Walmart to scale back 'woke' policies following pressure from conservative activist
Walmart has begun to scale back its progressive, diversity, equity and inclusion policies as major American companies face pressure to abandon their embrace of what critics call "woke" activism.
In an X post published Monday, conservative activist and social influencer Robby Starbuck, who has pressured other entities to end progressive DEI policies in recent years, announced that the major retailer Walmart is "ending its woke policies."
Starbuck has become the face of the movement to convince big businesses to abandon progressive political activism and company policies advancing the identity politics-focused diversity, equity and inclusion. Earlier this year, he called for a boycott of the retailer Tractor Supply Co. over advocacy that he characterized as at odds with the values of its customer base.
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"Last week I told @Walmart that I was doing a story on wokeness there," Starbuck stated in his post Monday. Expressing gratitude that he had "productive conversations" with company leadership, he outlined changes the company has committed to that he predicted will "send shockwaves throughout corporate America" and constitute "the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America."
Starbuck wrote that Walmart vowed to no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which assigns scores to companies based on the degree to which they embrace LGBT ideology. The company has also signaled an intention to "remove inappropriate sexual and / or transgender products marketed to children" as necessary and ensure that any funding of LGBT pride events does not end up going towards "inappropriate sexualized content targeting kids."
Additional commitments Walmart has reportedly made include the non-renewal of its Racial Equity Center established in 2020 as "a special five-year initiative" and an evaluation of "supplier diversity programs" to "ensure that they do not provide preferential treatment and benefits to suppliers based on diversity."
Starbuck said the company insisted, "We don't have quotas and won't going forward." He reported that "Financing eligibility will no longer be predicated on providing certain demographic data."
Other initiatives on the chopping block at Walmart, Starbuck said, include the use of the term "LatinX" to describe the Latino community, racial equity training through the Racial Equity Institute and the use of the term "DEI."
Despite these changes, Walmart stressed that it would still work to ensure "a respectful and supportive environment" and establish a sense of "Belonging for ALL associates and customers."
Walmart CEO John Furner acknowledged the changes to company policies in an interview on "CBS Mornings" Tuesday.
"We've been on a journey and we continue to be on a journey and what we're trying to do is to ensure that every customer, every associate feels welcome here to shop and to feel like they belong," he said.
With over 1.6 million employees, Walmart is the largest private employer in the United States. As Starbuck notes, the company has a market cap of almost $800 billion.
"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," Starbuck celebrated.
"We've now changed policy at companies worth over $2 Trillion dollars, with many millions of employees who have better workplaces as a result."
The activist said he is 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," Starbuck said.
"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 police," he added. "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."
Besides Walmart and Tractor Supply Co., additional companies that have made changes to their policies in response to pressure from Starbuck include the tractor manufacturer John Deere, the motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson, the liquor company Jack Daniel's, the home improvement retailer Lowe's and the automobile manufacturer Ford Motor Company.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
