Amazon trims back DEI initiatives, latest company to make cuts
In this photo illustration, a 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 /
Amazon is scaling back on some of its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, becoming the latest major corporation to make cuts to such initiatives that critics have deemed "woke."
In a message to employees last month, Amazon human resources executive Candi Castleberry announced updates to the company's representation and inclusion efforts, and said the e-commerce giant would be making some changes after spending the past few years "evaluat[ing] their effectiveness."
"We worked to unify employee groups together under one umbrella, and build programs that are open to all," the memo, obtained by FOX Business reads. "Rather than have individual groups build programs, we are focusing on programs with proven outcomes – 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 from earlier in the day from The Information, showing that Amazon had also recently scrubbed sections entitled Equity for Black people and LGBTQ+ rights from its "Our Positions" page on its website.
In response, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement, "We update this page from time to time to ensure that it reflects updates we’ve made to various programs and positions."
Amazon is the latest in a host of companies to roll back DEI initiatives in the past year, following fellow retail behemoth Walmart, as 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 on Friday.
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Robby Starbuck, the anti-woke activist and filmmaker who has led the successful campaign to pressure companies to end DEI initiatives, says he notified Amazon executives in December that he would be reporting on their "woke policies" unless they committed to making changes.
In a post on X following the news of Amazon's changes, Starbuck threatened to expose the company's purported "wokeness" by the end of this month unless the company clarifies the changes that have been made.
"We won't stop until corporate America is sane again and adopts corporate neutrality on divisive issues," Starbuck told FOX Business. "It's yet to be seen how far Amazon is going to go to adopt merit, but it's our hope that they go far enough for us to refocus our reporting efforts elsewhere."