Was 2024 the year DEI fell apart?

Diversity, equity and inclusion “DEI” policies faced increased scrutiny in 2024, leading at least a dozen major U.S. companies and hundreds of universities to roll back these commitments once viewed as innocuous.

“I think it was inevitable,” conservative activist Robby Starbuck told Fox News Digital about the push back to DEI this year following its surge in popularity four years ago.

“In 2020, a lot of executives bought into this whole idea and concept of DEI because they just didn’t want to be seen as racist,” he said. “A lot of them had no concept or understanding of what it was going to turn into.”

DEI, which often involves prioritizing race, gender or sexuality in hiring, training and programming, has been criticized by conservatives as divisive and discriminatory. Proponents of DEI say these efforts address racial divides and provide support for groups who have been historically marginalized.

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Major companies that ditched DEI in 2024

The private sector’s move away from DEI this year comes after companies faced mounting pressure from Starbuck and other conservatives to re-examine these policies.

American Airlines became the latest U.S. company to agree to leave behind its diversity hiring practices this month, after facing a legal complaint from conservative watchdog organization America First Legal.

“The airline acknowledged that recruiting and hiring based on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) violates federal laws and equal employment opportunities,” AFL said in a statement.

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and private employer, confirmed in November it would also be taking steps away from DEI. These changes included removing sexual and transgender products from third-party merchants inappropriately marketed toward children from its online marketplace and ending its participation in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index.

In a statement to FOX Business, Walmart said it was “willing to change alongside our associates and customers who represent all of America.”

“We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said.

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At least ten other American companies — Ford, Lowe’s, Boeing, Caterpillar, Harley-Davidson, Polaris, John Deere, Tractor Supply Company, Jack Daniel’s and Molson Coors — also reportedly rolled back DEI initiatives earlier in the year.

Other companies with a large corporate presence in the US, such as Nissan and Toyota, also agreed to dissolve a number of their DEI practices toward the end of 2024.

Starbuck, who led campaigns against “woke” policies at Walmart and several other businesses, believes people privately began to sour on DEI around two years ago. But in 2024, it became more socially acceptable for people to say out loud that these policies were “toxic,” he said.

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“This was the year when people were granted permission socially, in a lot of ways, to just talk about it and admit it. With each company that goes down, more and more people feel comfortable admitting that they have a problem with it,” Starbuck told Fox News Digital.

Universities walk away from DEI amid mounting pressure

DEI has also been heading out the door at universities across the US.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which has been tracking higher education’s “dismantling of DEI,” 215 college campuses across 32 states have made changes to their DEI policies.

Public universities in several states shuttered their DEI offices after lawmakers passed or introduced legislation banning state funding of DEI. 

After Florida’s Board of Governors permanently banned taxpayer dollars being used to fund DEI programs in state schools in January, the University of Florida fired all employees in DEI positions to comply with the new regulations.

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The University of Texas at Austin also closed its DEI offices to comply with a new state law banning DEI offices at public universities. The anti-DEI law, signed by Gov. Abbott in 2023, also restricts universities from using diversity statements in hiring practices and training.

Alabama, Iowa and Utah joined Texas and Florida in banning DEI offices at public universities this year, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Kansas and Idaho also passed laws which forbid public institutions from requiring diversity statements in hiring or admissions decisions.

Boise State University became one of the latest schools to shutter its equity centers on November 29, followed by the University of Michigan dismantling DEI statements as part of its faculty hiring, promotion and tenure requirements in December.

DEI still has a strong hold on most of America’s top companies

While several top businesses backed away from DEI in 2024, the majority of the nation’s largest companies still maintain some form of commitment to these practices, according to a recent report from conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.

Heritage looked at company statements, annual reports and other publicly available documents from every Fortune 500 company and found 485 of the top 500 companies continue to maintain DEI priorities.

British automaker Jaguar was one company that notably doubled down after facing criticism it was taking their brand in a “woke” new direction with its recent rebranding.

Starbuck knows his fight against “woke” ideology in America’s top companies isn’t over.

Some businesses will “do the right thing” by dissolving DEI, he predicted, while others will try to sneak it back in under other names.

“We have work left to do to institutionally get rid of the wiring and the foundations here, because a lot of this stuff is deeply embedded in our society in ways that most people don’t even understand,” he said. 

“DEI is a wounded animal, so expect desperate maneuvers out of the people who have been pushing it,” he continued. “But that means we’re at the beginning of its death.”

Fox News’ Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.