Panelists Jennifer Sey and Daniel Cameron discuss how large companies are bringing DEI and environmental, social and governance programs back to ‘The Bottom Line’.
Amazon is reducing some of its products diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) program, becoming the latest major corporation to scale back such initiatives that critics have deemed “woke.”
In a message to employees last month, Amazon Chief Human Resources Officer Candi Castleberry announced updates to the company’s representation and inclusion efforts, saying the e-commerce giant would make some changes after spending the last few years “evaluating[ing] their effectiveness.”
In this photo illustration, the shopping cart is seen in front of the Amazon logo. The company focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, streaming and artificial intelligence. (Photo Illustration by Jaque Silva/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images/Getty Images)
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 218.94 | -3.19 |
-1.44% |
“We’ve worked to unify groups of employees under one umbrella and build programs that are open to all,” the memo, obtained by FOX Business, reads. “Instead of individual groups creating programs, we focus on programs with proven results – and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture.”
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The release of the memo, first reported by Bloomberg on Friday, followed a report earlier in the day from The Information that Amazon had also recently deleted sections titled Equity for Black people and LGBTQ+ rights from its “Our Positions” page on its page. website.
In response, Amazon spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said in a statement, “We update this page from time to time to make sure it reflects the updates we’ve made to various programs and positions.”
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Amazon is the latest in a string of companies to pull back on DEI initiatives in the past year, following peers retail giant Walmartas well as Ford, Caterpillar, John Deere and Toyota. However, Amazon has been more subtle in its moves, unlike others like Meta, which announced sweeping changes to its DEI policies earlier Friday.
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Robby Starbuck, an anti-revival activist and director who led a successful campaign to pressure companies to end DEI initiatives, says he informed Amazon executives in December that he would report their “revival policies” unless they committed to change.
In a post on X following news of Amazon’s changes, Starbuck threatened to expose the company’s alleged vigilantism by the end of this month if the company didn’t clarify the changes that had been made.
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“We will not stop until corporate America is healthy again and adopts corporate neutrality on divisive issues,” Starbuck said. FOX Business. “It remains to be seen how far Amazon will go to take credit, but hopefully it will go far enough that we can redirect our reporting efforts elsewhere.”
