Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, the parent company of Jack Daniel’s, and other corporations have recently ended their diversity programs.
Two iconic American companies, Lowe’s and Ford, have become the latest corporations to walk back their participation in left-wing diversity programs as conservatives continue to apply pressure on American businesses to disengage from political activism.
Lowe’s is scaling back its corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling last year striking down race-based affirmative action in college admissions. Ford is taking similar steps to better accommodate the wide range of views among employees and customers, and because of the changes to the political and legal environment.
“Like many other companies, in July 2023 after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Harvard/UNC cases, we began reviewing our diversity and inclusion programs to ensure they are lawful and aligned with our commitment to include everyone in the incredible opportunities here at Lowe’s and ensure that no one is excluded,” Lowe’s said in an internal memo obtained by National Review.
Lowe’s is merging all of its business resource groups into one umbrella organization, instead of separating people based on race and gender, and ending its participation in the left-wing Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, the group’s ranking of how well companies adhere to progressive ideology around sexuality and gender.
The Supreme Court determined that Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s race-based admissions policies violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The affirmative-action system of prioritizing race in college admissions resembles corporate diversity programs that also factor race into hiring decisions.
The internal Lowe’s memo was first revealed in a social-media post Tuesday by conservative activist Robby Starbuck, who took credit for Lowe’s policy shift.
Starbuck, a crusader against left-wing diversity initiatives, said he planned on launching a social-media campaign against the company – like he has against other high-profile corporations with red-state clientele. On Wednesday, Starbuck shared an internal memo from Ford laying out why the company is changing its diversity policies.
“We are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs” Ford CEO Jim Farley told employees. “The external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve.”
Like Lowe’s, Ford is ending its participation in the corporate equality index and tweaked its employee resource groups to ensure they remain professional. Ford will not utilize diversity quotas for dealerships and suppliers, and it affirmed its decision not to enact hiring quotas or executive compensation for reaching diversity goals. Without going into specifics, Ford’s policy changes appear to suggest that the company’s philanthropic efforts will not be put towards social activism or political campaigns.
A spokesperson for Ford declined to comment further and referred National Review to the internal memo.
“This isn’t everything we want but it’s a great start. We’re now forcing multi-billion dollar organizations to change their policies without even posting just from fear they have of being the next company that we expose,” Starbuck wrote on X in response to the Ford memo.
Over the past few weeks, Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley-Davidson, the parent company of Jack Daniel’s, and other corporations have ended their diversity programs, in part because of Starbuck’s activism and large online following.
Conservative organizations, activists, and politicians have made the reduction of left-wing diversity initiatives in corporate America a major priority, whether it be through pressure campaigns, legislative activity, or lawsuits for alleged violations of anti-discrimination law.
The most sustained pressure campaign took place last year when conservatives began boycotting Bud Light because of its social-media partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male who identifies as female. Mulvaney has millions of followers across major social-media platforms, and first became famous on TikTok for posting about being transgender. The boycott noticeably impacted Bud Light’s sales numbers and the beer brand has subsequently tried to win conservatives back through targeted sponsorships and advertisement campaigns with celebrities.
“Corporate America is finally realizing that the backlash to their bigoted, out-of-touch polices isn’t going away,” said Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, a consumer advocacy organization opposed to left-wing corporate policies.
“The swift backpedaling we are seeing from companies like Lowe’s, Harley Davidson, and Tractor Supply goes to show these decisions to implement woke policies such as DEI are not about making things better for the consumers, but about political agendas.”