Walmart rolls back DEI commitments amid conservative backlash

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.