdrive. Professionals across the board are feeling the ripple effects.
Multicultural marketing agencies braced for shrinking diversity budgets. Black-owned brands were caught in the crosshairs of retooled retailer DEI policies. Diverse publications questioned if media spend commitments will remain intact. Now, one communication professional says clients and sources that have agreed to press interviews about DEI in the past have suddenly gone quiet on the topic.
“I have never been shut down so fast by so many people. That’s never happened to me before, ever,” said a C-suite executive at an independent communications agency who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I usually can find somebody to talk about this type of stuff and just gag orders all around.”
In this conversation — part of our Confessions series, where we trade anonymity for candor — the executive talked about the current backlash against DEI and what that means for communications professionals.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You said you feel like there’s a gag order on talking DEI right now. What makes you feel that way?
In the course of a two-day span, I had two incoming media opportunities come in. Usually, I am able to pull from either our client roster or just honestly cool Black women that I know that know their shit, who will speak either on the record or on-background. I’m able to get at least one person, and this time I went out to a larger pool of folks.
So I went out to folks that I knew would have some really amazing insights on this. There are people at studios, streaming platforms and networks, and people in production on the unscripted side and on the scripted side. And I got nothing. People wanted to talk. They absolutely wanted to talk, but they’re like, “Let me just run this up the flagpole,” and they got summarily shut down.
You’ve been a comms professional for decades, navigating crisis situations. What made this feel different?
Everybody wanted to say something. There was a couple of them that wanted to go rogue, but didn’t because they were like, “I’ve got to keep fighting the good fight from the inside. If I’m not here to have these conversations and I can’t do my job — whatever my job’s going to look like in the very near future — but if I talk about what’s going on internally, then I get let go, then I can’t do anything.”
Crisis situations come up all the time where you can just tell somebody — a brand, a studio, a network, a platform — is just being cautious [in crafting a response]. Maybe they don’t have their [messaging] together internally, but they’re going to come out with something at some point. My text message and my phone calls [to sources asking for press interviews], I felt fear on the other side. And I’ve never felt fear on the other side before.
Trump signed the executive order targeting DEI about a month ago. Do you suspect that’s set a precedent for whether clients will speak on these topics?
I do think it’s going to become a trend just like it became a trend in 2020. Everybody leaned in [to DEI] because that’s what everybody else was doing. And everybody’s leaning out because that’s what everybody else is doing.
People don’t want to say anything, even if it’s middle of the road. I’m not sure if that’s because they’re scared of Trump or because it’s racially charged, or both of them together.
How do you square that as a comms professional? How are you responding to media inquiries and following ‘gag orders’?
I also feel like my hands are tied because they have the expertise and the insights to really speak about what’s going on. My business partner and I, we are continuing to fight the good fight. We are continuing to elevate the voices that we feel need platforms.
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