McDonald’s Tosses Woke Programs After Pressure from Conservative Activist
On January 6, 2025, McDonald’s announced the discontinuation of several diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in response to pressure from conservative activist Robby Starbuck. This marks a meaningful shift in the company’s hiring practices, as it will no longer implement racial quotas in its recruitment process, which Starbuck claims discriminated against white applicants. Additionally, McDonald’s will cease its participation in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and stop enforcing diversity quotas among suppliers.
Starbuck has been actively promoting a campaign to encourage major corporations to abandon what he deems “woke” policies, claiming success in influencing change at various companies including Walmart, Ford, and others. He argues that there is a growing demand for a return to neutrality and sanity in corporate practices, distancing from what he and his supporters see as leftist ideologies. The recent changes at McDonald’s have been hailed as a win in this movement, reflecting a broader trend among large companies to pivot back to priorities that focus on their core business without engaging in controversial political issues.
McDonald’s ended a number of diversity, equity, and inclusion practices on Monday after conservative activist Robby Starbuck informed leadership that he was planning to report on the programs.
The changes at McDonald’s continue a pattern of Starbuck compelling massive corporations to ditch their woke policies with the help of a little public exposure, accelerating the end of the leftist diversity movement in corporate America.
McDonald’s will end diversity goals for “how many of each race they hire,” meaning that the fast food behemoth will no longer be practicing “quotas that discriminate against white job applicants,” Starbuck posted on X.
BIG news: @McDonalds is ending a number of woke DEI policies today. Now let me tell you what’s changing and how it happened.
3 days ago I told McDonald’s that I’d be doing a story on woke policies there. Today they’ve announced the following changes:
• Hiring: They will END… pic.twitter.com/bvFglf6pxw
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 6, 2025
The firm will also stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, which “forces the trans agenda into the workplace in exchange for a perfect score,” and will end diversity pledges for supply chains, meaning that no more diversity quotas will exist for “how they choose or prioritize suppliers.”
Starbuck noted that this was his team’s “first corporate flip” of the new year and asserted that his campaigns are provoking responses from leading corporations.
“Our campaigns are so effective that we’re getting the biggest companies on earth to change their policies without me even posting a story exposing their woke policies first,” Starbuck revealed on X.
“Companies can see that America wants sanity back. The era of wokeness is dying right in front of our eyes,” he continued. “The landscape of corporate America is quickly shifting to sanity and neutrality. We are the trend, not the anomaly anymore.”
Some of the first wins from Starbuck included brands with heavy conservative consumer bases, such as John Deere and Tractor Supply.
One can understand why firms like those would want to avoid angering their buyers through insane woke policies that not only distract from their core mission, but actively insult the values of those they represent.
Yet the campaign has picked up even more steam.
One of the most recent wins from Starbuck was Walmart, the biggest retailer in the world and the largest private sector employer in the United States, ditching their woke policies.
To name just a few other examples, Starbuck has successfully taken down wokeness at Ford, Coors, Boeing, Nissan, and Lowe’s.
Now, he has added one of the largest fast food chains and most iconic American brands to the list.
One has to conclude that Starbuck is on the right track to bring about an ending to wokeness in corporate America.
The pendulum appears to be swinging away from the insane leftism of four or five years ago, with companies pivoting toward viewpoint neutrality and focusing on the bottom line without wading into political controversy.
Whether corporate wokeness is on its last legs or not, at least we can now order a Big Mac and simply tell McDonald’s to hold the woke.
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