The Dark Reality of Corporate DEI Rollbacks

Target is one of the latest corporations to announce rollbacks to DEI initiatives to appease right-wing activists.

DEI rollbacks by America’s largest corporations demand far more serious reactions than boycotts or calls to support minority-owned brands. These moves force difficult questions and a life-altering reality check: Do the boards and executives announcing these changes know the harmful intentions of those demanding them?

It remains unclear what DEI rollbacks will look like inside each American corporation. What’s indisputable is the activists’ intention to use these “wins” to restore the American tradition to how it was before Brown v. Board (1954), The Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Title IX (1972).

It’s time to throw the challenge flag.

Are corporate DEI rollbacks signaling executive alignment with the far bigger plot to send America back not just to the aftermath of George Floyd’s death but to the pre-civil rights era of the 1960s? Is the entire executive suite on board with this?

People of all backgrounds are waking up to threatening daily Executive Orders, including ending 11246 of 1964, which required “affirmative action and prohibited federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.”

Alarmingly, no one seems concerned about the broader implications because more corporations are saying, "Us too,” with their DEI rollbacks. Despite Elon Musk's apparent Nazi salute as President Trump began his second term and the reversal of Executive Order 11246 that same week, Target still decided to announce its DEI rollback that Friday.  

Anyone who has been paying attention can see that DEI rollbacks fan the flames of white Christian nationalist conspiracies about the Great Replacement Theory. Claims to the contrary are gaslighting.

Racist Projections are Prevalent in the Trump Administration

Blatant racist statements are littered throughout the Department of Education's Dear Colleague Letter, Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation's website, the playbooks that Russ Vought and Moms for Liberty used to attack schools in 2021, and the boastful responsibility Christopher Rufo claims daily for creating this CRT and DEI crisis.

In 2021, Business Insider detailed how Russ Vought and Citizens for Renewing America equipped suburban white women with playbooks to attack their school boards. He focused on critical race theory as a radical theology that will "socially replace" and lead to discrimination against white people.

Vought adds, "In other words, because people of color were discriminated against in the past, white people, including children in schools, need to be discriminated against now in order to make up for it and let African Americans catch up."

Telling white Christian suburban mothers to “fight for the survival of America” with their school and CRT/DEI attacks makes them fear being socially replaced by Black Americans, if not turned into slaves themselves.

The Heritage Foundation published Project 2025 and summed up the DEI collapse as more profound and significant than we could imagine. They say it’s “the policy equivalent of the Romans salting the Carthaginian fields after reducing their Mediterranean city-state enemy to ruins.”

The Department of Education issued a letter on February 13, claiming that educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon “systemic and structural racism” and advanced discriminatory policies and practices. This, despite the systemic and structural racism that kept Black children out of white schools up until 1954.

Anti-DEI Activists Openly Discuss Their Next Targets

Meanwhile, DEI rollback activists on “X” are retweeting warnings that DEI isn’t just corporate training; it’s civil rights. They seem especially focused on restoring America's tradition to how it was before The Civil Rights Act of 1964.

As they celebrate the latest corporation to reject inclusion and belonging, they feel increasingly reassured about destroying women’s suffrage next. (The SAVE Act would affect married women's right to vote.)

These X influencers got corporations and executives to open the door, and now we need to know if all of their intentions are being discussed at the table.

Why We Must Clarify Corporate Intentions

Beyond these DEI rollbacks, do our nation’s stores and brands support reversing civil rights to 1963 or earlier? What about the calls to end women’s suffrage and ship anyone on antidepressants to wellness "work farms?" Are these CEO's aligned with all 1,000 pages of Project 2025?

Is this what consumers want? Most people (70%) didn’t know about Project 2025 until it was too late, or they were told it was a hoax. Data shows that 88% of Americans, including MAGA and non-MAGA Republicans, do not support Project 2025. People don’t like the implications on their rights and freedoms. New polling also shows souring Trump approval ratings and dwindling support for his extreme policies.

The Heritage Foundation's marketing strategy convinced Americans that DEI’s collapse was the ticket. Efforts to encourage belonging and inclusion were pegged as the root of education problems, missed opportunities, and national tragedies.

Christopher Rufo promoted years of microcrises with Critical Race Theory, DEI, and LGBTQ threats. Digital media teams crafted attention-grabbing memes to stir outrage on social feeds and normalize their narratives. Apps—specifically Urban Legend—with connections to The Heritage Foundation, paid individuals up to $6,000 per video to share sensational talking points.

Project 2025 is here whether we like it or not. Consumers are now experiencing DOGE job cuts, DEI bans, discrimination, and the loss of freedoms that will cost them their incomes, childcare, transportation, and ability to purchase anywhere.

DEI initiatives helped millions of people feel seen and heard by creating space to discuss the influence of our differences and how to bridge gaps. But the moves by a few companies jumping in to say,“Let's roll back!" are catapulting people with differences like race, ethnicity, sex, age, religion, veteran status, or disability several generations backward.

That’s a hefty price for consumers to pay while wealthy executives cross their fingers for stronger profit margins.