In 2020, Americans posted black squares on social media to protest racism and police brutality following the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Companies made big statements and promised to do better with their commitments to fully embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). They hired more people of color, invested in organizations led by underrepresented groups, and held more trainings over the summer that became known as the “racial reckoning.” The goal was to improve operations while investing in people.
Diversity initiatives were not new, but the increase in rhetoric and action was astonishing and impressive.
However, some observers wondered whether this was not too good to be true.
For the July 3, 2020 episode of the video podcast series I host “Tennessee Voices,” I interviewed Jacky Akbari, a community, business, and diversity leader in the Nashville area, and wrote: “Jacky Akbari paid close attention to what they said and how they said it. Was this a socially conscious fad or was this a sign of fundamental and transformative change?”
The recent news that Brentwood-based Tractor Supply has pulled its initiatives after an aggressive anti-DEI campaign on social media shows that, in this case at least, a fad was more important than real change.
Critics of “cancel culture” are now using this tactic to attack the “woke” movement.
In 2021, Tractor Supply CEO Hal Lawton praised his company as a leader in DEI and ESG (environmental, social and governance) policies, and urged other companies to follow his lead.
He spoke about the profits and culture of “Stronger Together,” ending his guest column in The Tennessean by saying, “Tractor Supply can and will do more. We commend others who have done the same, and we encourage others to do the same.”
CEO of Tractor Supply: Why Companies Should Follow Tractor Supply’s Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion and Climate Change Prevention
A lot has happened in those three years:
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Tennessee and other states have passed laws restricting the curriculum based on fears that critical race theory — an academic theory from the law school — would indoctrinate students in K-12 schools and colleges, preventing students from learning uncomfortable truths from the past that the state considers a “divisive concept.”
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Book bans and censorship became normalized in state legislatures as accusations of “wokeness” filtered through academia. The net effect was to erase stories about or written by people who are Black or identify as LGBTQ+, even those about Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old girl who desegregated her school.
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The Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions emboldened state officials to apply the justices’ ruling to all aspects of life. Later that year, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti sent a letter to CEOs of Fortune 100 companies warning them about diversity policies and “race-based preferences in employment and contracting” in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
According to Google’s dictionary, ‘wokeness’ is: ‘The quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice and discrimination.’
However, it has become synonymous with those who devote excessive attention to these issues at the expense of the free thought or free speech of others. Ironically, the means used by critics has been to silence “wokeness” in the court of public opinion and/or legislation.
The backlash isn’t just coming from social media influencers and conservative activists using the “cancel culture” methods they once accused liberals of using to “expose,” harass, or boycott corporations. It’s also state-sponsored policies and laws that seek a major correction to the promises of 2020.
The effect is to roll back progress in opening up opportunities for marginalized groups who were previously unable to get certain jobs, attend certain schools, or accumulate wealth comparable to that of their white neighbors. This is an incredibly inconvenient truth when you examine why this happened and who perpetuated and profited from these policies.
Has DEI failed? DEI is falling apart in our universities. Down with a failed and divided bureaucracy.
Beneficiaries of the Civil Rights Act wanted the same rights, not more
Swinging the pendulum is not new. Tennessee’s 1796 constitution allowed free black men to vote, but the 1834 version abolished that right.
After the Civil War, Reconstruction promised a more egalitarian society, but then came legalized segregation, public lynchings, and poll taxes that disproportionately affected black citizens.
Sixty years ago, on July 2, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. This law was about leveling the playing field and righting the wrongs of the past.
The dangers of slavery, limited voting rights for women and people of color, and Jim Crow segregation laws have all impacted people’s ability to pursue life, liberty and happiness for generations, according to the 1776 Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.
Newly protected citizens did not ask for special rights; they asked for equal rights. Now they are apparently being put in their place by pushing boundaries and asking questions.
Critics of DEI argue that their success is unfair to other citizens, undeserved, or unearned.
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Many companies continue to invest in their DEI initiatives, even though they may want to deemphasize them or give them a new image. As a result, these corporate policies and programs become irrelevant, or at least less important.
While Tractor Supply’s decision to move away from DEI and ESG is disappointing, it is not surprising given the current political climate in America.
As other companies consider how to move forward, rather than abandoning their commitment to DEI and ESG, they should be having robust discussions internally and externally about what has worked since 2020, what hasn’t, and how they can move forward without making it seem like all this work never mattered.
David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He is a staff writer at The Tennessean, where this column first appeared. Email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet him: @davidplazas
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tractor Supply backs down, breaks DEI pledge to appease GOP pressure
