Don't Even Imagine ...
that DEI is dead.
So there is, believe it or not, some good news on the DEI front.
According to a poll from Morning Consult, the percentage of US adults who support companies cutting back on their DEI programs has dropped from a definite minority last July to an even smaller minority in November. Support for three versions of cutbacks dropped by four to six percentage points and fewer than a third of Americans now support companies' reducing their DEI efforts.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign’s 2025 Corporate Equality Index, released in January, found that there has been an increase in companies committed to improving LGBTQ+ inclusion and equality in the workplace.
Additionally, some CEOs at the most recent World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos spoke approvingly of DEI efforts, including Adena Friedman (Nasdaq), Robert Smith (Vista Equity Partners), and Brian Moynihan (Bank of America) - with Alexander Schmitz (Bain & Company) saying private equity firms that roll back DEI will likely have a “problem in fundraising” because "for the investors of this world," such criteria "are very important and will continue to be very important."
So illegitimi non carborundum which I know is not a proper Latin phrase and I don't care and carry it on.
Okay, the rest of this is just FYI.
From several different sources I've put together what I think is a pretty good list of companies that heave either a)abandoned or cut back on DEI program or b)stood by them either by direct statement or action (such as hiring staff to oversee the program).
THE BAD
Amazon
Bank of America
BlackRock
Boeing
Brown-Forman (Jack Daniel's)
Caterpillar
Comcast
Chipotle Mexican Grill
DoorDash
Eli Lilly
Ford Motor Company
Goldman-Sachs*1
Google*2
Harley-Davidson
Home Depot
John Deere
Lowe’s Hardware
Lyft
McDonald’s
Meta
Microsoft*3
Molson Coors
Morgan-Stanley
Nissan
Polaris (off-road vehicles)
Publicis Groupe (marketing and pr)
Stanley Black & Decker
Starbucks*4
Target
Toyota
Tractor Supply
Twitter
Walmart
Wayfair
Zoom
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina (seven campuses - Appalachian State, North Carolina A&T, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, Western Carolina - have eliminated DEI programs; six more - East Carolina, Elizabeth City State, North Carolina Central, NC State, UNC Asheville, UNC School of the Arts - have renamed them.
University of Kentucky
Cleveland State University
Disney District
FBI
FCC
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
— —
THE GOOD
Abercrombie and Fitch
Adobe
Alliance Health
American Airlines
Ancestry
Apple*5
Ben & Jerry’s
Bering Straits Native Corporation
Best Buy
Chik-Fil-A
Cigna
Cisco Systems
Citigroup
Costco
Delta Airlines
Dollar Tree
Gap Inc.
GoTo Foods
HLW
Johnson & Johnson
JPMorgan Chase*6
Kroger
Logitech
Macy’s
MassMutual
Mastercard
Match Group
Meijer
Mitre
National Football League
Nike
Old Navy
PepsiCo
Philip Morris International
Pinterest
Progressive
Sephora
Southwest Airlines
TJX Companies
Tiffany & Co
Ulta Beauty
United Airlines
UPS
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
—
Sources for the list
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/01/amazon-removes-section-on-lgbtq-rights-from-its-policy-page/
https://www.reuters.com/business/trumps-dei-cuts-force-davos-elite-find-new-words-diversity-2025-01-22/
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/24/heres-what-ceos-are-saying-about-dei-at-davos.html
With a special nod to
https://buildremote.co/companies/keeping-dei/
https://buildremote.co/companies/ending-dei/#companies
GS claimed to "strongly believe that organizations benefit from diverse perspectives" but its website uses the past tense in reference to its "Launch with GS" program and some staff have been reassigned.
Whatever happened to “Don’t be evil?”
Microsoft claims to "strive to create an environment that brings the power of diversity to life," but laid off its entire DEI team last July.
Starbucks says its ESG goals will be "part of a longer-term incentive program" that doesn't mention DEI. It says DEI goals remain "within its overall compensation structure." It may be that the company is trying to continue DEI and ESG by hiding them under other descriptions, but it's still enough of a stand-down to list it with The Bad rather than The Good.
Apple has cut back its DEI programs but is actively opposing a shareholder vote to scrap them.
Based on a statement from CEO Jamie Dimon at Davos (which I still want to call Davros) that the company will “continue to reach out to the Black community and Hispanic community, LGBT community, and the veteran community.”