Actor Malik Yoba is now referring to himself as “non-white.” Could this be a loophole to the ongoing DEI rollbacks?
The Trump administration’s efforts to purge diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have sparked a wave of responses, ranging from corporations quietly complying to brands like Costco reaffirming their commitment to DEI. But amidst these shifting tides, opinions are divided on the most effective way to respond.
Most recently, actor Malik Yoba suggested a bold and unexpected way for communities to respond to the government’s attempts to dismantle DEI—by identifying as “non-white.”
“I decided that I’m no longer a Black man. No longer a person of color. BIPOC. None of that s**t. What I am is a ‘non-white man.’ And I think we should all just start calling ourselves non-white. So they’re gonna have to figure it out and just say that sh*t explicitly,” Yoba said in a video posted on his social media. “No DEI, no BIPOC, no references to our blackness. So we just all walk around, ‘I’m not a Black man, I’m a non-white man.’ Call it what it is. I’m just non-white. Let them rebuke that. Let them refute it.”
Social media lit up after Yoba’s comments, with many shocked to hear the actor renounce identifying as Black. But whether he was being literal or using satire to make a larger point, Yoba is tapping into an important conversation—the power of language and labels in the ongoing fight for equity. While the language in many of these recent DEI rollbacks may seem intentionally vague, the impact has been anything but.
Yoba’s suggestion—though jarring to some—seems to push for a deeper reckoning. He’s calling on brands and institutions to explicitly state who they’re really serving with these changes.
“Let them come up with something that just says, ‘We don’t like all non-whites,’” the actor added.
Some companies have only rebranded their DEI programs, while others, like Target, have taken more drastic steps by not only changing the names of their initiatives but also ending their Racial Equity Action and Change (REACH) programs and walking back diversity goals altogether.
In the same way that fewer students are disclosing their race on college applications following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action, some social media users interpreted Yoba’s remarks as a call for marginalized communities to take a similar approach.
“I’m filling in boxes that says ‘other’ then putting ‘non-white.’ Say less @malikyoba, we IN,” one user commented on Instagram.
Another added, “If we are labeled, identified, or given opportunities based on what you check in the box for race, then the best way to avoid being labeled is if everyone unanimously identifies and labels themselves as ‘non-white.’ They will have to do their due diligence to try and figure out which non-white you are (which they won’t). They train you to label yourself and therefore disqualify yourself based on the box you check. If you don’t specify they can’t place you in a category and will still have to make a decision on accepting you or not. If you remove the race completely it betters the odds of higher approvals and confuses the f out of them. You can still be proud and loophole they a**** like they do us.”
But not everyone was feeling it. Some users believed that identifying as “non-white” implies whiteness as the default, erasing individual identities in the process.
“Non-white gives ‘white is the standard and my racial identity doesn’t matter,’” one user argued.
Similarly, another commenter noted that “saying ‘non-white’ keeps them in the center. Let’s just not say nothing and keep our money out of their hands.”
Regardless of whether you agree with his statement, Yoba’s suggestion highlights the urgency for communities to rethink how they define themselves in a system determined to put them in a box.
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