McDonald’s Backs Away From DEI Programs Amid ‘Shifting Legal Landscape’
Fast food giant McDonald’s announced Monday that it would step back from several diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in light of a “shifting legal landscape.”
The move comes after a number of other major corporations like Tractor Supply and Toyota have scaled back their DEI commitments following public scrutiny. McDonald’s executives said in a letter to company employees that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action prompted the changes.
The changes announced by McDonald’s include no more participation in third-party surveys, eliminating “aspirational representation goals,” and axing its supply chain DEI pledge.
“Following the Supreme Court ruling in STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE, we also assessed the shifting legal landscape to anticipate how this ruling may impact corporations such as McDonald’s,” the executives wrote. “And finally, we benchmarked our approach to other companies who are also re-evaluating their own programs.”
McDonald’s said it would stop “setting aspiration representational goals” and instead work to “embed inclusion practices that grow our business into our everyday process and operations.”
The fast-food chain added that it would pause participation in “external surveys to focus on the work we are doing internally to grow the business.” Previously, the company had participated in the leftwing Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index Survey, boasting that it had received a 100% score for “advancing LGBTQ+ friendly policies.”
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McDonald’s added that it was ending its supply chain commitment to the DEI pledge “in favor of a more integrated discussion with suppliers about inclusion as it relates to business performance.”
Despite the changes, the company said that it reports demographic information on its board, employees, and suppliers and rebranded its diversity team as the Global Inclusion Team.
Conservative activist Robby Starbuck celebrated the news, saying he contacted McDonald’s three days before the announcement to ask about its “woke policies.”
“Companies can see that America wants sanity back. The era of wokeness is dying right in front of our eyes. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are the trend, not the anomaly anymore,” he posted on X. “We’re winning and one by one we WILL bring sanity back to corporate America.”