Jan. 20 marks an unlikely pairing: President-elect Donald Trump‘s inauguration and the nation’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Trump’s rhetoric contrasts sharply with King’s heartfelt calls to transcend racial divisions and emphasize shared human values. It is difficult to imagine King voting for Trump. Nevertheless, when Trump ends divisive diversity, equity, and inclusion training, he could replace it with alternatives based on King’s philosophy of love. Further, Trump’s pledge to end the disparate-impact rule for determining discrimination would also align with the individualistic tradition that dominated the civil rights movement in King’s time.
Trump took little interest in these policies for most of his first term. He waited until the final weeks before the 2020 election to ban federal diversity training. His Department of Justice waited until…
