In 1946, after Herman Niemöller was released from prison by the Nazis, he uttered the famous words that are in my title today. These words now grace the front of the US National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. To remind you:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Jews around the world are quite sensitive to government actions that might collect identifying information about them or tend to define separate categories for them from others (even under the guise of ‘protection’). In the past century, Jews have been treated as a category of people, in order to exclude their immigration, to ensure their expulsion, to take their property, to limit their ability to study or work or buy homes or pay equitable insurance rates. Any other people, defined through religious categorization or ethnic group or race, would be equally concerned about actions of a government that seek to create or obtain lists of people.

So it is that we experience the Trump Administration’s EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). This regulatory body traditionally enforces employment discrimination law, largely under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Traditionally, cases are filed with the EEOC when an employee (or group of employees) feels that they are being discriminated against based upon their race, gender, religion, or national origin. Discrimination can be on the basis of disparate treatment, disparate impact, harassment, or retaliation. The EEOC can investigate cases on their own, without any complaint being filed. ‘Traditionally’ is the operative word here.

The new EEOC chair has been dedicating her efforts to finding new classes of discrimination (in her pursuit of equality). Bolstered by the President’s executive order to ignore cases that are based on disparate impact (despite the express language in the Civil Rights Act), the EEOC has chosen to chase down potential plaintiffs for their meritocracy objectives and target what it deems as DEI initiatives. Her first targeted group of harmed employees – white men. In lieu of ‘inclusion’ and ‘diversity’, the down-trodden white men need protection (and women must be taken down the ladder a peg). The first corporate attack – a Coca-Cola distributor that is being sued by the EEOC for hosting a Women’s Retreat – and they are seeking white men at the company to step up and join them in their indignation. God forbid a company employ a variety of methods to develop and retain their employees. I suspect they will also object to affinity groups (Latino, Black, Women, etc) at Microsoft using facilities to gather and build social networks that advance their careers (and comfort in working at a large tech company). Despite the need to ignore disparate impact, they perceive a need to defend the 85% of the workforce at a bottler that clearly has a leg up.

The other arena recently pursued by the EEOC has been antisemitism on college campuses. There can be little doubt that antisemitism on campuses has exploded in recent years, and this environment impacts both students and employees. But the particular approach taken by the EEOC on this matter harkens back to 1930s Europe. In a subpoena issued by the EEOC chair, they required the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) to collect and compile lists of Jewish employees (mostly defined by their affiliation with certain Jewish affinity groups) and supply them to the government so they can solicit complaints against Penn. Penn fought the subpoena on a number of grounds, not the least of which they do not collect such information on their employees. And rightly so – what employer have you had that asked for your religious affiliation for their files, or ethnic group or sexual orientation. The US Census has not requested religious affiliation in its surveys since the 1950s (when Jews were excluded from a myriad of professions, neighborhoods, loan requests, etc). It is none of their business.

But, unfortunately, a judge has gone along with the request. The judge ignored any risk of the information being used to hurt the Jewish people on the list (as if the government is expert at securing information and no one could possibly want that information to do harm). And so the United States will be collecting its first list of Jews in this century. And a third party, Penn, has been ordered to do the work. All of this so that the EEOC can find employees to file complaints against Penn. (Mind you, there is little doubt that antisemitic activities at Penn did create a hostile environment for Jewish students and staff – this is not my point). The EEOC could have requested the names and contact information for every employee at Penn in order to contact them – they thought this was a better idea. How long will it be until this information is released to the public in a Freedom of Information Act request? How much harassment will result from this dangerous escapade?

Who else will the government come for? Democratic voters? Independents (how dare they fail to affiliate with MAGA!)? Transgender people? When they come for you, who will be left to speak for you?

And the national disgrace continues…