The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 caused a social shift in corporate America. Many companies publicly committed to developing diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. They hired Chief Diversity Officers at an unprecedented rate.(1) They built mentorship pipelines, employee resource groups, and supplier diversity programs.
In 2025, many of those same companies eliminated these programs. They did so under pressure from conservative activist groups, the threat of federal enforcement, and the fear of losing government contracts. Yet also, in many cases, in advance of any formal legal requirement.
Equal-Opportunity Rollback Case Tracker
The cases collected here span advertising, technology, auto manufacturing, and retail. They involve executives and factory-floor employees, women who had built careers over decades and a worker who lasted three weeks before the work environment became untenable. In each case, the employer made public commitments to diversity and inclusion that they then walked back. And in each case, the rollback preceded or accompanied discriminatory conduct that cost real workers real jobs.
| Company | Case Type | Location | Summary of Walkback | Facts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) | Racial Discrimination — Complaint | New York (S.D.N.Y) | In November 2024, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna publicly stated the company would “of course comply” with the incoming administration’s anti-DEI directives. (3) Then in Q1 2025, DOGE cancelled 15 IBM federal contracts totaling over $100 million. On April 10, 2025, IBM announced they are reversing decades of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. (4) IBM will no longer have a diversity, equity, and inclusion department and eliminated its Diversity Council, which was established in the 1990s. They also ended its allyship campaign and allyship training, and will no longer participate in the HRC workplace index, and will not encourage employees to recognize preferred pronouns. Robby Starbuck was the one to initially publicly announce these changes and took credit for them. | Annette Brooks worked at IBM for 26 years and was the Vice President of IBM Z Data and AI. (2) Brooks says her organization of 20,000 employees had seven Black executives, but after IBM’s January 2025 restructuring, five were gone by the end of February, including Brooks and the other two Black Vice Presidents. (6) She was never put on a performance improvement plan and earned merit-based bonuses every year she was eligible as an executive. Brooks’ complaint alleges that IBM purged Black executives to protect its federal contract portfolio. |
| Meta Platforms, Inc. | Sex Discrimination — Amended Complaint | California (N.D Cal.) | On January 7, 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces content policy changes permitting hateful rhetoric targeting LGBTQ+ individuals. (7) Days later on January 10, 2025, Meta eliminated its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, cuts its supplier diversity program, ends equity and inclusion programs and representation goals, and ceases its diverse-slate hiring approach. (8) On the same day, Zuckerberg says on Joe Rogan’s podcast that he wants more “masculine energy” at the company. | Eunbit Cho was terminated during a layoff on February 10, 2025 — mere weeks after Zuckerberg’s “masculine energy” statement and Meta’s elimination of its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Cho, a gay married woman, disclosed her pregnancy three days after the announced walkback and filed an internal discrimination complaint on January 24, 2025, but was ultimately terminated weeks later. Zuckerberg labeled those let go as “poor performers” upon termination. Cho filed a complaint on October 3, 2025, and amended it on November 12, 2025, to incorporate Meta’s diversity, equity, and inclusion rollback, the cultural shift at Meta, and Zuckerberg’s masculine energy statement as context for the discrimination she alleged. |
| Meta Platforms, Inc. | Sex Discrimination — LinkedIn Post | California | On January 10, 2025, Meta eliminated its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, cuts its supplier diversity program, ends equity and inclusion programs and representation goals, and ceases its diverse-slate hiring approach. (8) On the same day, Zuckerberg says on Joe Rogan’s podcast that he wants more “masculine energy” at the company. | Elana Safner was terminated during a layoff on February 10, 2025 — mere weeks after Zuckerberg’s “masculine energy” statement and Meta’s elimination of its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Safner, a trained lawyer, had returned from six months of maternity leave only in November 2024, roughly three months before the layoff. Zuckerberg labeled those let go as “poor performers” upon termination. Safner shared her experience publicly on LinkedIn rather than in court. Safner said that many of those cut alongside her “seem to have similar stories — a history of good performance, and a recent leave of absence,” and lists among what she won’t miss: “Zuck’s newfound ‘masculine energy’ and becoming its collateral damage.” |
| Ford Motor Company | Sex Discrimination — Complaint | Michigan (E.D. Mich.) | On August 28, 2024, Ford withdrew from the HRC Corporate Equality Index and eliminates diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Ford also shifted its Employee Resource Groups to focus on professional development, mentorship, and community service. Robby Starbuck released a video on X, claiming this walk back as a proactive response to his ongoing “investigation” of Ford’s policies and framed it as a personal win. | Tashona Davis has worked in production at Ford’s plant on the South Side since 2019. In November 2024, a male co-worker started sexually harassing her, as her team lead had in the past. This led Davis to file an internal complaint with Employee Relations. After interviewing her on the matter, she received no communication until Employee Relations informed her on March 13, 2025, that it closed the investigation. Ford did not take any action to deal with the harassment. Following this complaint and an unrelated medical leave, she experienced continued harassment and retaliation from her team lead. |
| Ford Motor Company | Sexuality Discrimination — Complaint | Michigan (E.D. Mich.) | In August 2024, Ford announced it was eliminating its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, after getting online pressure to do so from conservative activist Robby Starbuck. (9) Ford withdrew from the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index (a tool to rate American businesses on their treatment of LGBT+ employees, consumers and investors) and ended its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. | Benjamin Mee, a 47-year-old openly gay man, had worked in production at Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant since 2020. In approximately November 2024, a former friend and coworker accused Mee of using a homophobic slur against him at work. The co-worker then began to follow Mee around their workplace, attempted to trip him and start physical fights with him, and shoulder checked him on at least one occasion. Mee filed a complaint, but during the investigation, Mee’s witnesses were ignored in favor of his co-worker. Ford ultimately sided with Mee’s accuser, and he was terminated. His accuser — a younger, straight male — was not. Mee had complained about homophobic comments towards him in the past. |
| Tractor Supply Company | Sexuality Discrimination — Complaint | Illinois (N.D. Ill.) | Tractor Supply made one of the earliest diversity, equity, and inclusion reversals. On June 6, 2024, Robby Starbuck posted a video on X targeting Tractor Supply Co.’s inclusion practices. Weeks later on June 27, 2024, citing pressure from conservative activist groups, the company eliminated its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, withdrew from the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, dropped LGBTQ+-inclusive policies, and ceased sponsoring Pride events. (10) | In 2025, Michelle David, a bisexual white woman with African American foster siblings, worked at a new Tractor Supply store in Moline, IL. Early into the position, David learned that the National Black Farmers Association had raised concerns about Defendant’s anti-diversity practices toward Black and LGBTQ+ employees and communities. On September 23, 2025, management instructed employees to invite their friends and families to the store’s soft opening. Given the recent company’s repositioning around inclusion, David asked management if her Black family members and LGBT friends would be welcomed at the store. Her manager allegedly told her that while they would have to let them come in, Black and LGBTQ+ people “are not a part of” the rural American community the company serves. Soon after, David’s hours were cut from 40–50 per week to seven. |
- Roy Maurer, New DE&I Roles Spike After Racial Justice Protests, Society for Human Resource Management (Aug. 6, 2020), https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/talent-acquisition/new-dei-roles-spike-racial-justice-protests.
- Daniel Wiessner, IBM Fired White Worker to Fulfill Diversity Goals, Lawsuit Claims, Reuters (Aug. 21, 2024), https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/ibm-fired-white-worker-fulfill-diversity-goals-lawsuit-claims-2024-08-21/.
- Arsheeya Bajwa & Juby Babu, IBM says 15 Contracts Impacted by DOGE Cost Cuts, Shares Drop, Reuters (April 23, 2025), https://www.reuters.com/business/ibm-forecasts-second-quarter-revenue-above-estimates-soothing-tariff-worries-2025-04-23/
- Kristen Parisi, IBM Reverses Course on Decades of DEI Efforts, HR BREW (May 6, 2025), https://www.hr-brew.com/stories/2025/05/06/ibm-reverses-course-on-decades-of-dei-efforts.
- Press Release, U.S. Dep’t of Just., Off. of Pub. Affs., IBM Pays $17 Million to Resolve Allegations of Discrimination Through Illegal DEI Practices (Apr. 10, 2026), https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ibm-pays-17-million-resolve-allegations-discrimination-through-illegal-dei-practices.
- Robert Iafolla, IBM Accused of Axing Black Executives After Trump DEI Orders, Bloomberg Law (May 4, 2026), https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/ibm-accused-of-firing-black-executives-after-trump-dei-orders.
- Belle Torek, Meta’s New Policies: How They Endanger LGBTQ+ Communities and Our Tips for Staying Safe Online, Human Rights Campaign (Jan. 15, 2025), https://www.hrc.org/news/metas-new-policies-how-they-endanger-lgbtq-communities-and-our-tips-for-staying-safe-online.
- Salvador Rodriguez, Meta Announces End of DEI Programs, CNBC (Jan. 10, 2025), https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/10/read-the-memo-meta-announces-end-of-its-dei-programs.html
- Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck), X (June 6, 2024, 1:46 PM), https://x.com/robbystarbuck/status/1798773494127411262.
- Ece Yildirim, Rural Retailer Tractor Supply Eliminates DEI Roles, Pride Support and Carbon Emission Goals, CNBC (Jun. 24, 2024) https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/28/tractor-supply-ends-dei-pride-support-carbon-goals.html.
