Walmart becomes latest, largest company to roll back DEI policies

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is rolling back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, joining a list of major companies doing the same after coming under attack from conservative activists.

The changes approved by Walmart on Monday are sweeping and include everything from not renewing a five-year commitment to a racial equality center established in 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd to withdrawing from a leading gay rights index. And Walmart won’t prioritize suppliers when it comes to race or gender.

Walmart’s moves underscore the growing pressure facing corporate America as it continues to unwind from the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision ending affirmative action in college admissions. Emboldened by this decision, conservative groups have filed lawsuits against companies using similar arguments, targeting workplace initiatives such as diversity programs and hiring practices that prioritize historically marginalized groups.

Separately, conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck is going after corporate DEI policies by calling out individual companies on social media platform X. Many of these companies, including Ford and Harley-Davidson, later announced they were withdrawing their initiatives. Lowe’s and Tractor Supply.

However, Walmart, which employs 1.6 million workers in the USA, is the largest company to do this.

“This is the greatest victory yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America,” Starbuck wrote in X, adding that he had met with Walmart.

Walmart confirmed to The Associated Press that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace products to ensure they do not contain underage sexual and transgender products. This will include chest binders for young people undergoing gender transition, the company said.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer will also review donations to Pride events to ensure it does not financially support sexually explicit content that may be inappropriate for children. For example, the company said it wanted to make sure a family pavilion wasn’t next to a drag show at a Pride event.

Additionally, Walmart will no longer treat race and gender as a litmus test for increasing diversity when offering supplier contracts. The company said it had no quotas and would not do so in the future. Demographic data will not be collected when determining funding eligibility for these grants.

Walmart also said it would not renew the company’s racial equity center, established through a five-year, $100 million philanthropic commitment and “with a mandate to address the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black people,” according to its website. and African Americans in education, healthcare, finance, and criminal justice systems.”

It will also cease participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual benchmark index measuring workplace inclusion of LGBTQ+ employees.

“We’ve been on a journey and we know we’re not perfect, but every decision comes from our desire to foster a sense of belonging, open doors to opportunity for all of our associates, customers and suppliers, and be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said in a statement.

The changes come on the heels of the election victory of former President Donald Trump, who criticized DEI initiatives and surrounded himself with like-minded conservatives, including his former adviser Stephen Miller, who leads a group called America First Legal that challenges corporate DEI policies. . Trump appointed Miller as his new administration’s vice president for policy.

A Walmart spokesperson said some of the policy changes have been in the works for some time. For example, it moved away from using the word DEI in job titles and communications and started using the word “belonging.” It also began making changes to its supplier program following the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision.

Some are urging companies to adhere to DEI policies. Last month, a group of Democrats in Congress appealed to Fortune 1000 leaders to say that DEI efforts give everyone a fair shot at achieving the American dream.