American Psychological Association’s Actions Speak Louder Than Its Apology
The psychology field cannot afford APA’s abandonment of diversity efforts.
Updated April 27, 2026 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
Written by Germine Awad, Ph.D. and Kevin Cokley, Ph.D.
This week, the American Psychological Association (APA) informed members of the Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention, and Training in Psychology (CEMRRAT) that it has been disbanded. This recent action calls into question APA’s commitment to increasing the recruitment, retention, and training of psychologists of color.
The Significance of CEMRRAT
CEMRRAT was established in 1994 after the APA designated ethnic minority education as a priority, with the goal of improving the recruitment and retention of ethnic minorities and addressing systemic barriers to their participation in psychology. CEMRRAT has been important because it devoted resources toward the advancement of ethnic minority issues. For example, historically, CEMRRAT has awarded implementation grants and seed funding to organizations, institutions, and individuals to support projects related to (a) recruitment and retention, (b) multicultural training, (c) mentorship and development, (d) innovation projects, and (e) data and research.
CEMRRAT was also known for producing several popular documents designed to support, recruit, and retain faculty of color. These documents included “ Surviving and Thriving in Academia: A Guide for Women and Ethnic Minorities” and “How to Recruit and Hire Ethnic Minority Faculty .” The creation of CEMRRAT was particularly important given the painful experiences that racial and ethnic minorities have historically and contemporarily experienced in APA and by APA’s actions.
This latest move to disband CEMRRAT, while incredibly disappointing, is not surprising if you closely follow the history of APA. Like other organizations that claim to value diversity until faced with an existential threat and/or financial crisis, APA will sacrifice diversity-related interests under the guise of re-evaluating priorities. APA has also previously suspended the CEMRRAT budget, an action that was devastating to many APA members of color. While APA did eventually continue to support and fund CEMRRAT initiatives, recent actions have made it apparent that APA, contrary to what it claims, is not truly committed to redressing the harms it has historically committed against communities of color.
APA’s Failure to Defend Diversity
This move has followed others that aimed to quietly disband diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the APA. Last year, APA faced criticism for relaxing APA accreditation guidelines designed to address efforts to diversify psychology graduate programs. I (Kevin Cokley) was quoted in the New York Times as saying that the decision “was unconscionable, given what we know of the importance of having diverse mental health providers.” APA tried to explain that APA accreditation was separate from APA and that this move did not reflect the values of the organization but, rather, an easing of criteria for those in states with more restrictive anti-DEI laws. However, given that CEMRRAT has been disbanded, these moves appear to be part of a growing and deliberate anti-DEI sentiment at the APA.
In 2021, I (Germine Awad) was appointed as one of the co-chairs of the Dismantling Racism in the Field of Psychology Taskforce. The purpose of this taskforce was to document the harms that APA and the field of psychology committed toward people of color. Another aspect of the taskforce was to advise APA in their apology to people of color. One of the reservations that both my co-chair and I voiced was that we did not want this taskforce and apology to be performative and lack actionable products. We were assured that, given that APA resolutions would be produced from this work, there would be documentation to keep APA accountable toward people of color. However, we see that our fears were well-founded in that APA kept on failing to protect people of color, especially during the attacks on DEI from the Trump administration.
To be clear, there are years of psychological and social science research demonstrating the benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The fact that APA so easily dismantled its only program designed to fund efforts to recruit, retain, and train psychologists from diverse backgrounds is telling. One can only surmise that DEI were never true values of the APA in the first place. I guess we will be waiting on the next APA apology to people of color to address these more recent harms to these communities.
APA’s Hollow “Apology”
When the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi) rejected APA’s apology to people of color, it noted how APA promotes itself as a “culturally competent” organization that is antiracist, yet Black psychologists still only comprise 4 percent in the field compared to 86 percent White psychologists. Similarly low percentages can be found across other racial and ethnic minority groups. The fact that APA would disband CEMRRAT, whose charge is literally about diversifying psychology, speaks volumes about APA and underscores ABPsi’s observation that the apology was “at best patronizing and at worst, an intentional act of obfuscation designed to mask the truth.”
That said, between the two co-authors of this post, we have volunteered our time to help APA serve communities of color in many different capacities. Between the two of us, we have served as president of APA’s Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race), on the taskforce on Race and Ethnicity guidelines, on the Committee of Ethnic Minority Affairs, on the taskforce to Dismantle Racism in the Field of Psychology, on the apology to people of color workgroup, on the Board of Convention Affairs, and numerous other positions at the Division level. Despite our knowledge of how oppressive systems work, we still wanted to help where we could. However, we cannot help but think of the famous Maya Angelou quote, “when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
The latest moves by the APA have once again supported the prescient criticisms by ABPsi that the organization should abdicate its unjustifiable claim to be the arbiter of universal human functioning. How can it be the authority on human behavior, given its actions to dismantle efforts that would ensure diverse representation of psychologists and psychology? Regardless of APA’s actions, our commitment to our communities means there will always be many of us who will continue working to diversify psychology and improve the lives of Black and other communities of color.
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Kevin Cokley, Ph.D., holds the University Diversity and Social Transformation Professorship at the University of Michigan, where he serves as Associate Chair of Diversity Initiatives and Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.