The hidden camera investigations Accuracy in Media (AIM) has conducted at many universities, medical clinics, and administrative buildings across the country have helped influence the Department of Justice's (DOJ) investigation into Arizona State and other schools and helped North Carolina and Kansas draw up more restrictive DEI measures.
Now, AIM President Adam Guillette says they have found that local government offices in South Carolina are still funding these policies and are preparing to shift language in response to potential laws against DEI.
"They give their local government the benefit of the doubt," he says of taxpayers. "These aren't the feds; these are maybe even your neighbors. You want to assume their heart is in the right place, but in reality, they're taking these tax dollars and using [them] to push divisive, radical politics that pit people against one another."
For example, Marilyn Nguyen (pictured above), the manager of strategic partnership and opportunities in Spartanburg, South Carolina, recently told a hidden camera that the city is preparing language to disguise DEI work if the state decides to act against it.
City officials in Greenville and Myrtle Beach have disclosed similar information.
DEI programs are not completely banned nationwide in the United States, but they face strict federal limits and state-level bans and have decreased sharply across the U.S. in President Donald Trump's second term through sweeping executive actions, federal contractor restrictions, and widespread rollbacks in corporate America and higher education.
Private companies and many non-governmental institutions, however, still operate DEI programs.
Guillette says anybody who is caught breaking the law while working for the government should never get a taxpayer funded check again.
"Anyone who's pushing DEI after they banned it, which I hope South Carolina will do in the local level, should be subject to that exact fine," he submits.
The South Carolina House of Representatives has passed a prominent bill to restrict DEI initiatives across state agencies, public schools, and universities, but the legislation still requires approval from the State Senate and the governor to become law.
