Anti-Woke Backlash

This page covers the campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programmes in corporations, government agencies and educational institutions. It operates through litigation, state legislation and public pressure.

Terminology

“Woke” is a contested term used pejoratively by this movement about its targets. It appears in this page’s title because that is the name under which the movement is discussed and, in several state statutes, legislates. This page does not use it to characterize anyone.

The legal outcome

The most consequential development in this area is a court decision. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, decided June 29, 2023 together with the companion case against the University of North Carolina, the Supreme Court ruled on race-conscious admissions at both institutions.

This page records the decision. It does not assert that the movement described here caused it; that litigation was brought by a specific organization over years, and attributing a Supreme Court outcome to a diffuse public campaign is not a claim any source cited here supports.

Opinion has moved, and by how much

The scale of the shift is the part most often overstated, in both directions, and Pew has measured it directly.

Among U.S. workers surveyed in October 2024, 52% said a focus on increasing DEI at work is mainly a good thing — down from 56% in February 2023. Those saying it is mainly a bad thing rose from 16% to 21%. Roughly a quarter said neither.

That is a real move and a modest one: a four-point fall in support over twenty months, against a position that remains the plurality view among workers. A page describing this movement as having turned public opinion would be wrong on Pew’s numbers.

What was removed

The previous version carried a chronology from 2014 and asserted a set of impacts on corporate policy, school curricula and legislation. None was sourced. The founded field, which read 2019, has been removed with it.