Over the last few months, there’s been an acceleration of companies either scrapping or altering their DEI commitments. Huge corporations including Walmart, Disney, Meta and Amazon have released official statements, announcing their plans to abandon DEI commitments and cease programs designed to assist underrepresented groups.
Overnight, Google’s former head of diversity Melonie Parker told employees that the company was abolishing its diversity and inclusion employee training programs and “updating” wide training programs that have “DEI content.” The news comes just over a week after employees received an email advising them that the company will no longer have hiring targets around improving diverse representation among its staff.
Last week, a Google spokesperson told CNBC it will no longer celebrate cultural observances like Pride Month and Black History Month because “maintaining hundreds of moments manually and consistently globally wasn’t scalable or sustainable.”
Over at Disney, the chief human resources officer Sonia Coleman sent a memo to employees, outlining the ways the company’s DEI efforts are about to change, including a re-branding of the “Diversity & Inclusion” performance factor with a new “Talent Strategy.” It has axed its “Reimagine Tomorrow” webpage, which spotlights employees from diverse backgrounds, while also changing content warnings it has historically attached to some older films on Disney+ such as Dumbo and Peter Pan to remove references to diversity and culture.
Though some companies (such as McDonald’s) have cited the Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision in June 2023 for the reason they are cutting DEI initiatives, Trump’s January 21 executive order putting a stop to “radical and wasteful” diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federal agencies has pushed several corporations to align themselves with the president’s political agenda.
The Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision in June 2023 found that race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions violate the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
While some have released statements, others have quietly deleted DEI language from their websites and annual reports to investors, according to an NPR analysis.
Meanwhile, some companies have decided to doubled down and reaffirmed their DEI commitments.
Here’s a list of companies who have scrapped, altered, or doubled down and reaffirmed their DEI commitments.
Scrapped or altered DEI
Goldman Sachs
This week, the banking giant released a statement, announcing “As a result of legal developments related to board diversity requirements, we ended our formal board diversity policy.” The requirement was that a company it takes public must have at least two diverse members on its board of directors, one of whom must be a woman.
“We continue to believe that successful boards benefit from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and we will encourage them to take this approach,” the statement read.
Deloitte
On Monday, staff received an email explaining the company’s decision to “sunset” its annual diversity report and wider DEI programming, as reported by the Financial Times. The company said the decision was made to “align with emerging government client practices and requirements”. It also asked staff to erase gender pronouns from their email signatures.
However, the firm’s UK arm told its staff that diversity “remains a priority” and it would commit to its diversity goals. Richard Houston, head of Deloitte UK, told employees in a memo seen by The Telegraph that “events in the external landscape do not change our commitment to building an inclusive culture.”
Ford Motor Co.
In August 2024, employees received an email from CEO Jim Farley explaining that the company would cease participation in external culture surveys by LGBTQ+ advocacy group, Human Rights Campaign, which tracks corporate LGBTQ policies. “We are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs,” Farley wrote in the email. “The external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve.” Other companies who have said they would stop participating in external diversity surveys include Lowe’s, Molson Coors and Walmart.
Boeing Co.
In October last year, Boeing dismantled its global diversity, equity and inclusion department, with staff reassigned to other human resource teams. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company said it “remains committed to recruiting and retaining top talent and creating an inclusive work environment where every teammate around the world can perform at their best while supporting the company’s mission.”
Walmart
The US retail giant announced plans to slash some of its DEI initiatives, including cutting back on its racial equity training and ending its involvement in a rankings list by the Human Rights Campaign. The company also announced an end to further funding of The Center for Racial Equity, a philanthropic investments branch of the company that, according to its website, supports “research, advocacy, and innovative interventions that foster equitable outcomes for people” while also “address the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black and African American people in education, health, finance and criminal justice systems.”
McDonald’s
In January this year, the fast food giant announced it would retire specific diversity targets, pause “external surveys” and rename its diversity team to “Global Inclusion Team.” However, the Australian arm of the giant reiterated its commitment to inclusion and diversity, with one spokesperson telling SkyNews “At McDonald’s Australia, our doors are open to everyone. We will always do our best to ensure our restaurants and workplaces are inclusive spaces where everyone is welcomed and feels like they belong.”
Meta
The Facebook and Instagram operator said in an internal memo that the company plans to end a number of programs designed to increase the company’s hiring of diverse candidates, cease its equity and inclusion training programs and suspend its current approach to considering qualified candidates from underrepresented groups for open roles.
“We previously ended representation goals for women and ethnic minorities,” Janelle Gale, Meta’s vice president of people wrote in the memo. “Having goals can create the impression that decisions are being made based on race or gender. While this has never been our practice, we want to eliminate any impression of it.”
“Instead of equity and inclusion training programs, we will build programs that focus on how to apply fair and consistent practices that mitigate bias for all, no matter your background.”
Amazon
The company removed a reference to “inclusion and diversity” in its annual report filed this month, just weeks after telling employees in a memo it was winding down its DEI programs. “Rather than have individual groups build programs, we are focusing on programs with proven outcomes – and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture,” Amazon executive Candi Castleberry said in the memo.
Target
Target announced that it was concluding its diversity, equity and inclusion goals, with its Supplier Diversity team to be renamed Supplier Engagement. It also said it would no longer participate in external diversity-focused surveys, such as sharing data with the Human Rights Campaign. On the updated website for the company’s Forward Founders program, which aimed to “equip historically under-resourced founders to become the next wave of generational wealth building companies”, the page now says the program “is evolving.”
Accenture
The tech consulting giant announced last week it would cease all gender quotas and DEI programs to conform with Trump’s recent executive orders.
On Friday, Accenture chief executive Julie Sweet told employees in an email: “We have used this moment to reflect on how best to move forward and be an even stronger company – making updates that allow us to be an even better employer for all our people, and even more successful in the market. As a result, we are evolving our policies and practices globally, and not just in the US – subject, as always, to local laws and tailored to the needs of our local markets,” the memo read.
Reaffirmed DEI
Costco
The retail giant has actively defended its support for its DEI efforts, with its Board of Directors recently voting against a proposal that would undermine the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts.
Referring to the proposal, the board statement explained: “Our efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion follow our code of ethics. For our employees, these efforts are built around inclusion – having all of our employees feel valued and respected. Our efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion remind and reinforce with everyone at our Company the importance of creating opportunities for all. We believe that these efforts enhance our capacity to attract and retain employees who will help our business succeed.”
JP Morgan
America’s largest bank by assets, JP Morgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon has told the media his company stands by their DEI efforts. “Bring them on,” he said in an interview with CNBC, referring to the conservatives pushing against the bank’s diversity programs.
Dimon noted that he was “very proud of what we’ve done,” adding “We will continue to reach out to the Black community, the Hispanic community, the veterans community, LGBTQ, we have teams with second chance initiatives — where I go, with blue states, red states, governors, they like what we do.”
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company has said that it will not change the way it hires or promotes staff, instead, promoting a “diverse meritocracy”, which one spokesperson described to the AFR as the company assessing staff “in a meritocratic system regardless of tenure, role or background”.
In an email to employees cited by the AFR, McKinsey’s global managing partner Bob Sternfels said the company had no plans to change their hiring or promotion policies, adding that McKinsey continued to believe strongly in diversity.