Costco Board Fights for Diversity. Ethics "Built Around Inclusion" the Company States.
The company was asked to remove its DEI initiates. The Board said no.
Last month, Walmart made headlines for ending its DEI practices. They buckled to outside pressure to do so. This month, Costco is in the news for keeping its DEI practices.
This whole “war on woke” agenda is so dumb. I mean, I'm sure the billionaires want us to fight. They want to distract us from their wealth and cuts to social services. But, anyway.
Cry about DEI if you want to. It’s a wasted effort. Inclusionary and fair practices aren’t going anywhere. They will be called something else going forward so as not to trigger conservative groups.
Here’s what happened with Costco.
“Our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary.”
There's a "conservative think tank" called the National Center for Public Policy Research. Their website is all red, white, and blue. They have a big star in front of their name. Calling all patriots, amirite?
Their mission is “To grow the freedom movement by taking our message to new constituencies to secure liberty now and for future generations.”
Their vision is “To become the most innovative and efficient advocate of individual liberty.”
Okay. Freedom and individual liberty. Uh huh. Got it.
This is the group pressuring Costco to end its DEI practices. They approached the company and were like, “It’s clear that DEI holds litigation, reputational, and financial risks to the Company, and therefore financial risks to shareholders.”
Is that so?
Costco wasn't having it.
“Our Board has considered this proposal and believes that our commitment to an enterprise rooted in respect and inclusion is appropriate and necessary. The report requested by this proposal would not provide meaningful additional information to our shareholders, and the Board thus unanimously recommends a vote AGAINST this proposal.”
Oh, excuse me, Board, you dropped this mic.
After this event became news, conservative social media lit up with calls to boycott Costco. This is the heat Walmart was trying to avoid, so they caved in advance. Honestly, the boycott doesn’t matter. I’ve seen so many people now heading to Costco and renewing their memberships because of the statement.
It really matters where you spend your money. Choose wisely.
Why all this DEI stuff now?
In 2023, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a case called SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina (UNC).
The Court struck down Harvard’s and UNC’s race-conscious admissions policies as unconstitutional. This is because the law didn't meet the high standards of strict scrutiny. It either didn't have a strong enough reason to exist or it went too far and affected people who shouldn't have been affected.
The Court eroded almost fifty years of precedent by applying a radical and much more stringent version of strict scrutiny than it had applied in the past.
Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) groups wanted to drop the question of race on college applications. In the Harvard case, SFFA alleged that Harvard’s consideration of race in admissions violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.” - Justice dot gov.
And the UNC case:
“UNC is considered the oldest public university in the country. SFFA claims that UNC’s race-conscious admissions policy violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. UNC has a long history of racial segregation, only admitting its first Black students in 1951 to comply with a federal court order — more than 160 years after its founding.” - Legal Defense Fund dot org.
After the Civil War, Congress submitted amendments as part of its Reconstruction program. The 14th amendment was to grant citizenship to “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” thereby granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people.
So, that court case in 2023 laid some important groundwork for eroding DEI.
We’re now seeing it play out as conservatives gear up to retake the White House.
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But wait. Let me tell you about Edward Blum real quick.
Who?
I know, right?
He’s the guy behind ALL of this. He’s not even a lawyer or anything.
He’s a former stockbroker with no legal training.
In the early 1990s, Blum lost a congressional election in Texas. He was bummed, so he sued Texas. (Sigh. Alright, man.) He claimed that 1990's political districts, made to boost minority voters, were unconstitutional.
That case made it to the Supreme Court, and he won.
After that, he realized how he could change policy through the courts and he hasn’t looked back.
He actually took the NAACP’s playbook.
In the ‘30s and ‘40s, the NAACP began using test cases. These cases were
“…targeted racial discrimination in voting, housing and education. They also served a higher purpose in trying to end the system of racist laws known as Jim Crow – the very laws that established segregation across the South and disenfranchised Black voters.”
The organization filed dozens of test cases against segregation.
Blum caught on to this idea, tucked it tight under his arm, and ran with it. He’s still carefully crafting all of this. Who can he group together to sue what institution so he can get the court ruling he wants? Yep, that’s what he does.
If you want to learn more about him, there’s a great article by Beth Daley.
What’s next
I don’t know.
People will be mad about DEI. They’ll call for boycotts of Walmart or Costco, depending on what they think is right.
The National Center for Public Policy Research will cry about individual freedoms while systematically trying to strip people of their liberties. Just FYI, their website has a list of quotes praising their work from people like Rush Limbaugh. They also have a “What Liberals Say About Us” section.
I don’t know who built this site, but it’s painfully outdated.
Anyway, the 2023 court ruling, the new administration, and dudes like Blum mean these issues won't fade away.
Internet creepers come out for this kind of stuff.
I posted on LinkedIn last week about the Costco news, and I started getting weirdo comments from profiles with few connections or activity. I just blocked them all and set my post to “connections only”. Hopefully that will crush the bots and the trolls. But probably not. I’ll post this, and they’ll be back.
Shoutout to Costco for not caving to this kind of pressure. Here’s more from their Board’s response.
“Our success at Costco Wholesale has been built on service to our critical stakeholders: employees, members, and suppliers. Our efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion follow our code of ethics: For our employees, these efforts are built around inclusion – having all of our employees feel valued and respected.
Our efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion remind and reinforce with everyone at our Company the importance of creating opportunities for all.
We believe that these efforts enhance our capacity to attract and retain employees who will help our business succeed. This capacity is critical because we owe our success to our now over 300,000 employees around the globe.”
Why say you have values if you change them based on every shifting demand?
Stick up for what you believe in. This is what leadership looks like.
Kit Campoy is an author and retail expert with two decades of experience leading retail teams. Today, she freelance writes for world-class SaaS Retail Tech companies.
Whoa! I had no idea this happened with Costco! Thanks for simplifying a very complicated issue. We all need to know this!
And, yeah, calling for a boycott lasts about two minutes.
Love this column for it's resistance stance! KEEP WRITING kIT