The head of a conservative group that publicly named federal diversity workers on an online “DEI Watchlist” is celebrating the fact that many of them still can’t find work, according to a new report.
The Washington Post found that two out of three federal employees named on the list who lost or left their government jobs remain unemployed, and when a reporter told Tom Jones, president of the American Accountability Foundation, about the finding, he was thrilled.
“If the Post’s reporting that the 2/3rds of the DEI staffers on the list can’t find work is accurate, we cannot overstate our joy that trafficking in anti-white bigotry now makes you unemployable,” Jones wrote in an email. “Our only regret about the watchlist is that we didn’t have the time or resources to profile more left wing woke bureaucrats.”
Asked about the Post’s finding that Black workers on the list were having a harder time landing jobs than White ones, Jones replied, “Sounds like hiring managers are racist, that’s very disappointing.”
The foundation, a group with ties to the Heritage Foundation, put up the site in early 2025. It profiled 93 people, about two-thirds of them Black, with photos, salaries and employment histories, calling them “behind-the-scenes bureaucrats who push divisive DEI agendas.”
The Post centered its report on Dia Harris, 53, the first chief equity officer at the Administration for Children and Families. Harris was raised by a single mother and attended Head Start, the program his agency oversaw. He was fired in 2025 despite top performance ratings. More than a year later, after over 560 job applications, he fills grocery orders at a Maryland Harris Teeter for $16 an hour and pays his mortgage out of his 401(k).
One recruiter told Harris confidentially that his company couldn’t hire him because it relies on federal contracts. “Look,” the recruiter said. “They probably support the watch list.”
Several people on the list also received unsolicited cash-on-delivery pizzas at their homes, a tactic that has also been used against judges who ruled against the Trump administration.
“They want you to know they know where you live,” one listed worker told Harris.
The Post estimated that the number of Black federal workers fell 30 percent by the end of 2025, compared with a 4 percent drop for employees of other races. Internal DOGE documents showed that more than 100 of the roughly 200 DEI-related jobs it planned to eliminate were held by Black employees, double the number held by White workers.
“They demonized my work. They took away my livelihood,” said Kiana Atkins, a former National Institutes of Health employee on the list.
An HHS spokesperson said the department is following Trump’s executive order “and all applicable federal law.”
