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In December 2025, Andrea Lucas, the chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, invited white men to file more sex- and race-based discrimination complaints against their employers. Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws. Contact the @USEEOC as soon as possible, she wrote in a post on X. In February 2026, the EEOC began to investigate Nike on what the agency said was suspicion of discrimination against white workers. Both initiatives followed the EEOCs March 2025 characterization of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, or DEI, as potentially discriminatory against white men. The EEOC characterization falls within the Trump administrations larger pattern of calling DEI illegal discrimination. At the Center for Employment Equity at the University of Massachusetts, we have done extensive research on who files discrimination charges with the EEOC. Given the EEOCs December 2025 solicitation for white men to file discrimination complaints, we revisited our prior research to see what is known about discrimination against white people and, in particular, what is known about white and white male discrimination charges registered with the EEOC. As part of our research, the EEOC gave us access to discrimination charges submitted to the agency and state Fair Employment Practices Agencies from 2012 to 2016. By law, all U.S. employment discrimination claims must be submitted to the EEOC, or state agencies with equivalent roles, prior to any legal actions. While the EEOC has a history of sharing its data with researchers stretching back to the 1970s, the EEOC stopped sharing current and historical data with researchers in 2016. As a result, we do not have any data on discrimination complaints after 2016. Judging by the EEOCs yearly reports, the basic patterns have not changed much in the interim. White men already file complaints When we looked at all sex- and race-based discrimination charges received by the EEOC, unsurprisingly we found that men are much less likely than women to file sex-based discrimination charges. But white men do file about 10% of sex discrimination complaints. While Black, Hispanic, and Asian male employees are more likely to file racial discrimination complaints, white men file about 9% of such complaints. In the same study, when we compared legal charges filed with the EEOC to national survey data, we found that percentages submitting a legal complaint to the EEOC roughly correspond to the percentages of survey-reported experiences of discrimination at work. Together, these two findings suggest that white people generally, and white men in particular, were already filing employment discrimination charges. Second, we did a deeper dive on sexual harassment charges. We found that while white men were 46% of the labor force, they filed 11% of sexual harassment charges and 11% of all other charges, most commonly tied to disability and age. The general pattern is that, while white men already file discrimination charges, they are less likely to experience employment discrimination than other groups. The risk of filing complaints Charges filed with the EEOC can result in two types of benefits to the charging party: monetary settlements and mandated changes in workplace practices. White men who filed sexual harassment charges received some benefit 21% of the timelower than white women, at 29%. Thats also lower than Black women, at 23%, and higher than Black men, at 19%. The EEOC already receives discrimination charges from white men and, at least for sexual harassment, treats them similarly to other groups. Most people who submit a discrimination charge do so to improve their employment experience and those of their co-workers. But submitting these claims to the EEOC or a state Fair Employment Practices Agency is a high-risk, low-reward act. We found that, at least for sexual harassment, employers responded to white mens complaints in much the same way as to other groups. White men who filed sexual harassment discrimination charges lost their job 68% of the time and experienced employer retaliation at about the same rate. Retaliation can include firing but also other forms of harassment at work, such as abusive supervision and close monitoring by human resource departments. We found this pattern of employer retaliation and worker firings for all demographic groups that file any type of discrimination complaint. White men who file discrimination charges receive the same harsh treatment from their employers as any other group. Urging more white men to submit discrimination complaints based on the perceived unfairness of DEI practices, as the EEOC has done, is likely to lead to job loss and retaliation from employers. What will happen? Its possible that EEOC chair Lucas call for more discrimination charges from white men will increase the number of filings. This is exactly what happened after 2012 when the EEOC ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Acts prohibition of sex discrimination also protected LGBTQ workers from sexual-orientation and gender-identity discrimination. More concerning is the EEOC defining employer efforts to prevent discrimination and create inclusive workplaces as discrimination against white men. In the end, all workers want to be treated fairly and with respect. Employer efforts to create such workplaces should be supported. It would be a better use of EEOC resources to support companies efforts to create such workplaces. Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey is a professor of sociology and director of the Center for Employment Equity at UMass Amherst. Steven Boutcher is an associate professor of social science research at UMass Amherst. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
Figmas fourth-quarter earnings report arrived on Wednesday afternoon with a notable claim from one of its top executives: AI should complement, not replace, employees. Its a bold statement from the leader of a tech company at a moment when many are scaling back. We don’t see it as a tool that replaces our talent, but rather how can we augment the team that we already have, Figma CFO Praveer Melwani said during Figma’s earnings call. So we will continue to hire, but we will be able to complement that with efficiency gained by some of the tools out there as well. The comment came in response to an analysts question about how AI might impact Figmas research and development. Figma is enjoying better-than-expected growth According to Figmas fourth-quarter earnings report, the strategy just might be working. The company reached $303.8 million in revenue, a 40% increase year over year. It also beat Wall Streets expectation of $293.15 million, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC. Figma further predicts that it will reach $315 to $317 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2026. This result would bring an average of 38% year-over-year growth. In response, shares of Figma Inc. (NYSE: FIG) rose over 16% in after-hours trading. By midday Thursday, the stock’s price was still up almost 8%. Software companies have faced falling stocks amid AI fears Melwanis call to not overly rely on AI tools comes as the company has faced sliding share prices around that very topic, with investors growing worried about the impact of AI tools on software platforms. Figma opened at $85 per share during its IPO last July, reaching over $115 on its first day. However, it started a mostly downward trajectory soon after. February has seen Figmas shares hover in the low- to mid-$20sfalling more than 79% since that first day and over 35% year to date. Artificial intelligence plays a significant part in Figmas offerings. The company launched Figma Make last year, a prompt tool with AI-powered design capabilities, along with a range of AI features. Figma offers AI credits based on each users plan and will allow the purchase of additional credits starting March 11. Teams can track their credit usage in a shared billing dashboard.
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invited leaders of some of the top artificial intelligence companies to gather on stage as part of a commitment to build more inclusive and multilingual AI around the world. And they did. But what caught some of the audience’s attention, and later went viral on social media, was an awkward interaction between two rival tech leaders: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. Modi, host of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, clasped hands with those closest to him Altman to his left and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to his right and beckoned all 13 tech leaders to lift their hands up in a chain, like theater actors at the end of a show. Everyone was holding hands except for Altman and Amodei, who stood next to each other but for several seconds awkwardly avoided hand contact. Both eventually put up their fists instead. The interaction quickly became a visual symbol of the deep rivalries in the AI industry, particularly between OpenAI and Anthropic, though Altman sought to brush off any deeper meaning. I didn’t know what was happening, Altman later said in a video interview with Indian media outlet Moneycontrol. He said he was confused, like when (Modi) grabbed my hand and put it up, and I just wasnt sure what we were supposed to be doing. Anthropic declined to comment. The two AI developers have a history, one that predates the creation of OpenAI’s hit product, ChatGPT, and Anthropic’s competing chatbot Claude. Amodei worked at OpenAI before he and a group that included his sister, Daniela Amodei, quit to form Anthropic in 2021. The newer company promised a clearer focus on the safety of the better-than-human technology called artificial general intelligence that both San Francisco firms aim to build. OpenAI first released ChatGPT in late 2022, revealing the huge commercial potential of AI large language models that could help write emails and computer code and answer questions. Anthropic followed with its first version of Claude in 2023. Their different approaches spilled over into public debate earlier this month in the United States when Anthropic aired TV commercials during the Super Bowl that ridiculed OpenAI for the digital advertising its beginning to place in free and cheaper versions of ChatGPT. While Anthropic has centered its revenue model on selling Claude to other businesses, OpenAI has opened the doors to ads as a way of making money from the hundreds of millions of consumers who get ChatGPT for free. Altman took to social media to criticize the TV commercials as dishonest. Sheikh Saaliq and Matt O’Brien, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
On the heels of his recent political hit song “Streets of Minneapolis,” about President Donald Trump’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into that city, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have announced the spring 2026 dates for their “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour, dubbing it the “No Kings” tour (in reference to a series of massive nationwide anti-Trump protests). The tour kicks off in Minneapolis on March 31. Last month, Springsteen performed his political single there, during a live benefit concert organized by former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello. Springsteen also dedicated his song “Promised Land” to Renee Good during a recent concert in his home state of New Jersey, and spoke out against the president and ICE. “Right now, we are living through incredibly critical times,” Springsteen told the audience. “The values and the ideas [of the United States] have never been as endangered as they are right now.” Springsteen continued: “If you believe in democracy, in liberty, if you believe truth still matters, and it’s worth speaking out and worth fighting for, if you believe in the power of law and that no one stands above it, if you stand against heavily armed masked federal troops invading an American city, using gestapo tactics against our fellow citizens . . . send a message to this president . . . ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis.” Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on January 7, and ICU nurse Alex Pretti, also 37, was fatally shot by two federal agents on January 24. The movement is growing, and were glad to have the Boss join the chorus,” said Eunic Epstein-Ortiz, a national spokesperson for the “No Kings” organizing group. “He understands what Americans know: We dont do kings. What are the dates for Bruce Springsteen’s “No Kings” tour? Springsteen’s tour dates are as follows: March 31: Minneapolis, MN Target Center April 3: Portland, OR Moda Center April 7: Inglewood, CA Kia Forum April 9: Inglewood, CA Kia Forum April 13: San Francisco, CA Chase Center April 16: Phoenix, AZ Mortgage Matchup Center April 20: Newark, NJ Prudential Center April 23: Sunrise, FL Amerant Bank Arena April 26: Austin, TX Moody Center April 29: Chicago, IL United Center May 2: Atlanta, GA State Farm Arena May 5: Belmont Park, NY UBS Arena May 8: Philadelphia, PA Xfinity Mobile Arena May 11: New York, NY Madison Square Garden May 14: Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center June 6: New York, NY Madison Square Garden June 19: Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena June 22: Cleveland, OH Rocket Arena June 24: Boston, MA TD Garden June 27: Washington, D.C. Nationals Park Tickets go on sale Friday, February 20, and Saturday, February 21. When is the next “No Kings” protest? The third “No Kings” nationwide protest is scheduled to take place in a little over a month, on March 28. More than 1,000 locally organized events in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., are already confirmed, including gatherings in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Organizers predict the March event will be even larger than the previous ones. In June, more than 5 million people attended the first “No Kings” protests. The movement grew to over 7 million people at the second “No Kings” protests in October.
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E-Commerce
Eileen Gu, the 22-year-old Chinese freeskier who just became the most decorated Olympian in women’s freestyle skiing, stood up for herself when speaking to a reporter at a press conference this week. In doing so, the skier unwittingly gave women everywhere an absolute masterclass in knowing their worth. The skier, who previously earned a gold medal and two silvers at the Beijing winter games in 2022, has earned two more silver medals at the current Milan Cortina games, becoming the most decorated athlete in her sport. And she’s not finished yetGu is still set to compete in the women’s halfpipe qualifier on Thursday and the halfpipe final on Saturday. The skier is also the only female freeskier to compete in three disciplines (slopestyle, halfpipe and big air) at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Regardless of the athlete’s incredible run thus far, a reporter asked Gu a question that raised some eyebrows on Monday. Most notably, Gu’s. The reporter asked the Olympian whether she was proud of her two new silver medals, or if she considered them to be “two golds lost.” The question seemed to minimize Gu’s incredible accomplishments in her sport, given her success. However, the athlete (who burst out laughing at first) did not shy away from making one thing abundantly clear: no one is going to cast a shadow over her or her achievements. Gu launched into an articulate and fierce response that was brimming with self-assuredness. Im the most decorated female freeskier in history, I think thats an answer in and of itself,” she began. How do I say this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every athlete. Doing it five times is exponentially harder because every medal is equally hard for me, but everybody elses expectations rise, right?” She continued: The two medals lost situation, to be quite frank with you, I think is kind of a ridiculous perspective to take. Im showcasing my best skiing, Im doing things that quite literally have never been done before so I think that is more than good enough, but thank you. The exchange was nothing short of extraordinary. Not just because the question was, well, embarrassing (for the reporter), but because it showed that you can be the most decorated female athlete in your sport and still have your accomplishments diminished. More frustratingly, it’s hard to imagine a male athlete being asked if he considered his Olympic medals a failure. Still, the phenomenon of diminishing women’s most incredible accomplishments isn’t new. In fact, most successful women experience it at some point. According to a 2023 study led by Women of Influence+, women in the workplace feel persistently penalized for being ambitious. In a survey of 4,710 respondents across 103 countries, over 86% of women said they experienced being undermined, cut down, or diminished due to their success. Who is doing the cutting down? When it comes to successful women, usually, a man. Specifically, it’s male leaders who are the most likely to dim women’s accomplishments, the survey found. For women, that’s part of why being at the top of your game can feel like a blessing and a curse. Because while women often feel they have to work harder than men to get recognized, earning their keep can also come with this unpleasant side effect. Thankfully, Gu just showed us exactly how to stand tall, own our success, and name our accomplishments in the face of dismissal. Because, whether you’re on top of a mountain, or starting at the lowest rung in the officethere will likely be someone who doubts you no matter what. Knowing your worth is the only surefire way to win.
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E-Commerce
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