The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s new lawsuit against The New York Times — on behalf of an unnamed white man who reportedly didn’t get a promotion — is a hat trick for the Trump administration. It’s an attack on traditional civil rights legislation and diversity, equity and inclusion policies; it’s an attack on the press; and it’s red meat for a MAGA world that’s convinced itself that white men — who have typically enjoyed the lion’s share of America’s resources and opportunities — are victims in today’s society.
The priorities of this administration are clear: Protect the advantages of white men at all costs.
It’s red meat for a MAGA world that’s convinced itself that white men are victims in today’s society.
According to the lawsuit the EEOC filed in federal district court in Lower Manhattan, in denying the white male plaintiff a promotion, The New York Times violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. “No one is above the law — including ‘elite’ institutions,” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said in a statement. “There is no such thing as ‘reverse discrimination’; all race or sex discrimination is equally unlawful, according to long-established civil rights principles.”
By waving the proverbial scepter of litigation over a titan like The New York Times, the Trump administration is using the EEOC to send a message to news outlets to watch not only their editorial content but their employment practices as well. The intent here is plain and unambiguous. The newspaper has embraced DEI policies, but the administration, with this suit, hopes to have a chilling effect on diversity in newsrooms. We have already seen plenty of examples of the administration attempting to control what news is told; now the same administration is arguing that who tells the news should be within its purview.
It’s likely that the administration also sees the EEOC’s lawsuit as a much-needed distraction. The administration is currently entangled in controversy and scandal, and the president is facing historically low approval numbers. Attacking the Times now provides fodder and fuel for the culture wars that many on the right have successfully used to galvanize their base of supporters.
Lucas is correct that there is no such thing as reverse discrimination; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 wasn’t intended to grant special accommodations to Black people on account of race. Even so, as a former senior trial attorney with the EEOC, I clearly understand the mission of the agency, I understand the laws that give it the power of enforcement, and I know that it was intended to protect the rights of Black people and other classes against the systemic ills that unjustly barred them from equal opportunity in the workplace.
There is no need, and there’s never been a need, to level the playing field in favor of white men.
There is no need, and there’s never been a need, to level the playing field in favor of white men. Historically and systemically, the field has been, and still remains, slanted in their favor. Since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking unemployment by race in 1972, there hasn’t been a single moment when white men haven’t had the lowest unemployment numbers of every other demographic in America.
Conversely, the only group to consistently have higher unemployment numbers than Black men are Native American men. In just three months last year, more than 300,000 Black women were pushed out of or left the U.S. labor force, and the overall Black unemployment rate was 7.6% in the first quarter of 2026. The unemployment numbers for Black men were even worse, as they continued to hover near the 8% mark.
While racial discrimination may not be entirely to blame for the recent surge in Black unemployment, a host of studies has identified where racial discrimination operates alongside other structural and economic factors (occupational segregation, geography, criminal record effects, health and caregiving burdens, educational and wealth gaps) that make it more challenging for Black job seekers to obtain gainful employment. Even as we might differ on the degree that discrimination against Blacks is a barrier, the statistics do not support the EEOC chair’s theory of where the biggest problems are with the job market and potential discrimination.
But as worrisome as it is that the Trump administration is giving its attention to a white male plaintiff who claims he should have been promoted and wasn’t, this effort of the Trump administration’s to control the media poses an even greater problem. The First Amendment enumerates Americans’ most fundamental and important rights, and this lawsuit is an attack on that.
Freedom of the press is only part of it. Diverse newsrooms are a critical part of providing the public with the whole picture around the stories they report, and diversity can rightly ensure that all perspectives are represented. The trifecta of trouble presented in this current lawsuit shows that the Trump administration will go to great lengths — including the perversion of landmark civil rights law — to bring freedom of the press and diversity of the press to an end.
Charles F. Coleman Jr.
Charles F. Coleman Jr. is a civil rights attorney and a former Brooklyn, New York, prosecutor. He is an MSNBC legal analyst. Follow him on Twitter @CFColemanJr.