Filet o’ Cowardice: McDonald’s Rolls Back DEI Practices
The fast food giant is scuttling its diversity goals, and will no longer participate in HRC's Corporate Equality Index.
McDonald’s is the latest U.S. corporation to roll back diversity, equity, and inclusion policies as conservatives continue to apply public pressure to eliminate initiatives and programs they believe are discriminatory.
The company revealed in a January 6 statement that it will no longer set specific diversity goals, such as requiring suppliers to commit to certain DEI targets.
However, the fast food chain will not completely disband so-called “affinity groups” at individual franchises and will continue to report demographic information of board members, employees, and suppliers in its annual Purpose & Impact report.
The company also said it would stop participating in external surveys in order “to focus on the work we are doing internally to grow the business.”
Although it did not name any specific organizations, its decision to refuse to participate in external surveys mirrors actions taken by other companies to distance themselves from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which grades corporations on their commitment to LGBTQ inclusion, including the presence or lack of nondiscrimination policies, LGBTQ-friendly family or spousal benefits, and LGBTQ-inclusive health care coverage.
McDonald’s said it would rename its diversity team the “Global Inclusion Team” and shift the focus of that team’s work.
“We are proud of the work that we do at McDonald’s,” the company said in an email sent to franchise owners, employees, and suppliers. “We will continue to drive business results through all three legs of the McDonald’s stool, specifically with our people practices, by fueling economic impact and innovation through our robust supply chain and by building a franchisee pipeline that thrives in the communities we serve and fuels our growth.
“It takes all of us to continue to create an environment where we can all be successful,” the statement concluded. “Thank you for your dedication to making McDonald’s a place where everyone feels welcome and included.”
McDonald’s said it was motivated to alter its approach to DEI in response to a recent Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action, as well as actions by other corporations to roll back or eliminate their DEI initiatives in the face of threatened boycotts.
Corporations that have rolled back or eliminated DEI policies in the past year include Walmart, Stanley Black & Decker, Molson Coors, Ford Motor Company, Lowe’s Hardware, and Harley-Davidson.
Recently, retail giant Costco refused to drop its DEI initiatives and policies despite pressure to do so. Its board even urged shareholders to reject a proposal that would require the company to report on “the risks of maintaining DEI efforts.”
As a result, the company has been facing calls for a boycott from conservatives who believe that DEI is “reverse discrimination” against whites, Asians, males, and heterosexuals.
Robby Starbuck, the pro-Trump, MAGA activist who has been leading the charge to eradicate DEI initiatives from corporate America, celebrated the McDonald’s announcement on X.
BIG news: @McDonalds is ending a number of woke DEI policies today. Now let me tell you what’s changing and how it happened.
3 days ago I told McDonald’s that I’d be doing a story on woke policies there. Today they’ve announced the following changes:
• Hiring: They will END… pic.twitter.com/bvFglf6pxw
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 6, 2025
“[McDonald’s] will END their diversity ‘goals’ for how many of each race they hire. Many (myself included) have referred to these types of ‘goals’ as quotas because these ‘goals’ often operate as quotas that discriminate against white job applicants,” Starbuck wrote.
“They’ll no longer participate in the HRC’s woke Corporate Equality Index scoring system that forces the trans agenda into the workplace in exchange for a perfect score. They also won’t participate in other third-party surveys,” he crowed. “They’re ENDING the DEI pledge for their supply chain. That means no diversity quotas or ‘goals’ will exist for how they choose or prioritize suppliers. Focus will now be on merit…. The era of wokeness is dying right in front of our eyes. The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality.”
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