1w ago

‘A huge regression’: Walmart’s DEI rollback incites new racial equity push

www.theguardian.com ‘A huge regression’: Walmart’s DEI rollback incites new racial equity push

Largest private employer in US pledged to tackle inequities after George Floyd murder but has now dropped initiatives

Summary

Walmart has rolled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, ending DEI training, racial equity programs, and diversity metrics in hiring and supplier decisions.

Employees call the move a betrayal, citing the lack of communication and its impact on marginalized groups.

The rollback has drawn praise from conservatives but criticism from racial equity advocates, including Walmart’s largest workers’ group, United for Respect, which plans to reintroduce a racial equity audit proposal in 2025.

Critics argue the changes mark a major regression for racial and workplace equity at the nation’s largest private employer.

40 comments

It really feels like the whole goddamn country didn’t waste a single second falling in line behind this fucking shithead. Fuck America.
- If you're shocked that broad corporate fair-weather astroturfing wasn't actually what it claimed, you were naive. The speed coming the other way--from not acknowledging LGBTQ or other minority groups existed as humans who deserve a voice or consideration to sponsoring pride shirts and hiring visibly tokenized figureheads--should have been indicative the change wasn't organic, which means it wasn't going to stick at the first pressure; economic, political, or other.
  Companies largely follow non-discrimination laws related to employment not because it's the right thing to do, but because they can be sued easily under federal and many states' employment laws. Don't put your time into company-run employee groups, put it into getting progressives elected and engaging with unionization so you can take your place at the table rather than waiting for it to be given.
  
  Not shocked, just disappointed. I do appreciate the shit talk though.
- He's not even in the chair yet and companies and government workers are making changes to benefit him.
  
  Benefit him? This change benefits them. Walmart has 1.6M domestic employees. Any HR-mandated training like DEI requires substantial unproductive payroll hours to be spent in every corporate location.
  Walmart could give two shits about DEI. They just care about saving overhead and maximizing profits.
  Source: Corporate shill for 25 years
  
  I think maybe America at large is fucking spineless.
- I notice LGBT/trans-friendly content vanishing from netflix, shows with such characters cancelled after one season almost immediately after the election?
  
  The people who own these businesses are all conservatives because conservatives exist to make rich people richer.
  Lefties don't understand this yet, but they don't have a choice but to engage in class warfare if they want their other agendas to have a shot at succeeding.
  To start things off, stop subscribing to streaming sites when there are free streaming services available. In your social interactions, don't say "it's on netflix." Say, "you can stream it for free here: " and then give a site like https://hydrahd.com/
- An entire country of boot lickers, slurping it up.
- For profit Corporations, especially publicly traded ones, are sociopathic organizations, and their DEI marketing should honestly always have been seen as patronizing opportunism. I'm glad they aren't still attempting to sucker those groups into believing they ever gave a shit about their identity. They didn't. It was an ad campaign to get your money. It made an enemy look like a friend to the easily gullible.
  I say fuck America because someone was finally brave enough to send a message to those sociopaths in the only language they will hear, and tragically all the people he was trying to rally just said yay on the internet and are moving back to fighting all the secondary wedges the sociopaths killing us feed us to passify us and keep us at war with our fellow poors.
  No other war can begin to be addressed without ending this class occupation, because they see profit in stoking every other culture war, and have every bully pulpit to do so.
- Yes, but I refuse to absolve any responsibility from bad actors who justify their behavior because Trump is vile.
  He’s effectively granting societal permission for racist/sexist/homophobic/bigoted behavior. It’s their choice to follow suit or continue to do the right thing. Walmart made their choice.
- The stories we get on Lemmy are found by folks with similar taste in politics and so are sourced from media which helps reinforce our perspective. This skews our perception to be more inline with what we want at the cost of the reality. There are many who support this new jingoist kleptocracy and will hurt themselves for a chance to get a piece of the action.
  Walmart has some employees upset at its lack of DEI. None of those employees make business decisions that can see this reversed. The people are upset but the decision makers don't care.
- Keep in mind that the other side sees things the same way when companies adopt progressive policies after Democrats get in power, the corporations and States that don't fall in line just get forgotten. Obviously the biggest difference is that only one side is fighting for equity.

It's a corporate program. It therefore achieved very little. The short-term situation won't change much except that the victims no longer have the false comfort of corporate DEI. They'll need to face the truth: If they wish to protect themselves then they must work together, hopefully forming a union.
- I agree with forming a union and not to expect big changes from a Corp, but it's the second 2 things mentioned that will really harm people.
  
  It's all bullshit because the corporate compiles the statistics and is responsible for holding themselves accountable. Succinctly, if the statistics don't support the predetermined narrative then the input data will be cherry picked or outright altered until they do support the narrative. In simile it's like the police policing themselves.
  If there's more nuanced questions I'll serve as the grapevine to my mother, a recently retired VP HR, or my wife who's somehow managed to find a Director of HR role in a NPO where she's empowered to represent the employee.

The US isn't well at the moment, is it?
- Bro are you kidding me? I think we’re about to fucking die
  
  It is nowhere near this bad and I encourage everyone to think back to how the sky was falling leading up to the first trump presidency.
  Like it or not, the powers that be are masters of keeping most people complacent enough so rich people can have a populace to exploit.
- Just give it a few weeks, this is nothing lol
- Hey at least it's interesting to watch an empire crumble, right? Right?

Now that it's no longer trendy and doesn't lead to increased revenue they dropped it like a rock. They didn't do this because they believed in fairness. They did it so they could post a little press release on their site and get people to think they care (and then spend more at Walmart). Apparently there is no more direct line from their DEI programs to profit, so they are gone in one second. Just goes to show you they have no loyalty to fairness, only to their own wallet. Expecting a large corporation like this to have a heart is a mistake. They only have one interest and now it's plain to see.

They're based out or Arkansas, the only reason they ever had any kind of DEI is there wasn't a pending presidency by someone who's made it a point to say get rid of every DEI program everywhere.

What’s a good way to damage a Walmart store without endangering customers or employees?
- i’d say stop buying things from them, but of course any damages will be felt by the employees in the form of job cuts, lower pay rises and reduced benefits.
  the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
  
  i’d say stop buying things from them
  Stop buying things from them. Your justification is crazy.
  The demand from you buying elsewhere instead will create better paying jobs for the employees.
  Boycotts are a worker's tool.
  
  Good morning Audre
- Personally, I would like to see drones dropping things like eggs and paint come into style.
  That said, don't target walmart with this. Go after corporations that are just as scummy (most of them) but don't give people the best deals on their food.
  So, pretty much any other grocery store.

odd, im suprised conservatives are upset about this because they say white people are the minority and are DEI hires /s

I always felt like companies publicizing dei stuff just gave ammo to the critics and opponents of the movements.
On the flip-side, it sounds like "The only reason we hire certain people is to check a box on some report. Otherwise, we're entirely part of the problem."
"DEI hires" shouldn't be identified or identifiable in company culture or payroll. The existence of the label itself is discrimination.

It's not like they're going to change their hiring practices, as long as they can pay minorities and women less money they'll continue to hire them.
We're still losing, but not The way the article frames it.

I didn't realize racial equity was an issue at Walmart, but maybe that's my anecdotal evidence. Because in my neck of the woods I've only ever seen black or Hispanic people working there.

I thought DEI was a conspiracy theory?

40 comments