McDonald's Rebrands Diversity Team Amid DEI Rollback Following Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling

Jan 7, 2025, 01:00 AM

McDonald's, the world's fourth-largest employer, is revising its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, scaling back some of its initiatives four years after launching them. The company is retiring its diversity hiring goals for senior leadership and rebranding its diversity team as a 'global inclusion team.' McDonald's will no longer require its suppliers to sign DEI commitments and will stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign's 'Corporate Equality Index.' The company introduced a 'golden rule' emphasizing treating everyone with dignity, fairness, and respect. McDonald's cited the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2023 decision outlawing affirmative action in college admissions and a shifting legal landscape as reasons for the changes, anticipating how the ruling may impact corporations. The initial diversity initiatives were implemented after sexual harassment lawsuits and a discrimination lawsuit brought by Black former franchise owners. This move aligns McDonald's with other major corporations like Walmart, Ford, John Deere, and Harley-Davidson, which have also rolled back DEI programs amid conservative backlash against corporate 'wokeness.'