McDonald’s announced Monday that it will be scaling back some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion measures in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to ban race-based college admissions policies and amid a growing conservative push to restrict the progressive corporate initiatives.
The Golden Arches made its decision to end certain DEI programs after a year-long civil rights audit prompted by the Supreme Court ruling, executives said in an internal note that the company made public.
The initiatives McDonald’s is walking back include its DEI pledge for suppliers and demographic-based representational goals. McDonald’s is also changing how it refers to its diversity team and is pausing its external surveys to focus on internal improvements.
“We are also excited to introduce a new concept: the power of OUR ‘Golden Rule’ – treating everyone with dignity, fairness and respect, always. For the last several months, a small team has been working on refining our language to better capture McDonald’s commitment to inclusion,” the statement reads.
“As part of this, there are four guiding principles we will apply to evaluate our work: (1) Our system thrives when we are shaped by the communities in which we operate, (2) Our early and full adoption of inclusion gives us a competitive advantage, (3) Individuals perform their best when they feel they belong, and (4) Our priority is to be a responsible business, acting lawfully and being responsive to the business environment.”
In the announcement, McDonald’s celebrates its leadership diversity, with 30 percent coming from underrepresented demographic groups. It also touted employee survey data showing that an overwhelming percentage of staff feel welcome at the company. McDonald’s similarly noted that it met its 25 percent supplier diversity goal and achieved the most diverse applicant pool of franchisees in its history.
During the political campaign, McDonald’s received national attention when Vice President Kamala Harris claimed to have worked there in college and when former and future President Donald Trump worked a shift at a location in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Trump’s campaign stunt went viral and proved to be one of the most effective moves of the campaign ahead of his resounding victory against Harris this past November.
The incoming Trump administration is expected to immediately target DEI in the federal government, higher education, large corporations, and other influential American institutions. Several prominent American brands with substantial red-state customer bases such as John Deere, Tractor Supply, Ford, and Walmart have turned away from DEI in recent months due to conservative legal and political pressure.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that race-based college admissions standards were in violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, a decision that upended longstanding affirmative action programs nationwide.
Conservatives have since wagered a legal and political battle against progressive DEI measures, arguing that they promote racial and gender discrimination in violation of civil rights law. Critics of DEI believe that diversity ideology divides people and undermines the American experiment by hyper-fixating on demographic characteristics instead of focusing on character and merit.