Walmart has joined a growing list of major corporations and rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
The move by the world’s largest retailer marks a seismic shift in corporate strategy that comes after attacks by conservatives and activists at the company’s ‘woke’ policies.
Some of the sweeping changes include abandoning a $100 million racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd and leaving a prominent LGBTQ+ gay rights index.
The retail juggernaut also won’t be giving priority treatment to suppliers that are 51 percent-owned by women, minorities, veterans or members of the LGBTQ community.
Walmart’s pivot is the latest domino to fall in a growing conservative crusade against DEI initiatives and underscores the increasing pressures faced by corporate America as it continues to navigate the fallout from the Supreme Court‘s ruling in June 2023 that ended affirmative action in college admissions.
Emboldened by that decision, conservative groups have filed lawsuits making similar arguments about corporations, targeting workplace initiatives such as diversity programs and hiring practices that prioritize historically marginalized groups.
Right-wing groups have relentlessly targeted corporate diversity efforts, branding them as “woke overreach.” Separately, conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on X.
Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply.
Boeing also took apart its DEI department reassigning staffers to teams within the company’s human resources department.
Bud Light beer lost its spot as the top-selling beer in the U.S. in 2023 following a controversy over a social-media promotion with a transgender influencer.
In the summer of 2023, Target’s sales fell after coming in for criticism of its Gay Pride month merchandise displays.
But Walmart, which employs 1.6 million workers in the U.S., is the largest one to do so. The company typically tries to stay neutral on hot-button social issues to appeal to a broad spectrum of shoppers and workers.
“This is the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America,” Starbuck wrote on X, adding that he had been in conversation with Walmart. “No retail company wants a story about them from us ahead of Black Friday.”
Walmart also agreed to stop using the terms “DEI” and “Latinx” in official communication.
Starbuck congratulated Walmart for its new direction.
“I have to give their executives major credit because this will send shockwaves throughout corporate America. This is the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America,” he said.
“We’ve now changed policy at companies worth over $2 Trillion,” Starbuck wrote. “Companies like Amazon and Target should be very nervous that their top competitor dropped woke policies first. I think Target specifically will suffer serious sales problems as a result and Walmart will benefit.”
Elon Musk also chimed in stating, “The tide has turned.”
Walmart has said that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don’t feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors.
That would include chest binders intended for youth who are going through a gender change, the company said.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer will also be reviewing grants to Pride events to make sure it is not financially supporting sexualized content that may be unsuitable for kids.
For example, the company wants to make sure a family pavilion is not next to a drag show at a Pride event, the company said.
The changes don’t stop there. Walmart has scrapped any use of race or gender as a criterion in awarding supplier contracts, signaling a stark departure from efforts to improve diversity in its business partnerships.
The company said it didn’t have quotas and will not do so going forward.
Additionally, it will cease tracking demographic data for grant eligibility and funding decisions.
Walmart also said it wouldn’t renew a racial equity center that was established through a five-year, $100 million philanthropic commitment from the company with a mandate to “address the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black and African American people in education, health, finance and criminal justice systems.”
And it would stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual benchmark index that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees, signaling a chilling blow to inclusivity.
Critics argue Walmart’s capitulation undermines years of progress toward equity in corporate America.
“We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said in a statement.
The changes come soon after an election win by Donald Trump, who has criticized DEI initiatives and surrounded himself with conservatives who hold similar views.
They include his former adviser Stephen Miller, who leads a group called America First Legal that has challenged corporate DEI policies.
Trump named Miller to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration.
With Trump allies celebrating Walmart’s pivot as a triumph, critics fear the tidal wave of “anti-woke” rhetoric is only gaining momentum.
A Walmart spokesperson said some of its policy changes have been in progress for a while.
For example, it has been moving away from using the word DEI in job titles and communications and started to use the word “belonging.”
It also started making changes to its supplier program in the aftermath of the Supreme Court affirmative action ruling.
Walmart’s stunning reversal will send shockwaves across corporate America, leaving DEI advocates scrambling to salvage initiatives in an increasingly hostile environment.
Some have been urging companies to stick with their DEI policies.
Last month, a group of Democrats in Congress appealed to the leaders of the Fortune 1000, saying that DEI efforts give everyone a fair chance at achieving the American dream.
DAILY MAIL