American Companies Are Scrapping DEI Programs

Written by Robert Knight

Two more American companies have seen the light after feeling the heat.

Like Bud Light beer, which learned the hard way that pushing the transgender agenda was bad for business, Tractor Supply Co. and John Deere recently retracted their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The companies cater primarily to farmers, rural homeowners and suburbanites.

LGBTQ groups are expressing outrage. Human Rights Campaign Vice President Eric Bloem accuses John Deere of bending to “a coordinated attack by far-right extremists on American business.”

National Black Farmers Association President John Boyd Jr. is demanding the resignation of John Deere CEO John May and warns of a boycott.

To this, I say, go ahead and make their day. It will probably work as well as the failed LGBTQ boycott years ago against Chick-fil-A for its president’s “hateful” comments about honoring God’s idea of marriage.

Tractor Supply, in particular, made sure the public knows it has had an epiphany.

Here’s an excerpt from the company’s June 27 statement:

“We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart. Going forward, we will ensure our activities and giving ties directly to our business. For instance, this means we will: No longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign; Refocus our Team Member Engagement Groups on mentoring, networking and supporting the business; Further focus on rural America priorities, including [agricultural] education, animal welfare, veteran causes and being a good neighbor and stop sponsoring nonbusiness activities like pride festivals and voting campaigns; Eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment; Withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts.”

Wow. Talk about a 180-degree turnaround. A lot of credit goes to Tennessee activist Robby Starbuck, who called out the company on his podcast, which reportedly reaches an estimated 475,000 people.

This past week, John Deere issued a similar statement, promising that it would no longer participate in “social or cultural awareness parades, festivals or events.”

Perhaps someone pointed out to them what actually takes place in June Pride parades despite children being in attendance.

John Deere will also review its mandated training materials to make sure they do not contain “socially motivated messages.”

The Deere people did keep a pledge to “advance the diversity of our organization,” perhaps naively thinking this will satisfy the Black Lives Matter and alphabet mafia.

The two outdoor product retailers are not alone in their actions. DEI is in retreat all around the corporate world. Nervous executives realize they can no longer afford to conduct exotic ideological experiments on their employees and customers without risking consumer pushback.

It’s not just older White Americans in rural areas who are fed up. It turns out that straight, White, Black, Hispanic and Asian customers of varying ages are not thrilled with diversity quotas, donations to radical groups or forcing employees to parrot progressive thinking.

Robby Starbuck is a 35-year-old American of Cuban background. He told an interviewer that “it’s not lost on me [that] my kids would benefit from this stuff.” He is, however, against hiring decisions that factor in race and sex as well as other DEI initiatives.

One of the most glaring examples of the pitfalls of DEI may have been exposed during the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is facing a U.S.House Oversight Committee hearing on Monday over the lax security at the Trump rally.

Poor security allowed a 20-year-old man to fire six shots from a nearby roof. He killed rally attendee Cory Comperatore, a husband and father who saved the lives of his wife and two daughters. The gunman wounded two more men in addition to coming within half an inch of killing Mr. Trump.

The Secret Service has been pushing DEI for several years. On its website, the agency boasts: “When Special Agent Training Class 387 graduated in April of 2021, it marked the first instance in which women trainees outnumbered the men.”

This doesn’t mean women shouldn’t be Secret Service agents, just that combat readiness should trump all other considerations when a VIP’s life is on the line. Who would you rather have as a bodyguard, Hulk Hogan or Taylor Swift? OK, that’s not fair to the highly trained women of the Secret Service.

In 2022, President Biden appointed Ms. Cheatle to the Secret Service. That year, the agency reportedly had a 48% employee departure rate. She has aggressively pushed DEI specifically for more female agents with lower physical fitness and strength standards than men.

Ms. Cheatle leapfrogged many more qualified agents to take the top job. Although she was in the Secret Service for 25 years, her main claim to fame may well be that she was the agent assigned to accompany first lady Jill Biden.

In a DEI world, that may be all you need to take over one of the U.S. government’s most consequential agencies.

This article was originally published by The Washington Times.

Robert Knight is a former Los Angeles Times news editor and writer and was a Media Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This column was originally published by The Washington Times.

He has been published by the Wall Street Journal, National Review, the Christian Post, AmericanThinker.com, DailyCaller.com, Townhall.com, OneNewsNow.com and many others.  He has co-authored three books and written 10, including “Liberty on the Brink: How the Left Plans to Steal Your Vote” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2020) and “The Coming Communist Wave: What Happens If the Left Captures All Three Branches of Government” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, 2020) . 

You can follow him on Twitter at @RobertKnight17, and his website is roberthknight.com.