John Deere ends support of ‘social or cultural awareness’ events, distances from inclusion efforts
NEW YORK — Farm equipment maker John Deere has announced it will no longer sponsor events focused on “social or cultural awareness,” becoming the latest major U.S. company to back away from diversity and inclusion efforts after being the target of conservative backlash.
In a statement released Tuesday social media platform XJohn Deere also said it would review all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially motivated messages” in accordance with federal and local laws. It did not specify what those messages would contain.
John Deere, based in Moline, Illinois, added that “the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification has never been, and is not, company policy.” But the company noted that it would still “monitor and promote” the company’s diversity, without providing further details.
The move by the company known on Wall Street as Deere & Co. arrives just weeks after national retailer Tractor Supply ended a series of its corporate diversity and climate efforts. Both announcements came after widespread online backlash from conservative activists opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, sponsorship of LGBTQ+ Pride events and climate activism.
Conservative political commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck appeared to lead the criticism of both companies on X.
Starbuck posted that John Deere’s announcement marked “another major victory in our war on wokeness,” but said it was still not enough, calling on the company to eliminate its DEI policies entirely and no longer participate in the Corporate Equality Index score from the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group in the U.S.
Starbuck, a 35-year-old Cuban-American, told The Associated Press that “it’s not lost on me that my children would benefit from this,” but he opposes hiring decisions that factor in race, as well as DEI initiatives, employee groups that promote nonprofessional activities and any policies that he says allow social issues and politics to become part of a company’s culture.
“People should be able to go to work without feeling like they have to behave a certain way to be acceptable to their employer,” he said.
Starbucks and other conservative activists celebrated Brentwood, Tennessee-based Tractor Supply for taking a more aggressive approach than John Deere last month by promising eliminate all DEI roles while the current DEI goals are withdrawn and data is no longer provided to the Human Rights Campaign.
But the move also sparked a revival outrage from critics of the new positionwho claim that Tractor Supply is pandering to hatred.
John Deere’s move drew similar opposition. Eric Bloem, vice president of programs and corporate advocacy at the Human Rights Campaign, called the announcement “disappointing” and “a direct result of a coordinated attack by far-right extremists on American businesses.”
John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association, called for Deere’s resignation & Co-CEO John C. May and a boycott of the company on Wednesday.
The organization said Deere “continues to move in the wrong direction” on DEI and “has failed to demonstrate its support” for Black farmers since NBFA’s founding. It also noted that Tuesday’s announcement comes a month after the company agreed to pay $1.1 million in back wages and interest to 277 black and Hispanic job applicants after the Department of Labor alleged discrimination in hiring practices.
The conservative backlash against DEI has been extended to companies in all sectorsincluding previous boycott campaigns against Bud light And Goal about their LGBTQ+ marketing. Starbuck said he has a list of companies he’s considering posting content about, starting with those with traditionally conservative customer bases. He declined to name his next target.
The subsequent changes in policy and corporate commitments aren’t just coming from corporate boardrooms. Leading HR organization the Society for Human Resource Management announced last week that the 340,000-member lobby and advocacy group would drop the term “equality” from its diversity and inclusion approach, though it said it remains committed to pushing for it.
“Effective immediately, SHRM will discontinue the acronym ‘I&D’ instead of ‘IE&D,” the group said in a statement on LinkedIn. “By emphasizing Inclusion-first, we aim to address the current shortcomings of DE&I programs that have led to social backlash and increasing polarization.”
The move, in turn, sparked a backlash among LinkedIn users, with some calling it “backward” and “disgraceful.” Others responded that they planned to cancel their SHRM memberships.
Still others stress that prioritising equality is crucial to creating equal opportunities. They argue that such an omission signals a shift in the message that could have negative consequences for efforts to achieve equality in the workplace.
In an interview with The AP on Wednesday, Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM’s president and CEO, said the organization’s focus groups had found general consensus about prioritizing diversity and inclusion, but that “the E stirred up all kinds of emotions and reactions.”
“You either loved it or you hated it,” he said. “If it’s so polarizing that people just drop it, then we’ve all lost.”
Legal attacks against corporate efforts in diversity, equality and inclusion have also attracted more attention after the Supreme Court ruling Verdict 2023 to end affirmative action in college admissions. Many conservative and anti-DEI activists have tried to set a similar precedent in the working world.
“The backlash and the potential vulnerabilities are real,” said Jen Stark, co-director of the Center for Business and Social Justice at BSR, an advisory firm for more than 300 companies.
A large majority of companies “don’t fall for it” and keep the policy in place “because it makes good business sense and it’s the right thing to do,” she said. Still, she added, external pressure is mounting.
The US is also in the midst of a fraught presidential election year, with talk of Project 2025 — a term for the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 1,000-page handbook for the next Republican administration that has become a weapon Democrats are using against former President Donald Trump.
Stark noted that companies across all sectors are bracing for potential changes to their federal contracts, which have historically been a powerful way to advance workplace equity.
That doesn’t mean companies will abandon their DEI efforts entirely, she added, but they may need to adjust their language or find new solutions.
“All those critical moments that companies are stumbling between is the new normal,” she said.
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Lisa Leff, AP Business Writer in London, contributed to this report.
___ Savage is a reporter on the Women in the Workplace team. The Associated Press’s coverage of women in the workplace and state government receives funding from Pivotal Ventures. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for collaboration with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas on AP.org.