Some of the biggest firms in the US — Target, Meta, Walmart and Amazon — have dropped DEI because it was unpopular with customers and investors. Steve Forbes tells what happens now.
Target is the latest in a string of retail giants who have taken a stance against the wildly unpopular diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs afflicting corporate America.
Target’s move comes in the wake of similar action by other big-name companies, including Meta, Walmart, Amazon and Tractor Supply Co., which have all scaled back their DEI policies in recent months.
The shift is a welcome sign that companies may finally be listening to their customers and shareholders, who have grown weary of paying the high price for businesses’ capitulation to the woke agenda. Walmart investors recently sent a letter to company leadership applauding them for rolling back their anti-business DEI policies and encouraging them to maintain their position despite far-left pushback.
TARGET FACES 40-DAY BOYCOTT FOR ROLLING BACK DEI INITIATIVES
Indeed, DEI policies and force-fed corporate moralism have been wildly unpopular with the American public since their inception. When Tractor Supply’s DEI policies came to light last year, they drew massive attention on social media and inspired customers to boycott the company, resulting in an 8% decrease in its stock price ($2.8 billion in market loss) over just five days. Continued exposure of corporate DEI programs caused other large companies like Ford, Google and Lowe’s to preemptively shut down their policies and avoid similar backlash and financial loss.
Additionally, large companies have faced consistent warnings of potential legal action from state attorneys general, private organizations and shareholders over what amounted to discriminatory DEI hiring practices in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2023 Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (SFFA) decision.
And back in 2016, when Target first announced its bathroom policy allowing customers to use restrooms based on gender identity, it triggered a massive backlash and boycotts.
They could not have been more out of touch with the American public.
These efforts, as well as the larger campaign by angry DEI supporters to “blackout” Amazon, Walmart, Nestle and other large corporations, represent just how far the Democrat party has come from reflecting the views of the American people.
Even their own pundits and politicians agree.
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg recently blasted the comical DNC Chair election and went as far as jabbing at DEI, which he described as often “making people sit through a training that looks like something out of ‘Portlandia.’”
Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner also admitted that his party’s “over-the-top-wokeism” has hurt their political prospects.
Longtime Democratic Party strategist James Carville lamented his party’s self-destruction over essentially meaningless, in his words “stunningly stupid,” policies, including the Democratic National Committee’s woke gender rules implemented in February.
And former White House press secretary Jen Psaki recently decried the Democrats’ approach to dialogue with the public, noting how detached they are from everyday citizens and the issues that matter most to them.
The truth is corporate moralism has damaged American consumers, and they know it. DEI, alongside environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, have unnecessarily raised the prices of energy, food, transportation, and housing.
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Americans want businesses to get back to focusing on their bottom line: delivering reliable, affordable, and high-quality products to customers.
DEI policies are simply bad for the economy, bad for the consumer, and bad for the moral fabric of this country.
Government, social groups and companies should not evangelize consumers with the left’s woke agenda – such tactics are ineffective, unprofitable and off-putting.
Amid the progressive left’s cries for social justice and a corporate facade of diversity, equity and inclusion, the true purpose of business in a free society has been lost. Businesses do not provide moral or political guidance, nor should they. They exist to facilitate an exchange of goods and services and to compete with other companies for a profit by making themselves more appealing, whether through better quality or lower cost.
Thankfully, American businesses are waking up to this reality, and the huge house of cards of corporate DEI may be on its way to a final, fatal fall. At the very least, we seem to be seeing an encouraging shift and a step in the right direction.
Let’s hope the trend continues, and at long last, American companies can finally get back to business.
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