America’s number one retailer and largest private employer Walmart is dialling back its commitment to DEI programmes and policies as it comes under fire from filmmaker and anti-woke activist Robby Starbuck. Starbuck notes “Companies need to listen to our movement. We are powerful and growing every single day. We will not stop until we have eliminated ‘wokeness’ from corporate America.”
Some of the changes Walmart will be enacting in its U-turn on DEI initiatives include:
- Closing the company’s Racial Equity Center
- No longer participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index
- Reviewing supplier diversity programs so that no company gets preferential treatment based on race
- Discontinuing using terms such as DEI and LatinX publicly or privately
- Ending racial equity training programs
- Removing any items sold that may have inappropriate transsexual content for children, such as chest binders for teenagers or books encouraging transition.
- Stopping funding events that could expose children to sexually-inappropriate content, such as drag-queen story hours or Pride events.
Whilst the company has not published a press release about this shift away from DEI, Walmart has confirmed these changes via the Associated Press and Bloomberg.
In an interview with The Street’s Conway Gittens, Starbuck notes DEI programs insert politics and controversial social issues into the workplace, distracting employees from the core business of serving customers. He argues DEI programs, “have become a Trojan horse for left-wing policy. There’s no reason for public companies to be injecting divisive issues into the business that are dividing your customer base and your own employees.” Starbucks said companies should focus on “merit, fairness, kindness, excellence and innovation,” in the workplace to move the needle on the top and bottom line. For Starbuck’s anti-DEI campaign, this win with Walmart couldn’t come at a better time with the holiday shopping season shifting into high gear. With his sights set next on Amazon, this couldn’t come soon enough considering the company’s global reach and perhaps this may help shift the dial with woke NZ companies too.
Original article