Walmart Agrees To Dump Policies Pushing DEI Racism, Gender Ideology
When a conservative activist confronted Walmart executives, the company agreed to roll back its policies pushing DEI and gender ideology.
Normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck and other conservatives keen to depoliticize corporate America have gone online to celebrate a massive victory in the war on woke this week: Walmart, which employs roughly 1.6 million workers nationwide, is scrapping its divisive DEI initiatives and curbing both its customer-facing and worker-facing LGBT activism.
"This is the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America," said Starbuck, who has successfully pressured a number of other American companies, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply, Jack Daniel's, and John Deere, to abandon their race-obsessive policies, embrace of gender ideology, and other alienating leftist commitments.
"This won't just have a massive effect for their employees who will have a neutral workplace without feeling that divisive issues are being injected but it will also extend to their many suppliers," continued Starbuck. "Companies like Amazon and Target should be very nervous that their top competitor dropped woke policies first. I think Target specifically will suffer serious sales problems as a result and Walmart will benefit."
Following "productive conversations" with Walmart executives, Starbuck announced Monday that Walmart committed to ending its participation in the LGBT activist group Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, a "national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees" used strategically to crush dissent and maximize conformity.
Walmart once again secured a perfect score on the index last year by engaging in LGBT activism and outreach and by providing sex-change guidelines; at least one additional transvestite "inclusive policy or practice for its employees"; and LGBT training elements and an "intersectionality" training session.
'The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality.'
Starbuck noted that Walmart has also committed to: identifying and removing "inappropriate sexual and/or transgender products marketed to children"; reviewing all funding for LGBT events to ensure that kids are not targeted with inappropriate sexualized content; letting its Center for Racial Equity initiative expire; ensuring that supplier diversity programs are not discriminating on the basis of race; eliminating the term "LatinX" from official communications; discontinuing "racial equity training"; and ditching the use of the term DEI.
The company has confirmed its change of course, telling the Guardian in a statement:
Our purpose, to help people save money and live better, has been at our core since our founding 62 years ago and continues to guide us today. We can deliver on it because we are willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America. We've been on a journey and know we aren't perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers, and to be a Walmart for everyone.
Walmart spokeswoman Molly Blakeman told CNBC that the company will no longer permit third-party sellers to sell various LGBT-themed items on the Walmart website, especially products, such as harmful chest binders, that target confused children.
Chest binders are pieces of compression clothing that flatten a woman's chest to make her more "male-presenting." They reportedly can cause breathing difficulties, chronic back pain, headaches, skin infections, broken ribs, and malformations of the spine. According to a 2021 study in the journal Pediatrics, 97% of those who use them suffer health problems as a result.
While Walmart is taking steps to shield children from LGBT propaganda and deformative apparel, it will continue to award grants and funding to LGBT events such as Pride parades.
Blakeman also confirmed that the company will no longer share data with the HRC and will wind down its Center for Racial Equity.
"Our campaigns are now so effective that we're getting the biggest companies on earth to change their policies without me even posting a story outlining their woke policies," wrote Starbuck. "Companies can clearly see that America wants normalcy back. The era of wokeness is dying right in front of our eyes. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are now the trend, not the anomaly."
'Keep up the pressure.'
Starbuck was deluged with congratulatory messages and thanks for helping Walmart find its way back to common sense.
"Great!" wrote Elon Musk.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, recently nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as American ambassador to Israel, tweeted, "Standing ovation for @robbystarbuck who is perhaps the most influential person in America restoring our culture & country to sanity! He is [fire emoji]! And thanks to @Walmart for focusing on the core business of retail. It's a gift to the customers & shareholders."
Andy Puzder, the former CEO of Hardee's, similarly thanked Starbuck and noted, "The list of actions Walmart is taking to walk away from DEI is impressive! The #1 US employer’s labor policies will once again be based on qualifications, merit and character not sex or skin color. A true win for US workers of every race & both sexes!"
"Wokeness is on its deathbed," tweeted All-American swim star Riley Gaines.
Starbuck appeared to agree with the sentiment, noting elsewhere, "Wokeness is on life support. We just have to keep up the pressure."
The Bud Light boycott demonstrated the vulnerability of corporate giants to conservative boycotts. While the threat of a repeat performance may be enough to prompt companies to act, some organizations may also be responding to the U.S. Supreme Court's June 29, 2023, decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard/UNC banning race-based college admission. The high court held that it is unconstitutional under the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause and a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for colleges and universities to factor race into the admissions process.
While some legal experts have indicated that the decision has no direct legal impact on private employers, it has nevertheless paved the way for numerous lawsuits and federal civil rights complaints targeting companies' DEI initiatives, such as the complaint America First Legal filed in September with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the kitchenware retailer Williams Sonoma.
Just weeks after the Supreme Court ruling, the attorneys general of 13 states wrote a letter reminding Fortune 100 CEOs of their obligations as employers under federal and sate law to "refrain from discriminating on the basis of race, whether under the label of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' or otherwise."
It appears that companies that depoliticize their offerings will not only maximize their market reach but possibly also minimize their legal liability in the face of increasing effective backlash.
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The Ford Motor Company walked back some DEI initiatives following pushback from conservatives. The Human Rights Campaign — America’s largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization — reacted to Ford's new direction by slinging insults after suffering its latest repudiation by a major company.
On Thursday, filmmaker and conservative consumer activist Robby Starbuck shared an internal memo from Ford CEO Jim Farley to employees regarding a pullback of commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
'What we want to do with this campaign is just make workplaces about work again with no divisive political or social issues.'
"For more than a century, Ford has been a pioneer in providing opportunities to people around the world of all races, genders, and backgrounds," the memo began. "Our people are our greatest strength, and the diverse experiences, perspectives, and talents of our team have enabled Ford to create some of the most iconic vehicles in history and afford millions of people the freedom of mobility."
"We are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs, and the external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve," Farley said in the memo.
The automaker giant noted that the company has evolved in the past year, and Ford has "taken a fresh look at our policies and practices to ensure they support our values, drive business results, and take into account the current landscape."
Included in the new policy changes, Ford proclaimed that employee resource groups must now focus efforts on "networking, mentorship, personal and professional development, and community service."
Ford Motor Co. stressed that it "does not utilize hiring quotas or tie compensation to the achievement of specific diversity goals."
The carmaker also declared that it will not use quotas for minority dealerships or suppliers.
Farley continued, "Ford remains deeply committed to fostering a safe and inclusive workplace and building a team that leverages diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and thinking styles to craft the best products, services, and experiences for our customers."
"As a global company, we will continue to put our effort and resources into taking care of our customers, our team, and our communities versus publicly commenting on the many polarizing issues of the day," the memo read.
Of the car company's philanthropic endeavors, Ford noted that it would focus on "areas where we can make the biggest positive difference for the most people, including education for the future of work, entrepreneurship, and essential services, such as our support of and volunteer work with Team Rubicon, the veteran-led group dedicated to disaster recovery."
Ford Motor Company announced that it would no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index and various other "best places to work" lists.
The Human Rights Campaign responded by hinting at a boycott targeting Ford and stooped to name-calling against Starbuck.
"Today, Ford ABANDONED its values and commitments to an inclusive workplace, cowering to MAGA weirdo Robby Starbuck," the Human Rights Campaign said. "With the LGBTQ+ community wielding $1.4 TRILLION in spending power and 30% of Gen Z identifying as LGBTQ+, we won’t forget this shortsighted decision and its impact."
Ford had a perfect 100 score on the HRC's Corporate Equity Index in 2023 and declared the automaker to be a "leader in LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion."
The HRC bills its so-called Corporate Equity Index as "the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices, and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees."
The Human Rights Campaign was described as having a "leading role in Democratic Party politics and left-leaning activism" by InfluenceWatch — an organization that provides "accurate descriptions of all of the various influencers of public policy issues."
Regarding the memo, Ford told USA Today, "The communication to our global employees speaks for itself. We have nothing further to add."
Starbuck declared, "We are winning, and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America."
"What we want to do with this campaign is just make workplaces about work again with no divisive political or social issues," Starbuck added. "Some on the left may see sponsorship of a pride event as supporting a community but others see children being exposed to sexual content and find it wildly inappropriate for a workplace to sponsor. As a consumer, I can’t in good faith support a company that explicitly funds things that I’m morally opposed to."
Ford is the latest major company to rein back DEI commitments.
As Blaze News previously reported, Harley-Davidson rejected DEI commitments and also said it would no longer participate in the HRC's woke index.
Last month, Tractor Supply declared that it would no longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign and would remove DEI positions and ditch its carbon emissions goals.
Also in July, farm equipment manufacturer John Deere announced it would no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events and would audit all training materials "to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages" following a campaign organized by Starbuck.
Starbuck then took aim at exposing DEI commitments at Jack Daniel's and its parent company — Brown-Forman. Last week, Brown-Forman proclaimed that it would no longer participate in the HRC's Corporate Equality Index social credit system and would end "quantitative workforce and supplier diversity ambitions" and ensure company goals are exclusively tied to productivity and not DEI initiatives.
This week, home improvement behemoth Lowe's discontinued some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments and dropped out of surveys for the Human Rights Campaign.
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Conservative filmmaker turned consumer advocate Robby Starbuck was three for three — but he wasn't about to rest on his laurels.
On Monday his social media-fueled boycott of Harley-Davidson convinced the iconic American motorcycle company to walk back various leftist initiatives, including mandatory "LBGTQ+ ally" training for employees and DEI-focused hiring policies.
That same day, he informed Align that he was already working on another big target.
The victory against Harley-Davidson followed similarly effective campaigns against Tractor Supply and John Deere.
Brands like these are so much a part of our history that we can't just let them "go woke, go broke." We owe it to ourselves to preserve them.
The woke desecration of Harley-Davidson has been especially insulting. As Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck puts it:
Harley is one of the brands that helped win World War II. The Harley-Davidson WLA carried American GIs to war against the Nazis. The WLA was brought back to the United States, and a new era of motorcycles was born after the veterans began chopping them up for civilians to use. The “chopper” was born.
Veterans returning from war from the 1940s through today have ridden Harleys as both a therapeutic mechanism to deal with what they saw on the battlefield and as an homage to experience the openness of American freedom. And that legacy has been taught and handed down to Harley-Davidson riders from father to son enthusiastically since 1903.
Thanks to Starbuck's efforts, that legacy has been preserved — for now.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Shortly after Harley-Davidson's capitulation, Starbuck told Align that he and his small team were already at work on the next target.
While he declined to name the company — "We have someone in the field filming and can’t take any risk something accidentally gets out" — Starbuck promised "a powerful takedown" in the near future.
Word did get out. Less than twelve hours later, Starbuck revealed that his intended target — Jack Daniel's — had gotten wise to his plan. Incredibly, the mere threat of exposure was enough to make the company pre-emptively change its DEI-motivated policies.
— (@)
"We are winning and one by one we will bring sanity back to corporate America," posted Starbuck.
It's nothing Starbuck takes credit for personally. "We’re just a megaphone for the anger Americans have towards this divisive ideology," he said.
What started as a grassroots movement has encountered some growing pains as it expands, admits Starbuck: "To be perfectly candid, right now our biggest issue is scaling this. We have well over 1,000 whistleblowers and need to hire some trusted people to get the tips and evidence coming in. To appropriately organize the stories and put them out takes a lot of manpower hours."
Those who want to help with funding Starbuck's work holding companies accountable can subscribe to his X page (@robbystarbuck) for $5 a month.
But your time and attention can also make a difference. "Stay engaged with what we’re posting and take the five minutes to email or call the companies we expose," urged Starbuck. "That time investment is winning our country back."
Conservative filmmaker Robby Starbuck announced on X Monday that under threat of boycott and amidst a concerted pressure campaign, the 121-year-old motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson has scrapped various leftist initiatives.
"We did it again," wrote Starbuck. "3 for 3. The left fears what I'm doing because it's effective. The attacks will increase with the plan we have but we have a plan and it accounts for the arrows that will be fired at us. We won't slow down for anyone."
Starbuck has now successfully targeted Tractor Supply, John Deere, and Harley-Davidson for their race-obsessive policies, embrace of gender ideology, and other alienating leftist commitments, which appear to be at odds with the conservatives amongst these companies' clientele.
The ideological capture of Wall Street and of beloved American businesses was long in the making; however, by the time many realized what exactly had happened to the system and the brands they grew up with, the time to mount a meaningful defense had passed.
Some conservatives have recently gone on offense, threatening companies' bottom lines only to discover that this — and perhaps only this — is the means of reconquest.
Having undoubtedly gleaned insights both into corporations' low tolerance for consumer backlash from the Bud Light saga and into the efficacy of an unflinching information assault of the kind waged by Christopher Rufo against universities' DEI czars, Starbuck and others have gone to war with American legacy companies over their wokery.
'When we use our voices and wallets to vote our values, we can change the world.'
Blaze News previously reported that Starbuck and others blasted Tractor Supply, a company established in 1938, for mandating its employees to undergo "LGBTQIA+ training," for funding sex-change mutilations through its health plan, and for sponsoring so-called family-friendly transvestite performances, as well as for other leftist initiatives.
The exposure was evidently too much to handle, as Tractor Supply announced on June 27 that it had taken the "feedback to heart," and would: no longer volunteer data to the powerful LGBT activist group that calls itself the Human Rights Campaign; ditch "DEI roles and retire [its] current DEI goals"; and jettison its carbon emission goals.
When similarly targeted for liberation, John Deere similarly traded the LGBT colors back for the red, white and blue, indicating it would "no longer participate in or support external social or cultural awareness parades, festivals, or events," and would be taking additional steps to shore up customer trust.
Last month, Starbuck launched his latest campaign: a boycott of Harley-Davidson, a once-beloved motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1903.
In a series of social media posts and videos, he provided fuel for a Bud Light-style boycott, alleging that the company
'We are saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks.'
Starbuck also highlighted some statements made and actions taken by the company's German-born CEO, Jochen Zeitz, that might prickle customers, including the climate alarmist's
"I don't think the values at corporate reflect the values of nearly any Harley Davidson bikers," wrote Starbuck. "Do Harley riders want the money they spend at Harley to be used later by corporate to push an ideology that’s diametrically opposed to their own values?"
Starbuck added, "When we use our voices and wallets to vote our values, we can change the world and we can restore great American companies to a culture of sanity, meritocracy and culture war neutrality OR we can inspire competitors to step up to fight for our business."
Whatever pressure Americans helped apply in concert with the conservative filmmaker appears to have been enough.
At noon on Monday, Harley-Davidson stated on X, "We are saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks, designed to divide the Harley-Davidson community. As a Company, we take this issue very seriously, and it is our responsibility to respond with clarity, action and facts."
Harley-Davidson claimed that pursuant to an internal stakeholder review initiated earlier this year, the company has kicked its supplier diversity spend goals to the curb and does not have hiring quotas. It noted further that its "DEI function" has been dead since April 2024 and the company does "not have a DEI function today."
Harley-Davidson also indicated it will no longer participate in HRC scoring going forward and "will focus exclusively on growing the sport of motorcycling and retaining our loyal riding community."
"Socially motivated content" in training sessions will apparently disappear in the rear view mirror along with the company's race obsession and HRC participation.
— (@)
"Harley-Davidson corporate can be sad all they want but our movement gets results," said Starbuck.
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Child predators are every parent's nightmare. Director and creator of “The War on Children,” Robby Starbuck, knows this all too well.
He also knows that the number of child predators is growing.
“We just had an operation here in Tennessee that was announced this morning,” Starbuck tells James Poulos of “Zero Hour.” “In this operation, they were able to come up with over a quarter million images of child sexual abuse. That’s stunning. In one operation, in one state.”
“They expect that number to grow,” he adds.
While most Americans can agree that child predators deserve harsh sentences, Starbuck wants to take it a step further, telling Poulos that there’s no incentive for these possessed individuals not to hurt children.
“The incentives not to do that, what are they exactly?” he asks. “One hundred years ago, if a man was caught raping a child, he wouldn’t be alive much longer. And that’s why, you know, we spearheaded here in Tennessee, a law change. And it was a law change made to ensure that we challenge bad precedent at the Supreme Court. And that was to give the death penalty to child rapists.”
While predators currently do not get the death penalty for raping a child, Starbuck believes that might be about to change.
“I believe the Supreme Court of today has a makeup where they’re going to do the sensible thing and affirm that you can in fact punish a heinous criminal like this with death instead of paying to keep them alive to the tune of millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars,” he tells Poulos.
“No society can survive if their incentives are all wrong,” he adds.
Starbuck isn’t alone in his assessment of where we’re at as a society and where we'll remain if we don't make a change. Poulos has also recognized the darkness.
“In some ways, it’s become a weirder and darker place, this country, than it has been in a long time,” he says.
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Robby Starbuck is a filmmaker who has exposed multiple companies for their woke initiatives. Now, he’s exposing Harley-Davidson — and it’s not looking good for the all-American motorcycle company.
“What he found is a complete sellout,” Glenn Beck explains, noting that prior to Starbuck’s exposé, Beck thought of Harley-Davidson as a “true American brand.”
“I kind of had a hard time believing it,” Starbuck tells Beck, “because the Harley brand is like this macho brand, and everybody knows somebody who's got a Harley, and it’s so diametrically opposed to who they are.”
As Starbuck looked into the brand, he found that the sustainability reports revealed a lot about the company that its red-blooded American patrons would probably like to know.
“We found that they had put 1,800 employees through these woke trainings, including one group of employees, specifically white males, they sent to a white male only diversity training,” Starbuck reveals.
But that’s not all.
“When you go farther down the line, then they’ve got a plan to what they call ‘diversify their supply chain,’ which is really just corporate speak for ‘we want less white people,’” Starbucks continues. “The idea is just so far and away from what the American dream is.”
Harley-Davison also funded a Pride event that was considered “all-ages.”
According to Starbuck, at this Pride event there was a “rage room,” which was “right across from the area where drag queens interact with kids for the story time” and a “play catch with dad area for anybody who had daddy issues.”
“I’m not joking,” Starbuck says, adding, “It is so diametrically opposed to the values of Harley riders.”
The company is reportedly also a founding member of the Wisconsin LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce.
“They also made February and March months of inclusion, because we need three months, not just Pride Month,” Glenn comments. “The money they have donated now to the United Way, promoting 'Antiracist Baby' — you know, the Ibram Kendi thing — they have a Pride ride.”
“It goes on and on,” he adds, shocked.
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Tractor Supply Company issued a statement announcing that it will stop sharing data with the Human Rights Campaign; nix diversity, equity, and inclusion positions; and ditch its carbon emissions goals. The Human Rights Campaign is a pro-LGBT advocacy group.
In the statement, the company listed five points, declaring that it will:
BlazeTV host Lauren Chen summed up the development in a tweet, noting, "Tractor Supply is basically DISAVOWING wokeness."
'This response will have major ripple effects across corporate America...'
Robby Starbuck had called Tractor Supply out for promoting wokeness and urged people to respectfully reach out to the company to register their displeasure.
And Tractor Supply's statement on Thursday appears to indicate that the company, which describes itself as "the largest rural lifestyle retailer in the United States," faced public pressure to change course.
"This is a great victory for sanity in corporate America and the single most successful boycott of our lifetime," Starbuck told Blaze News in a statement. "Our 3 week campaign of reporting proved that we can make change happen and that we can enter a new era where the customer is king again instead of the woke bankers at Blackrock. Now every company has to wonder who will be exposed next. If Tractor Supply truly makes these changes then I look forward to visiting my local store again so we can encourage similar behavior from other companies. Our eyes are on the prize to end wokeness and restore sanity… This was a great first step."
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