‘We are winning boys!!!’: Republicans celebrate McDonald’s DEI efforts being cut

Activist Robby Starbuck brought his war on “wokeness” against McDonald’s in an effort to undermine their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices. McDonald’s seemingly bent the knee to the anti-woke crowd’s demands against DEI policies.

Starbuck was credited for campaigning against DEI practices at Toyota, Walmart, and several other megacorps. In his X tweet, Starbuck contacted a senior marketing director from McDonald’s. He urged them to “embrace corporate neutrality on divisive issues such as DEI.” He also asked if there were changes being considered regarding the company’s DEI practices.

On Monday, January 6, McDonald’s announced that it would modify some of its DEI practices. They would retire representation goals, refuse to participate in external surveys, end their Supply Chain’s Mutual Commitment to DEI, and turn their diversity team into the “Global Inclusion Team.” This decision pleased anti-woke activists like Starbuck. One of them wrote on X, “We are winning boys!!!” Meanwhile, others hailed Starbuck as a “hero.“ Never mind that Starbuck has done nothing but inquire about DEI policy changes at McDonald’s. The changes at McDonald’s aren’t necessarily a result of Starbuck’s activism.

McDonald’s is fence sitting

At face value, it looks as though Starbuck and his crowd got what they wanted. Starbuck himself claimed in his tweet that their campaigns were “so effective” that companies are turning away from DEI policies in fear of backlash. McDonald’s is choosing to abandon their representation goals and participation in external surveys such as the Corporate Equality Index, which is cause for concern. In the same breath, the fast-food giant intends to repackage their diversity team into the Global Inclusion Team. It’s unknown if the difference is only in name, but McDonald’s may be attempting to play both sides.

Essentially, McDonald’s doesn’t want to appear divisive. More importantly, McDonald’s hasn’t completely abandoned DEI practices. Instead, it opted to be subtler with DEI in terms of marketing or when discussing it with differently aligned customers. This isn’t an uncommon practice for companies that are trying to be subtler with their corporate practices moving forward. While several politicians and activists might rage against DEI, the corporate consensus is that it isn’t going away anytime soon.