Many companies in the United States have eliminated their corporate diversity and inclusion (DEI) programmes. A choice that does not appear to be coincidental.
In 2019, Mark Zuckerberg changed his Facebook page profile picture, posting a rainbow-filtered photo. The intention was to celebrate the US Supreme Court's ruling against bans on same-sex marriage, making it legal across all 50 states. To update one's avatar in support of the lgbtqia+ cause, all it took was visiting a dedicated page, which Zuckerberg himself promoted.
A little over five years on from that moment, a great deal has changed, especially in recent weeks, during which Zuckerberg has spoken very openly in favour of causes dear to Republicans — such as online content moderation — moving closer to US conservatives. Above all, just days before the inauguration of Donald Trump's second non-consecutive term, Meta brought its DEI programmes to an end — an acronym standing for diversity, equity and inclusion. These are a set of corporate practices designed to support people of all backgrounds and guarantee equal opportunities regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
Meta is, in fact, part of a wave of US companies that have done the same in recent weeks, most likely with the intention of signalling to Trump their willingness to take part in the country's new political course, in which "woke" culture is no longer welcome. Elon Musk himself — head of Tesla and other companies, but above all the de facto right-hand man of the president-elect — has long been critical of DEI programmes on his X account. Among the companies to have abandoned them are American giants such as Ford, McDonald's and Walmart, while Amazon has announced a reduction in its investment in this area, alongside Toyota and Lululemon. These are very different companies that had previously expressed support for political causes such as the lgbtqia+ movement and the "Black Lives Matter" movement.
According to data gathered by Axios, the wind had already shifted in the months leading up to the last US elections, and the acronym "DEI" had disappeared from companies' financial results presentations. The realignment had been under way for months, given that the outcome of the contest between Trump and Kamala Harris was seen by everyone as a toss-up, and corporations preferred not to take the risk: rather than making public gestures — like Zuckerberg's — they chose to lower their voice on sensitive issues, before rowing in the opposite direction once Trump had won.
After all, one of Trump's final decisions as president during his first term was precisely a ban on diversity and anti-discrimination training at government level, later overturned by Joe Biden once he reached the White House. Among the most loyal members of the Trump II cabinet will be Stephen Miller, founder of America First Legal, an organisation that within the space of a few months launched more than a hundred legal actions against companies accused of "wokism" — and of discriminating against a specific segment of the population: straight white males. As reported by the New York Times, America First Legal's aim often seems less about winning cases than about making noise and intimidating companies.
The backlash against DEI practices has also reached many Republican-led states (Idaho, Kansas, Indiana, Utah, Alabama, Iowa and Texas), which have effectively banned public colleges from following these practices and will, within days, have the direct protection of the federal government as they continue this fight.
In recent years, critics of DEI programmes — and more broadly the circles close to the Trumpian right — have used the term virtue signalling to criticise individuals or entities that exploit progressive issues to position themselves, look good or even profit from them in some way. Virtue signalling literally means the "signalling of virtues", which is understood as forced and hypocritical. Many observers have noted how the public about-turns by Meta and other companies that have renounced their DEI campaigns resemble a form of virtue signalling, only in reverse.
In this case, the aim is to get noticed by the president-elect and his inner circle, in the hope of gaining favours — or avoiding his wrath. Kamala Harris herself was accused by the right of being a "DEI hire" — one of those people hired solely because of her race and gender — a way of belittling the candidate's political weight, and that of DEI programmes themselves.
The shift towards positions more aligned with the Maga movement will not be easy for companies with thousands of employees and a progressive past, such as those in Silicon Valley. According to the website 404 Media, for instance, Zuckerberg's announcement created "total chaos internally at the company". And Apple's board is also grappling with pressures at this time: this week it rejected the request to eliminate DEI programmes put forward by the nationalist think tank 'National Center for Public Policy Research'. In particular, Apple's board responded to the external demands by describing them as an "inappropriate" attempt to "micromanage" the company and its internal policies, and stressed that the company's success is also grounded in its inclusion practices.
