DEI is Collapsing – Walmart and Trump are Leading the Way

DEI is Collapsing – Walmart and Trump are Leading the Way

 By: Rich Berdan

When Wal-Mart sneezes, the rest of the business world catches a cold. Following the election of President Donald Trump, companies are unwinding the divisive DEI nightmare. There is an awakening across the United States that is placing their government institutions and legacy media on notice that Americans will no longer be steered down a delusional and dangerous path.

 Corporations are seizing the moment to shift while they currently enjoy the political capital under the Trump win with a clear referendum on dismantling wokeness. Not only will the Trump administration rip up DEI programs across the federal government, but the President-elect is now expected to sign an executive order to ensure corporate DEI initiatives are removed if they planning to conduct business with the federal government.

 The largest private sector employer has axed DEI training programs for their employees, shuttered their racial equity center that was established after George Floyd’s death, withdrawing from a Human Rights LGBT benchmark index, and a pledge to review all Pride-related funding and remove sexual and transgender-themed products from being sold at their stores.

 Most importantly, Wal-Mart will no longer consider gender and race policies when choosing suppliers. This is huge. Thousands of suppliers can now escape from the heavy-handed influence of the retail giant’s punitive buying power that held them hostage to wasting resources on DEI initiatives that aggressively harms workplace cohesion and societal trust.

 The flood gates are now opening with companies like Ford, Lowe’s, Toyota, Starbucks, Harley-Davidson, Boeing, Tractor Supply, Caterpillar, Black & Decker, and John Deere announcing they are scrapping or pulling back on their DEI policies. The mass shift taking place are executive’s acknowledging their wayward cowardice to avoid negative market pressures associated with opposing the woke agenda. The C-suite and their board of directors made self-serving decisions out of fear from becoming targets by progressive activists, and this perpetuated the roll out of the harmful DEI indoctrination upon their employees. Rather than continuing to drive tactics from the Marxist playbook that has exacerbated prejudice and resentment in the workplace, business leaders are now returning to common sense that opens the door to opportunities for all their employees to strive for excellence.

 DEI is an ideology that sought to categorize individuals based on the color of their skin that framed racism to be present in all corners of the business —a predisposition to see racism where none exists. I was quite surprised as a human resources and labor relations leader when informed that systemic racism existed in the workplace, yet I never witnessed it myself. That said, I remained open minded to this assessment and would listen to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion experts and do my share as a leader to be part of the solution.

 What I discovered when attending mandatory DEI sessions rolled out by approved third-party experts was more about a political advocacy movement teaching employees to see discrimination in every sector of society that raises fear and suspicion rather than mutual understanding. The teaching was clear there could not be a status of “not being a racist,” you have to be “anti-racist.” In other words, you cannot remain silent, and employees are pressured advocate your allegiance to this ideological mantra.

 Following the moderator’s one-sided accounts of aggression against the oppressed whether through political, criminal, religious, or economic structures, the participants were each put on the spot and asked what actions they were going to take in their personal life’s that would enrich their existence as an “anti-racist.” The session swung into an extraordinary awkward moment for participants who attempted to share their next steps to directly advance the DEI ideology. Participants declared they would perform a serious self-reflection in discovering their shortcomings and find a path forward to personally change who they were. These cult-like sessions to shame individuals into self-humiliation and guilt over their skin color created real anxiety over the fear of saying something offensive that could lead to punitive behaviors based on perceived, rather than actual transgressions.

 I was particularly alarmed when a moderator’s DEI teaching placed Christianity as a factor in the current oppression in the workplace. Now, it does not excuse historical crimes against humanity or bad actors in the church, but it should not permit for a blanket statement against Christianity as a whole without clarifications and how religious extremism in other parts of the world are far more detrimental to one’s freedom and equality. There was an intent to make Christians ashamed of their faith and forcing them against their will to comply with the DEI idolatry. However, there will always be people whose faith would not bend a knee and resist falling in line in the same respect as refusing the injection of an experimental Covid vaccine into their bodies. Note that those who persecute the people of God persecute God.

 DEI training became a billion-dollar industry, adopted by governments and corporations alike. The curriculum is reverse racism designed to divide people into factions where equality is mandated as an outcome rather than equality of opportunity and the pursuant of excellence. DEI leads people astray in filling their measure of discord as their sense of belonging wanes. When accepting DEI, you are saying it is fine to discriminate, specifically when asked your race and gender-type on a workplace application. Questioning this practice would negatively impact one’s employment and future promotions. The implication of this fearful environment clearly contradicts a company’s values of transparency, integrity, and inclusiveness.

 The DEI indoctrination of our youth towards mediocrity, bitterness, and blame will only rob them of the true joys of life; whether it be work ethic, respect, struggles, and achievement. It gets worse. DEI morphed further into a conglomerate of genderisms that now has males competing as females in sporting events at the demise of female athlete’s lifelong dreams shattered. Trump has vowed to stop biological male athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.

Wal-Mart will be far from the last company to close down the DEI Department, and it will set its eyes on the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) auditing that has stifled growth. Profitability and being responsible to the shareholders are the top priorities. Looking back, we will truly wonder how great corporations and business leaders lost their way.