Walmart drove a stake through the heart of woke extremism with this out-of-left-field announcement

November 27, 2024 Cat2, Culture, Politics
Walmart Corporate from Bentonville, USA, CC BY 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Aside from baseball and apple pie, there are few things as American as some of the country’s biggest and oldest companies.

However, some of these companies have chosen to go all-in on woke extremism in recent years and watched their stocks tumble.

And now Walmart drove a stake through the heart of woke extremism with this out-of-left-field announcement.

Walmart rolls back DEI policies

Although Walmart is famous for “rolling back” its prices, the company has now confirmed it will also roll back its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies.

This decision has made the big box retailer the largest company in the nation to concede to conservative pressure on the issue.

Several companies have already made changes to their DEI policies this year after scrutiny over a Supreme Court ruling that banned affirmative action from being considered in college admissions.

A few of those companies include Harley-Davidson, DoorDash, and Lyft.

According to the Associated Press, Walmart said it plans to make sweeping changes.

Some of those changes include not renewing a five-year contract for an equity racial center set up in 2020 after the death of George Floyd and the mobilization of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The company will also pull out of a prominent gay rights index and will no longer give priority treatment and contracts to suppliers of any specific race or gender.

Walmart also said it would monitor third-party items they sell to make sure they do not include any sexual or transgender products aimed at minors. 

The retailer said it would limit its grants to Pride events by reviewing the grants to ensure they don’t include sexualized content that targets children, for example, having a Walmart booth next to a drag show.

In a statement, the company said, “We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers, and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone.”

CNN reported that Walmart will also end its racial equity training programs for staff. 

Goodbye, DEI

The sweeping changes from Walmart highlight the increasing pressure being placed on American corporations.

Much of this pressure is a result of the Supreme Court ruling in June 2022, which has emboldened conservative groups.

Some conservative groups have filed lawsuits claiming that the same anti-affirmative action policies at colleges should also apply to corporations.

The suits are focused on targeting workplace policies like diversity programs and hiring practices that prioritize certain groups of people based on gender, sexual orientation, or race/ethnicity.

Conservative political commentator Robby Starbuck has been lambasting several corporations on X over their DEI policies, including Ford, Lowe’s, Harley-Davidson, and Tractor Supply.

When the news about Walmart broke, he wrote, “Dear Woke DEI Consultants, I’m winning. Love, Robby Starbuck.”

In a separate X post, he noted, “This is the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America,” adding that he had been in conversation with Walmart.

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