Walmart, the world's largest retailer, is rolling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, joining a list of major corporations that have been under pressure by conservative activists. The company confirmed on Monday to the AP that it will no longer consider race and gender as a way to increase diversity when it offers supplier contracts. While the company said it didn't have quotas and will not going forward, CNN reports Walmart had in recent years focused on increasing the number of suppliers that are majority-owned or -managed by a woman, minority, veteran, or someone who is LGBTQ. It will stop collecting demographic data when determining financing eligibility for those grants.
The retailer based in Bentonville, Arkansas, will also be reviewing grants to Pride events to make sure it is not financially supporting sexualized content targeting kids. For example, the company wants to make sure a family pavilion is not next to a drag show at a Pride event, the company said. Walmart also said it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don't feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors. That would include chest binders intended for youth who are going through a gender change.
"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," the company said in a statement. Walmart confirmed the changes after conservative political commentator and anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck posted on X that he was in touch with the retailer about a story he was doing about "wokeness" and he said he ended up having "productive conversations" with Walmart. "This is the biggest win yet for our movement to end wokeness in corporate America," wrote Starbuck, who has gone after companies including Deere & Co., Lowe's, Tractor Supply, and Boeing.
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His post details other "changes Walmart has committed to," including ceasing to use the term Latinx in its official communications and discontinuing racial equity training through the Racial Equity Institute. CNN adds the company also said it has decided not to extend its Center for Racial Equity, which was set up in 2020 as a special $100 million five-year initiative "to address the root causes of gaps in outcomes of African Americans in education, health, criminal justice and other areas." (More Walmart stories.)
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