What really was the stimulus that, in the latter months of 2024, awakened corporate America from its woke nightmare of DEI, ESG, net zero targets and stakeholders’ priority over shareholders? It was not simply the US Supreme Court’s anti-DEI Harvard admissions decision (although a pending 2025 Supreme Court decision could really kill off DEI, of which more later), nor Elon Musk’s welcome tweet ‘DEI must die’, nor the prospect of his bromance partner, Donald J. Trump, becoming President again and putting legislative teeth into the war on woke. The real stimulus, unheard of in Australia, which is already benefitting from the international flow of his success, was Starbuck – but definitely not the coffee.

When woke-prone DEI supporter Bloomberg ran an opinion piece last month lamenting that it was ‘chilling’ for corporate America’s diversity efforts that a company with the resources of Walmart, America’s largest private-sector employer, was giving in to an activist anti-woke campaigner and was pulling back on its commitment to DEI, it represented a grudging acknowledgment of the incredible success of what has effectively been a one-man campaign against woke corporate America.

Walmart ‘is setting an example for the rest of corporate America – and it is a dangerous one’ was Bloomberg’s graceless acceptance of the beginning of the end of what has become a self-destructive corporate boardroom fad. But Bloomberg’s analysis was accurate; it really does send the message to other companies that they don’t stand a chance against such anti-woke campaigns and therefore shouldn’t bother to resist – especially under a Trump/Musk presidency.

The man who woke up woke America is Robby Starbuck, labelled last month by the New York Times as the ‘anti-DEI agitator that big companies fear most’. Starbuck is a former Hollywood music video director turned conservative activist, and was recently described by CNN as ‘riding a wave of right-wing hostility’ with his public pressure through online campaigning and ‘negotiations’ that began in earnest barely six months ago. His aim is to eliminate corporate America’s woke social agendas. Focussing on one company at a time, he uses the internet (he has reportedly amassed 360,000 followers on Instagram and 719,000 on X) to whip up protests and consumer bans, particularly on woke companies with largely conservative consumer bases. Starbuck’s tactics, complains establishment-oriented Forbes magazine, extend beyond the threat of consumer boycotts to selling the subjects’ shares, flooding their social media with negative comments and inundating consumer services with complaints.

In mid-2025, Tractor Supply was the first company to bow to Starbuck’s pressure to roll back their social agendas, closely followed in July by John Deere announcing that it would no longer sponsor ‘social or cultural awareness’ events and would audit all its training materials. In August, Harley-Davidson, Brown-Forman, Lowes, and Ford Motor Company rolled back several of their DEI initiatives and ended their respective relationships with Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group. The next month, Molson Coors (perhaps also influenced by Budweiser’s trans ad disaster) and Caterpillar Inc. did the same. In October, Toyota did likewise and in November, Boeing and Walmart rolled back their DEI initiatives after being targeted by Starbuck.

The New York Times opined that ‘Robby Starbuck may have scored his biggest win’ to date with his successful pressure campaign against Walmart which saw the company stop using the terms DEI, end its sharing of data with LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign, and close its Centre for Racial Equity after its five-year, $100 million commitment expires in 2025. The retailing giant will also stop considering demographic data when awarding supplier contracts and evaluate its funding of events like Pride parades.

Walmart will not be Starbuck’s last victory. ‘I’ve been talking to companies who will be following in Walmart’s footsteps,’ Starbuck told Axios. ‘I do have a list of targets.’

But Starbuck’s message is also the positive one of avoiding ‘reverse discrimination’, claiming that DEI initiatives lead to discrimination against white men and other groups. He told CNN that DEI programs (generally a mix of employee training, resource networks and recruiting practices to encourage representation among people of different races, genders, classes and other identities) are not only a form of ‘woke capitalism’ where companies prioritise political correctness over profits and customer satisfaction but are also a ‘Trojan horse for pushing leftist ideology’.

It is the ‘reverse discrimination’ in DEI that is the issue to be resolved in the near future by the US Supreme Court in a case where a majority group alleges discrimination in favour of a minority group. Although the case does not mention DEI, the court’s ruling may be used to challenge corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

‘It’s a case that people are expecting will open the courthouse doors to more reverse discrimination suits,’ reports Forbes. Although the case involves sexual orientation, its decision should apply to reverse discrimination claims involving all categories, including race, colour, religion, sex, and national origin.

In any event, according to the Wall Street Journal, ‘Culture warriors aren’t the only ones applauding big businesses’ rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Quietly, so are some of corporate DEI’s architects’ but without wavering on its principles. Under the heading ‘They Helped Create DEI – Now Even They Say It Needs a Makeover’, the WSJ says the seeds of a backlash were sown when companies turned diversity into a corporate fad.

But what about Australia? The spreading US opposition to DEI is also evident in Australia, according to industry consultancy TDC Global. ‘Because of the backlash coming out of the US, it’s a messaging shift as organisations are moving away from focusing on diversity as a pillar and more towards inclusion because it’s easier to defend. Other executives have responded by championing a new rival hiring principle called ‘MEI,’ meaning Merit, Excellence, and Intelligence, as an initiative to oppose DEI.

While Australia’s corporates are at least becoming wary of DEI, not so the Labor government, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade unveiling its ‘first overarching’ DEI strategy for 2024 to 2027. Aimed at creating a more diverse workforce, its target by 2027 is to have five percent of its staff (and three percent of its Senior Executive Service) from First Nations people and seven percent of its staff (and SES) from people with disabilities. In good news for trannies, the top DFAT jobs are to be 40 percent men, 40 percent women and 20 percent any gender. MEI is not relevant.

DEI’s sliding popularity did not discourage Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, from accepting, in recognition of ‘her long-standing advocacy of diversity and inclusion’, the role of patron of its main promoter, the Diversity Council of Australia, of which she was formerly deputy chair. Like diversity, her many other former activist roles such as chair of the zero-emissions Climate Council, strong advocacy for ESG, indigenous affairs through The Voice, and a republic, do not face a friendly 2025. The same goes for the rest of corporate Australia’s woke agenda as the pendulum that clearly swung too much towards wokery is at last swinging back.