Get your ticket to GaijinPot Expo 2024
America's largest private employer, Walmart, is the latest name to join a list of U.S. businesses and institutions rethinking programs to bolster minority groups as support for progressive policies erodes.
Walmart said it will phase out the terms "diversity, equity and inclusion" (DEI) and "Latinx," end supplier diversity programs, shutter a racial equity center and pull out of a prominent gay rights index.
The announcement comes in the wake of similar moves by a string of prestige brands -- from Ford, John Deere and Lowe's to Harley-Davidson and Jack Daniel's -- reflecting a backlash against so-called political correctness in American public life.
The rightward shift is credited in part for populist Donald Trump's White House comeback and for laying the groundwork for a 2023 Supreme Court ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions.
DEI initiatives aim to right historical discrimination but conservatives have long criticized them as unfairly targeting white people, particularly men, as well as being performative "virtue-signaling."
Anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck, who lobbied Walmart before its announcement, celebrated the "biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America" and noted that the company's stock had risen 2.1 percent.
"Our movement is a force in the market. Go woke, go broke actually has meaning now," he posted on X.
'Down everybody's throats'
Starbuck, 35, told AFP in an interview before Trump's November 5 victory over Democrat Kamala Harris -- who was criticized for previous "woke" policy positions -- that ordinary Americans were sick of inclusivity and diversity policies at U.S. companies.
"People are entitled to their views, and we need to have a system that creates equal footing for everybody and doesn't force any one ideology down everybody's throats," he said.
Emboldened by Trump's campaign pledges to end "wokeness," conservative groups have been filing numerous lawsuits targeting corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minorities and women.
Trump himself focused mostly on political correctness that he says is infecting the nation's classrooms, promising executive orders to cut federal funding schools pushing critical race theory and "transgender insanity."
The president-elect has surrounded himself with anti-woke allies of all stripes, including his incoming deputy policy chief Stephen Miller, whose America First Legal group has targeted corporate diversity.
The military has been the main target of anti-woke crusaders in the U.S. Congress, who argue that racial justice education and an obsession with climate change have made the troops go soft and driven a recruitment slump.
Republican lawmakers who spent much of the last congressional session locked in a war with Pentagon leaders on political-correctness were rewarded with Trump's pick to lead the defense department's workforce of three million -- anti-DEI Fox News host Pete Hegseth.
Conservative activists hailed 2023 as a landmark year in America's never-ending culture wars, when the conservative-majority Supreme Court ended affirmative action in university admissions, reversing a major gain of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Conservative groups pounced on the ruling to fight all manner of diversity programs in court.
And in March, the University of Florida ended DEI programs and related jobs as part of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis's offensive against "woke ideology" -- joining campuses in around a dozen other states.
Workers are divided on the merits of DEI, with a slowly-growing share saying their company pays too much attention to the issue -- 19 percent in an October Pew Research Center poll compared with 14 percent in the same survey in February 2023.
But a new poll of 1,300 employees from business think tank The Conference Board, showed a robust 58 percent indicating that their organization devotes the appropriate level of effort on DEI.
"Leaders should focus on what really matters for their workforce amid the noise, as these initiatives are crucial for attracting and retaining current and future talent," said Allan Schweyer, the group's principal Researcher for human capital.
© 2024 AFP
46 Comments
Garthgoyle
I'm glad the US is pulling a U-turn and standing against this nonsense of DEI. And most specially against the wrong term "latinx". We're either Latino or Latina. It's about time.
JeffLee
The world's freest and most economically advanced societies were founded on the principle of equality, not discrimination, which is what DEI is.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The Democratic party and entertainment industry will never go back on defending people's actual liberties, no matter how much MAGAs shout and stomp.
Jay
Finally, a glimmer of hope in this woke world. The end of DEI (Division, Exclusion, and Indoctrination) is a victory for real Americans who believe in merit, and truth. For too long, Uber Liberals have turned our institutions into temples of mediocrity and grievance worship.
DEI wasn't about fairness; it was about punishing success, promoting failure, and forcing people to bow to the altar of Leftist ideology. It wasn't diversity - they silence anyone who didn’t parrot their Radical "Progressive" nonsense. It wasn't equity - it was redistribution of achievement to the unqualified. It wasn't inclusion - it was deliberate exclusion of faith, patriotism, and anything remotely Christian or conservative.
But now, their fake empire is crumbling, and it's about time. People are reclaiming America as a nation founded on Christian values, where truth matters more than feelings, and competence beats quotas. People have made it clear to the woke mob: your reign of chaos is over. The dominoes are falling, and so is their godless agenda. And thank God for that.
dagon
Trying to get MAGA to define the hallmarks of 'woke' is always hilarious.
Basically decency and fairness and being awake to injustice.
But from MAGA you will get a very long list of their grievances, projections and not very well-hidden obsessions.
TaiwanIsNotChina
It takes a campaign contributor with no experience to bring back merit to institutions?
What's the over under on prayer being back in California or New York public schools? Also:
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/87679-you-desire-to-know-something-of-my-religion-it-is
virusrex
When you have to take the side of Walmart in order to defend your position on segregation and discrimination there is very little anybody can say to make it more obvious you are on the wrong side.
Jay
You know exactly what woke is - weaponized fake victimhood masquerading as morality and decency twisted into censorship, fairness rebranded as favoritism, and injustice fabricated to fuel sickly, nihilistic Marxists and their godless war on common sense.
dagon
I see a lot of fake Fox grievances and MAGA buzzwords fueled by religious zealotry.
virusrex
Who mocks people that shop at walmart?
This may be difficult to understand for some, but what Walmart (the company) does almost universally goes against the best interests of the people that shop there, when you take the side of Walmart you are taking the opposite side of the people that shop and specially that work at Walmart.
Chabbawanga
The funniest part about doing away with DEI is how every ivy league college will be attented almost exclusively by asian kids.
Jay
I see nihilism dismissing faith as "zealotry", mocking more than half of the citizens of United States with zero substance, and pretending their own CNN-induced outrage isn't the real fake grievance factory.
dagon
Trying to address suffering and unfairness where you see it is woke.
Shifting money from a children's cancer charity into your own business is amoral nihilism.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/06/06/how-donald-trump-shifted-kids-cancer-charity-money-into-his-business/
That is what 'anti-woke' looks like.
Ken
What people don't seem to understand was America was a country very heavy on jobs, bathrooms, restaurants being labeled as "whites only" "white men only" because of how much discrimination there was back then. Other countries didn't have a variety of different race backgrounds but America did and they wanted it to be known that everyone doesn't get the same treatment. There is a reason why the top of certain companies or certain government positions still have the same racist old farts which still affects the hiring processes to this day, not to mention AI is programmed to choose a white male just because even if they didn't have a better resume than a female or person of color.
But at the end of the day that is what will hold America back from growth, other countries will surpass America because it will become the country of bland ideas lacking creativity much like how North Korea looks. 80% of Americans probably never left the country before and 80% of Americans have probably never watched a tv show that has subtitles until Squid Games
TaiwanIsNotChina
Please do tell us how you are handling the religious diversity in your own country.
Who do you predict shooting ahead of the US in the creativity department?
No need to do such things when that is not where the action is.
Ken
Very much like the people who attempt to use the word "woke" in this day in age just attempt to combine a lot of unrelated things together seeing how they lack the intelligence to differentiate between different things they don't understand. Honestly it isn't worth losing braincells debating with people who are jealous of oppressed people. Snowflakes that are too soft to understand struggle honestly aren't worth wasting any time
Ken
I'm American living in Japan so I understand I don't have the same opportunities as someone who is born in Japan. The non-existent American dream glazes how things look on the surface but people of color as well as women don't get the rights we are normally supposed to be at least entitled to but. If your question was more so about religion I don't think I know how to answer that other than I don't judge people based on what they believe in, I used to be military so I was used to working with people who believed in different things, it's immature to think one religion is better than the other in my honest opinion
Some dude
We should let them have their way. Let them only hire white, heterosexual, male, religious fanatics for everything. Then just sit back and enjoy the show.
Ken
Because a lot of America's advancements and creativity wasn't from only old straight white dudes. Some of the new inventions or movies and series were also made by people who were women, gay, or people of color. Nobody was doing no check box people were just expressing themselves in ways they related to. Eventually we get tired of seeing the same old movie ideas or the same old actors. The new Minecraft movie which is geared towards kids has Jack Black as the main character, he is a little too old to be in a movie like that
We'll see how badly Trump screws over the states and it's relationship with other countries and how many years it takes to fix the damage he has done with his second term, I haven't forgotten any of the things he has done and how many lies he has told
proxy
If the DEI experiment made these companies either more profitable or workers more productive they would have kept it. It did not, it made them less profitable and their workers less productive. It was an idea that turned out to be a bad idea that failed. Time to move on.
dutch
Another glorious win for meritocracy and human rights. Another crushing blow for communist identity politics.
DEI is not yet dead, but its on its deathbed.
BB
The problem is the word "woke," which turns common decency and common sense into some kind of ridiculous fad. Research on corporate performance and others shows that a diverse set of backgrounds leads to better outcomes. Broader input, more creativity. Narrow-minded folks are fearful of that, so they disparage it.
Ken
You're only giving Musks perspective of the results of DEI as well as Boeing always had a bad reputation but they just wanted to play a blame game because Musk baby spoon fed them the words to use when it was obviously accountability of management and lack of quality, safety and reliability checks. Which speaking of, Twitter has been doing really terrible since he took charge, losing sponsors, money and millions of people but before he touched Twitter it was so much better
proxy
@BB
Yes and no. Companies that are "organically" diverse are more profitable.
However, that same research shows that companies that are forced to hire "diverse" people to fill a quota are less profitable.
proxy
@Ken Do you honestly believe that CEOs, who are legally obligated to maximize profits for a publicly traded company, would turn down profits and legal obligations because they want a company of "bros?"
u_s__reamer
From January 2025 orange will be the new "woke" while the hubris of all the looney tunes with their de rigueur "thinking" on the Right will make the country choke (and the world laugh). Nemesis is about to descend as Amerika dreams on.
BertieWooster
"transgender insanity"
Aptly described. Let's have no more of this ridiculous nonsense.
BB
Proxy, yeah, fair enough. It shouldn't be dogmatic or robotic or rigid. I'm not a fan of quotas, but voicing support for diversity - and encouraging people of all backgrounds to be ambitious and to be invested - creates an environment in which all can thrive.
dutch
Woke is at its core, an extinctionist philosophy. It is designed to kill the West.
The fundamental flaw of the woke mind virus is that the weaker group is always right -even if they want you to die.
History has taught us that might makes right. It is an absolute. It is in our DNA.
Antiquesaving
Well trying to get the woke side to define a "woman" is an even more hilarious.
dutch
That, ladies and gentleman, is called a "dunk"
Sh1mon M4sada
Nothing bad with 'woke' it's 'woke' + 'cancel culture' and who gets to decide the rules that gets to me.
In New Zealand, you're a racist if you don't support Maori language even though it's exclusive (it excludes all other ethnicity, AND the Maori language was never a written language to start with.
New Zealand told Jacinda Adern where to go with her elitists agenda, but it seems the elites of the world already has a cushy lucrative job for her lined up.
Yrral
Meth is why lots of MAGA brain ,are insane in the membrane
Antiquesaving
Do we honestly believe any of these so-called polls?
Obviously from the election results, it is clear that people were not saying what they really think and why would they.
The left would mount a campaign against anyone daring to say anything they don't like.
Look a FEMA and the "don't help people with Trump signs on their property."
You have people even now saying they will not invite family, friends, or go to family gatherings, etc... if they voted Trump.
You have university professors on TV telling people to cut off family that voted Trump, etc... and this is now after Trump won.
So take a guess why so few that actually disagreed with DEI kept their mouths shut, all it would have taken was one crazy customer with a smartphone to make an accusation, a superior that is unreal pro DEI to find out you disagree with it and they ruin your life, you lose your job, your family gets harassed, etc....
It has been " mob rule" by the far left for years now, finally some balance is returning.
VoiceOfReason
My experience as an American in Japan is that even here in Japan the most staunch DEI supporters tend to be incredibly successful white people. These very people have had no issue trying to throw every disadvantage possible at any white person, including myself, in order to preserve their own power.
And that's all it is, people. There is no genuine desire to boost minorities. It's all about preservation of one's power and money.
owzer
This one (article) sparks joy!
Eat the left
For the first time in years, I feel hope for the world. The nonsense will soon just be an annoying memory.
The usual suspects still refusing the red pill, I see. Well, good luck with that. Don't forget to film yourselves when having your next breakdown.
proxy
@VoiceOfReason
You are correct.
Antiquesaving
Here is how the left pushed DEI.
They push stats that make things look worse in their favour.
So 17% of Black live in poverty compared to 8% of white, so they push Black are worse off.
Ok
Now the numbers that 17% is around 7.7 million according to the USA government.
But the 8% is 21 million.
So actually more white live in poverty.
Prior to DEI if we took a:
Black woman
Black man
White women
White man
And gave them all the exact same situation
Same poverty, same bad neighbourhood, same education, same test results, everything the same.
They all need a Scholastic scholarship to get into the same university, which has a better chance?
Types of scholarships available in general:
General open to all
Visible Minority
Visible women minority
Women only
Black women only
Black only
Low income
It breaks down to this
The Black women has access to all 7.
The Black man has access to 4.
The white woman has access to 3.
The white man has access to 2.
So in the end the low income white Man has to compete against everyone while the rest have other choices to fall back on.
And this was before DEI, which made it even harder for low income white men to get access to upper education and jobs because these same categories were added to job applications.
Ken
You're only proving his point that you don't know what woke means, it doesn't relate to anything trans
HopeSpringsEternal
Great DEI is dead news - SCOTUS is FULL Agreement!
dagon
Naw, it is a textbook example of MAGA cognitive deficiency.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/conservatives-have-one-joke
And another example of the 'anti-woke' cognitive base.
Antiquesaving
OK define a woman?
Antiquesaving
And you just proved you didn't read the article or that woke includes DEI which includes Transgender.
NCIS Reruns
There are entire academic degrees awarded to DEI majors at US universities. I suspect a lot of professors are going to be out of a job.
HopeSpringsEternal
What ever happened to merit, you 'reap what you sow'?!
Woke DEI = more proof common sense is MIA. Societies to be successful need to encourage exceptionalism, only sure path to discovery, productivity and wealth creation!