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Walmart is reportedly rolling back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies nationwide.
On Monday (November 25), conservative activist Robby Starbuck broke the news on Walmart's massive shift on DEI.
“MASSIVE news: Walmart is ending their woke policies. I can now exclusively tell you what’s changing and how it happened,” Starbuck wrote X, formerly Twitter.
“Last week I told execs at @Walmart that I was doing a story on wokeness there. Instead we had productive conversations to find solutions,” he added.
According to Starbuck, Walmart will no longer use the terms "DEI" or "LatinX." The company is reportedly discontinuing training through the Racial Equity Institute and terminating its Racial Equity Center, a special five-year initiative established in 2020.
Walmart is also reevaluating its policies to ensure the company isn't providing preferential treatment or benefits to suppliers based on diversity, Starbuck said. In 2020, Walmart said it sourced more than $13.1 billion in goods and services from diverse suppliers in the wake of George Floyd's murder, which sparked protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
“We’ve now changed policy at companies worth over $2 Trillion dollars, with many millions of employees who have better workplace environments as a result,” Starbuck said on X.
“I’m happy to have secured these changes before Christmas when shoppers have very few large retail brands they can spend money with who aren’t pushing woke policies,” he added.
Starbuck also said Walmart is removing sexual and transgender-related products marketed to children and will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, an evaluation of company policies related to LGBTQ employees.
The conservative activist claimed that Target, Amazon, and other Walmart competitors will "suffer" following the company's shift on DEI.
A Walmart spokesperson said in a statement: “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."
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