Walmart, the world’s largest private employer, is rolling back its diversity initiatives amid an increasingly challenging legal landscape for such programs — and as conservative activists threaten boycotts on social media.
The retailer announced this week that it has stopped using the term DEI — which stands for diversity, equity and inclusion — and has replaced it with “belonging.” And it will no longer consider race and gender when choosing suppliers, a practice it
leaned into after the 2020 murder of George Floyd ushered in a national reckoning on race. Walmart also will discontinue DEI training offered by the Racial Equity Institute, a corporate consultancy; stop participating in the equality ratings by the Human Rights Campaign, a prominent LGBTQ+ advocacy group; and put guardrails on which community events, such as drag shows and Pride events, it supports through grants.
“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,” the company said in a statement Monday.
Walmart’s shift marks the latest win for the anti-DEI movement, which has been gaining traction since the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in university admissions in June 2023. A succession of businesses and government agencies have dismantled or retooled programs meant to diversify their ranks, in the face of legal scrutiny.
It is also an about-face for the retailer, which committed $100 million toward racial equity initiatives in 2020. The pledge was part of a broader effort undertaken by dozens of America’s largest public companies and their foundations. Walmart’s initiative will close in 2025, the company said.
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