Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is rolling back some of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies amid mounting pressure from conservatives, the company confirmed Monday.
The sweeping changes announced by the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer include phasing out the term “DEI” in company documents, winding down its commitment to the Center for Racial Equity, and terminating diversity programs designed to give priority to suppliers owned by women and people of color.
On Monday, far-right conservative activist Robby Starbuck posted a video celebrating Walmart’s commitment to “ending their woke policies” — and taking credit for “the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America.”
Starbuck, a former music video director, said Walmart reached out to him after learning he was conducting an “investigation” on the company’s “wokeness” — which he described as his fight for “corporate neutrality.”
After “frank conversations” with the retail giant — which employs more than 1.6 million people in the U.S. — Walmart decided to make “some changes,” the anti-DEI activist said.
Among the updates to the company’s DEI policies, Walmart has also agreed to “review all funding of Pride events,” stop using the term “Latinx” in official communications, restrict the sales of products such as chest binders for transgender shoppers, and terminate the company’s participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.
The index — an annual rating released by the nation’s largest advocacy group on employer policies and practices pertinent to LGBTQ employees and consumers — “was created at a time when folks could be fired just because of who they are,” Shawnie Hawkins, director of the HRC’s Workplace Equality Program, told the Daily News.
“Since then, we’ve seen immense progress from family formation benefits to safeguarding against blatant discrimination at all levels of the workplace,” Hawkins said, adding that corporations that “abandon these commitments are shirking their responsibility to their employees, consumers and shareholders.”
During an appearance on “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday, Walmart President and CEO John Furner appeared to avoid answering a direct question about why the company was implementing the changes.
Walmart has “been on a journey and … we’re going to continue to make the best decisions we can that make everyone — our customers, our associates — feel like this is an environment they can shop in and thrive in,” he said.
A Walmart spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.