What Walmart’s DEI Rollback Could Mean For The Tech Industry

Walmart has recently decided to discontinue multiple diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in its workplaces.

With 1.6 million employees, Walmart is one of the world’s largest retailers, meaning its decision on DEI has significant consequences for all retailers and corporations. 

Walmart rolls back DEI

This plan to phase out DEI efforts was initially made public by anti-DEI conservative activist Robby Starbuck.

Posting on X, Starbuck said, “Walmart is ending their woke policies. Last week, I told execs at [Walmart] that I was doing a story on wokeness there. Instead, we had productive conversations to find solutions.”

Walmart later confirmed the changes with Bloomberg and the Associated Press, which include:

• Closing the company’s racial equity center
• Phasing out the use of the words like ‘DEI’ and ‘Latinx’
• Evaluating supplier diversity programs to ensure that companies do not get special treatment based on race
• Ending racial equity training programs

Will other companies follow suit?

As Walmart is one of the leading retailers, other companies will be influenced to follow their lead. Dana Daher, an analyst and practice leader at HFS Research, told WorkLife that we’re starting to see a fundamental rethinking of how organizations approach DEI. 

“The primary concern isn’t just the public abandonment of corporate commitments but, rather, the long-term impact on business operations as disparities — particularly at the leadership level — will remain and continue to widen without formal policies in place.”

While some companies will want to follow in Walmart’s footsteps, others like Amazon, Chase, JP Morgan, and Target are holding their position.

“It’s good for business, it’s morally right, we’re quite good at it, we’re successful,” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said last September when speaking about DEI initiatives. 

Consequences for people of color in tech

Eric Mochnacz, director of operations at HR consultancy Red Clover, says, “I think overt racism, homophobia, and bigotry are going to make a big comeback in companies that are abandoning DEI.”

He questions whether underrepresented people will feel supported in those companies. “Are legitimate investigations into harassment going to be thrown out along with DEI commitments?”

Harvard professor Frank Dobbin, who has studied corporate diversity initiatives for the past ten years, told Axios, “In a company that’s had a history of mostly being led by white people, certainly at the top, that’s not sending a message that we want you to succeed whatever your race or gender.”

Dobbin added that this could impact the company as current and potential workers of color “could feel the chill.”

Impact on corporate practices in the tech sector

Daher believes that “The dissolvement of formal DEI programs paradoxically creates an opportunity for organizations to integrate more authentic inclusive practices into their core business operations.”

However, Rebecca Perrault, global VP of culture, diversity, and sustainability at workforce management platform Magnit, suggests that these changes send a message that inclusion is optional.

“Moving DEI out of its dedicated space may feel like adaptation, but it also signals hesitation in the face of backlash — a short-term response to long-term challenges.”

Image credit: Walmart