Companies that kept policies did just as well financially, even after Trump’s executive order, as those that didn’t
Conservative backlash was supposed to put an end to the diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) movement as companies were warned “go woke, go broke”.
In January 2025, Donald Trump delivered a death knell, ending DEI within the federal government with executive orders and threatening to target companies that still supported it. Companies including Google, Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s and Walmart that had embraced DEI years earlier fell into line and announced an end to their policies.
But new research published on Friday and shared exclusively with the Guardian found that companies that resisted the pressure and kept their DEI practices, including Costco, Apple and Delta Air Lines, performed just as well as their competitors who pulled back.
Folks here’s the deal. Corporations have an obligation to the shareholder over everyone else. Costco doesn’t give a shit about consumers. Costco cares about nurturing and communicating their brand, which is all about being pro-consumer.
Target doesn’t give a shit about you. Apple doesn’t give a shit about you. Nike. Whatever brand you love, it doesn’t love you back. Unless you’re a shareholder and you want a very specific thing.
Corporations that kept DEI had their internal prognosticators tell them “it’ll blow over and be better for us if we stay the course.” That’s it. Never in any meeting did someone utter the words “It’s the right thing to do, that’s why.”
Corporations that tossed DEI made a different calculation.
That’s it.
So celebrate that our side currently has a very good market segment in all these corporations, but don’t celebrate anything else.
You’re not strictly wrong, and I understand that corporations are not anyone’s friends, but the line between these two distinctions is vanishingly thin.
None of the people who hated DEI/affirmative action could ever tell me what it actually is. None of the people who say “let the market decide” understand or recognize that there are serious financial benefits to diversity based practices.
Yep. It’s the same reason why corporations generally support women in the workplace, too. It’s an amoral calculation about more consumption.
But I’m pretty sure I saw that corps also came down on racial equality in the Civil Rights era because it was better for business, they figured. Again, not necessarily a moral choice.