“Making Money” host Charles Payne examines companies rolling back DEI policies and recent drone sightings.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion “DEI” policies have come under increased scrutiny in 2024, leading at least a dozen major U.S. companies and hundreds of universities to walk back commitments once considered innocuous.
“I think it was inevitable,” said conservative activist Robby Starbuck. Fox News Digital about DEI’s return this year after its rise to popularity four years ago.
“In 2020, many leaders bought into this whole idea and concept of DEI because they just didn’t want to be seen as racist,” he said. “A lot of them had no idea or understanding of what it was going to become.”
DEI, which often involves prioritizing race, gender or sexuality in hiring, training and programming, has been criticized by conservatives as divisive and discriminatory. DEI proponents say these efforts address racial divisions and provide support to historically marginalized groups.
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Robby Starbuck spoke with Fox News Digital about his campaign against DEI after several major companies abandoned these commitments in 2024. (Getty Images/Fox News)
Large Companies That Abandoned DEI in 2024
The private sector’s move away from DEI this year comes after companies faced increasing pressure from Starbuck and other conservatives to reexamine these policies.
American airlines became the latest US company to agree to abandon its diversity-focused hiring practices this month, after facing a legal complaint from conservative watchdog organization America First Legal.
“The airline has acknowledged that recruiting and hiring based on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) violates federal and equal employment opportunity laws,” the AFL said in a press release.
Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and private employer, confirmed in November that it would also move away from DEI. These changes included removing its online marketplace of sexual and transgender products from third-party merchants inappropriately marketed to children and ending its participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.
In a statement to FOX Business, Walmart said he was “ready to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America.”
“We have come a long way and know we are not perfect, but every decision comes from a desire to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunity for all of our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said.
Ford, Lowes, Tractor Supply Company, John Deere, Harley-Davidson and Walmart are among the major companies that have abandoned their DEI commitments in 2024. (Getty Images/Reuters/Fox News)
At least ten other American companies – Ford, LowesBoeing, Caterpillar, Harley-Davidson, Polaris, John Deere, Tractor Supply Company, Jack Daniel’s and Molson Coors – also reportedly canceled DEI initiatives earlier in the year.
Other companies with a strong presence in the United States, such as Nissan and Toyotahave also agreed to disband a number of their DEI practices towards the end of 2024.
Starbuck, who has led campaigns against “woke” policies at Walmart and several other companies, believes that people privately began to degrade DEI about two years ago. But in 2024, it has become more socially acceptable for people to say out loud that these policies were “toxic,” he said.
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Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner confirmed that Walmart is backing away from some of its DEI policies. (FOX Business/Getty Images/Photo illustration/FOXBusiness)
“This is the year that people got social permission, in many ways, to just talk about it and admit it. With every company that goes bankrupt, more and more people feel comfortable to admit that they have a problem with it.” Starbuck said Fox News Digital.
Universities withdrawing from DEI amid growing pressure
The DEI also visited universities across the United States.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which tracks higher education outcomes “dismantling of DEI,“215 college campuses across 32 states have changed their DEI policies.
Public universities in several states have closed their DEI offices after lawmakers passed or introduced legislation banning public funding of DEI.
After Florida’s Board of Governors Permanently Bans Taxpayer Money used to fund DEI programs In public schools, in January the University of Florida furloughed all employees in DEI positions to comply with new regulations.
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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced new legislation aimed at cracking down hard on retail theft so that crime waves seen in liberal states don’t reach the Sunshine State. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images / Getty Images)
The University of Texas at Austin also closed its DEI offices to comply with a new state law banning DEI offices at public universities. The anti-DEI law, signed by Governor Abbott in 2023, also prohibits universities from using diversity statements in hiring practices and training.
Alabama, Iowa and Utah joined Texas and Florida in banning DEI offices at public universities this year, according to Inside higher education.
Kansas and Idaho have also passed laws prohibiting public institutions from requiring diversity statements in hiring or admissions decisions.
Boise State University has become one of the latest schools to close its equity centers November 29followed by the University of Michigan dismantling DEI statements as part of its faculty hiring, promotion and tenure requirements in December.
DEI still has a strong hold on most of America’s largest companies
While several large companies have opted out of DEI in 2024, the majority of the nation’s largest companies still maintain some form of commitment to these practices, according to a recent report from the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.
Heritage examined corporate filings, annual reports and other publicly available documents from every Fortune 500 company and found that 485 of the largest 500 companies continue to maintain DEI priorities.
British car manufacturer Jaguar is one of the companies that has notably double after facing criticism, he took his brand in a new “woke” direction with his recent rebranding.
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Starbuck knows his fight against “woke” ideology at America’s largest corporations is not over.
Some companies will “do the right thing” by dissolving DEI, he predicted, while others will try to reinstate it under other names.
“We still have work to do to institutionally get rid of the wiring and the foundations here, because a lot of these things are deeply ingrained in our society in ways that most people don’t even understand,” he said. declared.
“The DEI is a wounded animal, so expect desperate maneuvering from those who pushed it,” he continued. “But that means we are at the beginning of his death.”
Alec Schemmel of Fox News contributed to this report.
