EOs 14173, 14168, and 14281: A Modern Rollback of Civil Rights.

Jim Crow built visible walls. Today’s Executive Orders and regulatory changes are erasing the maps.

** Audio has been fixed… it was scratchy***

In this episode, I dig into three 2025 Executive Orders — 14173, 14168, and 14281 — and the newly issued CAAC Letter 2025-01.
Together, they don’t just threaten racial progress.
They actively roll it back.

• EO 14173 revokes core civil rights protections for federal contractors, reframing affirmative action as "illegal discrimination."

• EO 14168 strips recognition of gender identity from federal policy, part of a broader erasure of marginalized identities from the law.

• EO 14281 attacks disparate impact enforcement, gutting our ability to hold systems accountable even when discrimination hides behind neutral policies.

• CAAC Letter 2025-01 removes explicit federal bans on segregated facilities, opening the door for legally permitted racial separation in federal contracting.

These moves aren't isolated.
They mirror the strategies used after Reconstruction, when Black Americans were pushed out of political office, jobs, and public life, all under the false banner of neutrality and "restoring order."

This isn’t just about losing ground.
It’s about the deliberate reconstruction of racial inequality, rebranded, reworded, but no less real.

History isn’t just whispering warnings.
It’s shouting.
And we have to listen — and act.

🎙️ Listen to the full breakdown above.

EO 14173: Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity

· - Revokes EO 11246 (affirmative action for federal contractors)

· - Allows contractors to discriminate if challenged only by Title VII

· - Echoes Black Codes: 'neutral' language enabling racial exclusion in employment

EO 14168: Erasing Identity Protections

· - Removes 'gender identity' from federal protections

· - Strips references to marginalized identities in contracts

· - Echoes Jim Crow etiquette: enforced invisibility of marginalized groups

EO 14281: Restoring 'Meritocracy' Over Civil Rights

· - De-prioritizes disparate impact enforcement

· - Harder to challenge systemic racial inequity legally

· - Echoes 'Separate but Equal' logic: ignores impact while maintaining exclusion

CAAC Letter 2025-01

· - Removes FAR 52.222-21 (ban on segregated facilities)

· - In theory, restores the ability to legally separate drinking fountains, restrooms, and cafeterias

· - Echoes Jim Crow laws directly: visible segregation re-authorized under contracts