Was 2024 the year DEI collapsed?

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion The “DEI” policies faced increased scrutiny in 2024, prompting at least a dozen major US companies and hundreds of universities to rescind these once-innocuous commitments.

“I think it was inevitable,” said conservative activist Robbie Starbuck Fox News Digital for returning to DEI this year after its rise in popularity four years ago.

“In 2020 a lot of executives embraced this whole idea and concept of DEI because they just didn’t want to be seen as racist,” he said. “Many of them had no idea or understanding of what this was going to turn into.”

DEI, which often includes prioritizing race, gender or sexuality in hiring, training and programming, has been criticized by conservatives as divisive and discriminatory. DEI supporters say these efforts address racial divides and provide support for groups that have been marginalized in the past.

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Large companies that opted out of DEI in 2024

The private-sector move by DEI this year comes as the companies faced mounting pressure from Starbuck and other conservatives to revise those policies.

American Airlines became the latest U.S. company to agree to abandon its hiring diversity practices this month after facing a legal challenge from conservative watchdog America First Legal.

“The airline has acknowledged that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) recruitment and hiring violates federal and equal employment opportunity laws,” the AFL said in a statement.

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and private employer, confirmed in November that it would also take steps from DEI. These changes include removing sex and transgender products from third-party marketers inappropriately marketed to children from the online marketplace and ending its participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.

In a statement to FOX Business, Walmart said he was “willing to change along with our associates and customers who represent all of America.”

“We’ve been on a journey and we know we’re not perfect, but every decision comes from a desire to foster a sense of belonging, open doors to opportunity for all our associates, customers and suppliers, and be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said.

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At least ten other American companies – Ford, LoweBoeing, Caterpillar, Harley-Davidson, Polaris, John Deere, Tractor Supply Company, Jack Daniel’s and Molson Coors — also reportedly canceled DEI initiatives earlier in the year.

Other companies with a large corporate presence in the US, such as Nissan and Toyotahave also agreed to divest a number of their DEI practices by the end of 2024.

Starbuck, who has led campaigns against wake-up policies at Walmart and several other businesses, believes people privately began to resent DEI about two years ago. But in 2024 it has become more socially acceptable for people to say out loud that these policies are “toxic,” he said.

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“It was the year that people got social permission, in many ways, to just talk about it and acknowledge it. With every company that goes down, more and more people feel comfortable admitting they have a problem with it,” Starbuck said. Fox News Digital.

Universities move away from DEI amid mounting pressure

DEI is also targeting US universities.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which tracks “dismantling of DEI,” 215 colleges in 32 states have made changes to their DEI policies.

Public universities in several states have closed their DEI offices after lawmakers passed or introduced legislation prohibiting state funding of DEIs.

After the Florida Board of Governors permanently banned taxpayer dollars is used to fund DEI programs in public schools in January The University of Florida laid off all employees in DEI positions to comply with the new regulations.

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The University of Texas at Austin also closed its DEI offices to comply with a new state law banning DEI offices at public universities. The anti-DEI law signed by Governor Abbott in 2023 also restricts universities from using diversity statements in hiring and training practices.

Alabama, Iowa and Utah joined Texas and Florida in banning DEI offices at state universities this year, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Kansas and Idaho also passed laws that prohibit public institutions from requiring diversity statements in hiring or admissions decisions.

Boise State University has become one of the latest schools to close its equity centers on November 29followed by the University of Michigan’s removal of DEI statements as part of its faculty hiring, promotion and tenure requirements in December.

DEI still has a strong hold on most of America’s leading companies

Although several top businesses have abandoned DEI in 2024, the majority of the nation’s largest companies still maintain some form of commitment to these practices, according to recent report from the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.

Heritage reviewed company statements, annual reports and other publicly available documents from every Fortune 500 company and found that 485 of the top 500 companies continue to uphold DEI’s priorities.

The British car manufacturer Jaguar was one company that particularly doubled down after facing criticism, he took their brand in a “woke” new direction with its recent rebrand.

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Starbuck knows that his fight against the ideology of the “woke” in leading American companies is not over.

Some firms will “do the right thing” by disbanding DEI, he predicted, while others will try to sneak it back under other names.

“We have work left to do to institutionally get rid of the wiring and the foundations here, because a lot of these things are deeply embedded in our society in ways that most people don’t even understand,” he said.

“DEI is a wounded animal, so expect desperate maneuvers from the people pushing it,” he continued. “But that means we’re at the beginning of its demise.”

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.