American retail giant Walmart is cancelling its ‘woke’ policies.
The Christian Post reports the move comes as scores of US companies worth a total of two trillion dollars, bow to pressure from consumers and conservative groups to axe their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs.
Walmart is America’s biggest private employer with 1. 6 million staff.
It has scrapped demographic quotas and sales of inappropriate products for children; and will review its funding of pride events.
Conservative activist and social influencer Robby Starbuck became the face of an activist movement to convince big businesses to abandon progressive political activism and company policies advancing identity politics.
He announced on social media that Walmart is “ending its woke policies.”
After telling Walmart that he was doing a story on wokeness at the retail giant, he said he held “productive conversations” with the company leadership and then outlined changes the company has committed to, that he predicted will “send shockwaves throughout corporate America.”
He declared it the “the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America.”
Within 24-hours of the announcement, Walmart stocks had surged by 2% while arch rival Target’s had plunged by 3%.
Robby 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.
It also vowed to ensure that any funding of LGBT pride events does not end up going towards “inappropriate sexualised content targeting kids.”
Additional commitments include the non-renewal of its Racial Equity Center established in 2020 as “a special five-year initiative,” plus an evaluation of “supplier diversity programs” to “ensure that they do not provide preferential treatment and benefits to suppliers based on diversity.”
Mr. Starbuck said the company insisted, “We don’t have quotas and won’t have, going forward.”
He reported that: “Financing eligibility will no longer be predicated on providing certain demographic data.”
Other initiatives on the Walmart chopping block 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 — replacing it with references to ‘belonging.’
“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,” Mr. Starbuck celebrated.
Despite the 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.”
“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,” it said in a statement.
Walmart clarified that these changes have been in the works for a few years, and were not a result of the conversation with Robby Starbuck.
The corporate 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,” he warned.
“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,” 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.”
