*Rev. Al Sharpton led a rally in Washington, D.C., on Monday (Jan. 20) to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. while also protesting Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Speaking at the Metropolitan AME Church, Sharpton announced a boycott of companies that are scaling back their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, Revolt reports.
“Why do we have DEI? We have DEI because you denied us diversity, you denied us equity, you denied us inclusion,” he stated.
“DEI was a remedy to the racial institutionalized bigotry practiced in academia and in these corporations. Now, if you want to put us back in the back of the bus, we’re gonna do the Dr. King-Rosa Parks on you. … You must have [forgotten] who we are. We are the ones that took everything you got, and we’re still here.”
The National Action Network, led by Sharpton, will conduct a 90-day review to identify organizations that have withdrawn from DEI commitments and analyze their profit margins.
Many major U.S. companies are scaling back their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives under pressure from political and shareholder activists, with this trend expected to grow during Trump’s second term.
According to AXIOS, mentions of DEI in corporate earnings calls have declined by 82% since mid-2021, reflecting a shift in focus. Companies including Brown-Forman, Lowe’s, Meta, and McDonald’s have cited the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision overturning affirmative action as a driving factor for these policy changes.
“Of course, the Supreme Court decision was one of the sparks that made movement in terms of having companies reconsider DEI,” said Ann O’Leary, partner and co-chair of government controversies and public policy litigation practice at Jenner & Block.
“If you take it from a purely legal perspective, I think that the legal risk mitigation is low in terms of continuing to be able to do DEI practices,” she added.
“What we’re seeing is companies looking at the holistic picture— like social media campaigns that have been run against companies and the political environment in which you have not only Trump, but his closest advisors, such as Elon Musk, going after particular companies around DEI. But we’re also seeing companies really taking a close look at why they’re doing what they’re doing.”
Per AXIOS, companies that have abandoned or rolled back their DEI programs include: Amazon, Boeing, Jack Daniels maker Brown-Forman, Caterpillar, Ford, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Lowe’s, beverage wholesaler Molson Coors and McDonald’s, Meta, Nissan, Stanley Black & Decker, Tractor Supply, Toyota and Walmart, which said it will phase out the term “diversity, equity and inclusion” and the term “Latinx.”
Companies that have publicly defended their DEI policies include: American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Apple, Costco, and Delta.
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