Walmart is the latest to join Lowe’s, Toyota, and Ford, among others, to roll back its diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.
The retailer employs 1.6 million people and will become the largest company in the United States to eliminate its DEI programs. Walmart will no longer refer to a prominent LGBT rights index to help with hiring decisions, it will stop prioritizing suppliers based on diversity, and it won’t continue to use the phrase “DEI.”
“What we’re trying to do is ensure that every customer, every associate feels welcome here to shop and to feel like they belong,” Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner said on CBS Mornings Tuesday.
Employees at Walmart weren’t ever subject to racial quotas, and the retailer will continue to avoid them.
Besides altering its hiring and procurement practices, the company is dissolving ties with outside groups as well. It will not renew a five-year commitment to an equity racial center that was established at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 after George Floyd’s death. At the time, Walmart committed $100 million to the center in order to “address the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black and African American people in education, health, finance and criminal justice systems.”
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Walmart previously participated in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which uses four categories to grade businesses: workplace culture, social responsibility, workplace benefits, and protections against discrimination. It will no longer participate with the HRC.
The company is also trying to crack down on items that feature sexual themes aimed at minors and is assessing its partnerships with Pride events, distancing itself from content that wouldn’t be suitable for children.