‘A huge regression’: Walmart’s DEI rollback incites new racial equity push

Largest private employer in US pledged to tackle inequities after George Floyd murder but has now dropped initiatives

A year after the murder of George Floyd, Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart had a warning for corporate America. The death of Floyd triggered a wave of protest over systemic racism and was not an isolated event. We have a long history of racism, and we see unacceptable events continue."

Walmart and other large US corporations made pledges to address inequities within their business, ones many feared would be dropped once the focus on Floyd's killing and its aftermath faded. We can't let that be the case," he wrote, outlining how the company was releasing its diversity metrics twice a year" and calling on companies to continue to address systemic racism and the structural inequities that are rooted in this nation's history of slavery and that persist today".