Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has announced significant rollbacks on its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, citing pressure from conservative groups and legal scrutiny. The company will no longer prioritize race or gender in supplier contracts and plans to discontinue its $100 million Center for Racial Equity, as well as end DEI training programs.
These changes follow a broader trend among major corporations, including Ford, Lowe’s, and Harley-Davidson, all of which have faced similar pressures as market backlash against DEI initiatives has increased in recent years.
Conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who has been vocal against “wokeness” in corporate America, claimed credit for influencing Walmart’s decision.
“Last week I told execs at Walmart that I was doing a story on wokeness there,” Starbuck wrote on X. “Instead we had productive conversations to find solutions… 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.”
MASSIVE news: Walmart is ending their woke policies. I can now exclusively tell you what’s changing and how it happened.
Last week I told execs at @Walmart that I was doing a story on wokeness there. Instead we had productive conversations to find solutions.
Below are the… pic.twitter.com/BD02xJQ0X2
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) November 25, 2024
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Starbuck has led similar anti-DEI campaigns against other major brands this year, including Jack Daniels, John Deere, and Tractor Supply Co. According to Starbuck, Walmart has agreed to the following changes:
- Surveys: Walmart will no longer participate in the [Human Rights Campaign’s] woke Corporate Equality Index.
- Products: Monitor the Walmart marketplace to identify and remove inappropriate sexual and / or transgender products marketed to children.
- Funding of Grants: Review all funding of Pride, and other events, to avoid funding inappropriate sexualized content targeting kids.
- Equity: We will not extend the Racial Equity Center which was established in 2020 as a special five-year initiative.
- Supplier Diversity: We will evaluate supplier diversity programs and ensure they do not provide preferential treatment and benefits to suppliers based on diversity. We don’t have quotas and won’t going forward. Financing eligibility will no longer be predicated on providing certain demographic data.
- LatinX: Walmart will no longer use the term in official communications.
- Trainings: Walmart will discontinue racial equity training through the Racial Equity Institute.
- DEI: Walmart will discontinue the use of DEI as a term while ensuring a respectful and supportive environment. Our focus is on Belonging for ALL associates and customers.
Walmart also plans to eliminate products marketed to children that are associated with transgender identity and review its support for LGBTQ+ Pride events.
Starbuck continued:
Remember, Walmart is the #1 employer in America with over 1.6 Million Employees and they have a market cap of nearly $800B. This won’t just have a massive effect for their employees who will have a neutral workplace without feeling that divisive issues are being injected but it will also extend to their many suppliers.
We’ve now changed policy at companies worth over $2 Trillion dollars, with many millions of employees who have better workplace environments as a result. I’m happy to have secured these changes before Christmas when shoppers have very few large retail brands they can spend money with who aren’t pushing woke policies. 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.
Our campaigns are now so effective that we’re getting the biggest companies on earth to change their policies without me even posting a story outlining their woke policies. Companies can clearly see that America wants normalcy back. The era of wokeness is dying right in front of our eyes. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are now the trend, not the anomaly.
We are winning and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America.
Walmart stated the changes were part of an ongoing evolution to align with its diverse customer base and insisted that the modifications aim to foster a sense of belonging.
The rollback of DEI policies has sparked criticism from advocacy groups, with the Human Rights Campaign warning that such moves signal a disregard for workplace equality.
Connor Walcott is the lead writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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