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Ford becomes the latest company to scale back its diversity and inclusion policies:
Ford is changing some of its diversity and inclusion policies, joining a growing list of companies altering their approaches amid a changing legal and political environment and online pressure from the right.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said in an email to employees Wednesday that the company has changed some of its policies in the past year. It has shifted its employee resource groups' focus and ended participation in external culture surveys by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. In 2017, Ford boasted about its recognition from the organization as one of the best places to work for LGBTQ equality.
Right-wing activist Robby Starbuck posted a copy of the email on X and took credit, saying he had told the automaker he was looking into their policies. (Ford confirmed the accuracy of the email to CNN.)
"We are mindful that our employees and customers hold a wide range of beliefs," Farley wrote in the email. "The external and legal environment related to political and social issues continues to evolve."
Farley said that Ford remains committed to creating an "inclusive workspace and building a team that leverages diverse perspectives, backgrounds and thinking styles."
Ford joins Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply Co., John Deere and other companies in revising or pulling back on their diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI), support for gay Pride marches and LGBTQ events, strategies to slow climate change and other social policies.
Some companies have backtracked more than Ford. Tractor Supply, for example, announced in June that it will withdraw its carbon emission reduction goals and eliminate jobs and goals focused on diversity, equity and inclusion. It will also stop sponsoring LGBTQ+ Pride festivals and voting campaigns
Starbuck, a former Hollywood music video director turned conservative activist, has claimed credit for these moves. But business experts have told CNN that Starbuck's activism alone does not fully explain these decisions, and some companies' commitments to diversity and inclusion were thin to start.
The Human Rights Campaign criticized Ford's announcement, saying the company was "abandoning inclusive employees policies and support" and "cowering" to Starbuck.
"Ford Motor Company's shortsighted decisions will have long-term consequences," Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a news release Wednesday. "Ford Motor Company is abandoning its financial duty to recruit and keep top talent from across the full talent pool. In making their purchasing decisions, consumers should take note that Ford Motor Company has abandoned its commitment to our communities."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DadaDoofy on Monday September 02, @11:05AM (15 children)
There is nothing wrong with diversity and inclusion, except that to the people peddling this it means diversity and inclusion of "all", with the exception of white, straight or conservative people, of course.
Unlike equality, which is a noble goal that we should always strive for, "equity" is something altogether different. Equity is racism, plain and simple. It's based on the idea that preferences based on skin color are just fine as long as that skin color isn't white. They even picked a name similar to equality to confuse low information folks into thinking it's the same thing. Shame on them!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by pTamok on Monday September 02, @12:32PM (4 children)
[devils_advocate]
White Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture has its tendrils in many places, and one area is the idea of the (Puritan) work-ethic. Diversity includes understanding alternative cultures' approach to work.
For instance, in Greenland, when the whales arrive, it is not unusual for people to leave whatever job they are employed to do and go out to hunt. It's normal. If you expect the bank to be staffed while the whale hunt is on, you'll be disappointed, unless there are sufficient non-Greenlandic staff about.
Other cultures regarded doing more than the minimum necessary to cover your immediate needs as crazy.
If you favour people who have a strong 'work ethic' over people from a different culture who don't, you are being discriminatory. Privileging WASP-culture over others is not allowed. If you think a strong work-ethic is objectively better, then you need to learn more about cultural relativism, and how easy it is to subconsciously privilege your own culture.
[/devils_advocate]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Monday September 02, @01:07PM (3 children)
Then i'll discriminate.
If you are willing to let the team down when you "don't feel well *cough cough*, then i don't want you. I want team members. If you're black, fine. White, fine. Gay, fine.
Lazy? Uh-uh. Go away.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Monday September 02, @01:21PM (2 children)
So the assistant comes in, and 40% of the team get a nasty respiratory disease.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday September 02, @02:59PM (1 child)
You can't get a respiratory disease from a lazy person who just wanted to stay home and drink and then post the pics on social media where the friends they let down can see...
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Samantha Wright on Monday September 02, @04:34PM
With back-to-the-office mandates, anything is possible.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 02, @01:27PM (1 child)
No one in the history of histories have been as hard put upon as the white male! Talk about peddling crap. This "they're all out to get you" Fox News propaganda is why you have poor rural people voting to have their social security and medicare slashed so that billionaires don't have to pay taxes. But keep crying about a hypothetical black woman who might get a promotion in some company somewhere (over, we of course naturally assume is a much better qualified white male) so as long as you keep voting against issues that would directly improve your own life (and for those sweet sweet tax breaks and loopholes for rich people, of course, because if we don't get yet another round of tax cuts for the rich, er, ah, SOCIALISM!).
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 02, @02:19PM
You mock the conspiracy theory, and yet, progressives are funding millions and millions of dollars to peddle their own conspiracy theory. "Whitey is out to hold you down! Whitey is killin' yo chilluns! Whitey won't pay what you're worth! Defund da PO-leees!"
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Monday September 02, @07:26PM (7 children)
How am I supposed to tell if a prospective candidate is a conservative?
(Score: 1, Troll) by DadaDoofy on Tuesday September 03, @08:06PM (6 children)
That's a very valid question. Most conservatives these days find it necessary to conceal that aspect of their identity, much like the Jews when the National Socialist ruled Germany.
(Score: 1, Troll) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday September 03, @09:29PM (5 children)
Equating modern conservatives with Jews in 1930's Germany is the epitome of false equivalency. NO ONE is rounding up conservatives for concentration camps and execution by gas chamber.
You should be ashamed of making a statement that stupid and asinine. But that's par for the course for the modern conservative now, isn't it?
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Wednesday September 04, @02:33PM (4 children)
"Equating modern conservatives with Jews in 1930's Germany is the epitome of false equivalency. NO ONE is rounding up conservatives for concentration camps and execution by gas chamber."
But the "false equivalency" the left makes on a daily basis about our former president and his supporters - who have never rounded up anyone for concentration camps or gassed anyone - and Nazis, in between their hysterical chants of "From the river to the sea!", is just fine with you, right?
Who should be ashamed?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday September 04, @03:30PM (2 children)
Nah, they are not Nazis are they?
https://wvpublic.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Patriot-Front-March_anonymoous-1024x731.jpg [wvpublic.org]
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/assets/usa-election-proudboys/trump-rally.jpg?v=071923040624 [reuters.com]
https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/still-20769531-14236-485-still.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_653,w_1160,c_fill/f_webp [cnn.com]
Chanting "Sieg Heil"? On second thoughts - yes, they probably are.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by DadaDoofy on Wednesday September 04, @04:15PM (1 child)
Nah, more like feds playing dress-up. Ever wonder why most of them are wearing masks and they run away when confronted?
Try harder.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday September 04, @04:59PM
I don't believe that, and I don't think you do either.
I am not interested in knowing who people are or where they live. My interest starts and stops at our servers.
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday September 04, @07:03PM
Whatabout, whatabout. The actions of the left does not excuse the actions of the right (or yours for that matter). Besides, if the Florida Orange Man and his cult act like fascists and talk like fascists, they shouldn't be surprised when they are called fascists.
Yet. I'd rather not give them the opportunity.
More whatabout, and ad hominem to boot. Bravo, well done!
That would be you, for making such an asinine statement to begin with, but I suppose most RWNJs are more or less shameless. Oh well.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.