The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that in May 2024, Andrea Lucas, an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission commissioner, and a Donald Trump appointee, sent a 26-page memo claiming that Nike had systematically discriminated against white employees and applicants for years. A New York Times dispatch to The Globe reports that Nike had set targets for diversity in its U.S. work force, wrote Ms. Lucas. She said Nike had used internal programs to boost racial representation even as it appeared to have culled white executives through layoffs. "If the race of candidates has influenced any of Nike's employment decisions," Ms. Lucas wrote, then it violated federal law. "Time is of the essence to prevent future potential large-scale unlawful discrimination," Ms. Lucas said. She has also filed a charge that started a civil rights investigation into Nike. Nike was one of the few major companies to openly commit to diversity, which caught the attention of Ms. Lucas. Her pursuit of Nike set a precedent for similar investigations. Ms. Lucas has said she wants to restore "equal treatment" in the workplace. Her detractors have accused Ms. Lucas of a cynical effort to carry out the policy goals of the Trump White House.