In the wake of President Donald Trump’s decisive victory, a wave of companies that once worshipped at the altar of woke ideology began to back away from some of their most extreme “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies.
Silicon Valley was no exception, as evidenced by major shifts from Big Tech giants like Meta:
Everywhere you look, DEI is being rejected. @Meta has joined in the rejection of DEI hiring.
Companies know that they are about to be sued for their illegal hiring practices when Trump takes office.
Winning. pic.twitter.com/BdZnGWBC1D
— Grummz (@Grummz) January 11, 2025
Now, even one of the most reliably woke tech companies is distancing itself from DEI, per Breitbart:
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google announced on Wednesday that it will no longer set specific hiring targets based on race. This decision comes as part of a broader pullback from DEI efforts across Silicon Valley, with companies like Meta and Amazon also scaling back their diversity initiatives.
Google’s move marks a notable reversal from its 2020 commitment to increase the proportion of leadership roles held by “underrepresented groups” by 30 percent by 2025. The announcement was made in an email to employees, which also revealed that the company is currently evaluating the continuation of its annual diversity report, a practice it has maintained since 2014.
The tech giant said it is reviewing its DEI-related grants, training, and initiatives to assess their impact and potential risks. This review is partially in response to recent court decisions and executive orders by President Trump aimed at curbing DEI efforts in the government and among federal contractors.
Trump has repeatedly identified eradicating DEI as a priority of his second term:
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “DEI would’ve ruined our country — and now it’s DEAD.” pic.twitter.com/G9aGQPEbGv
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 31, 2025
Melanie Ramirez, a woke activist first-grade teacher at @PittsburgUSD is covering her room in LGBTQ and DEI propaganda after Trump issued an EO to end radical indoctrination in schools.
Her school can now be stripped of its funding for violating Trump’s EO. pic.twitter.com/bbybuWrNSB
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 31, 2025
🚨 REPORTER: How did you come to the conclusion that DEI had something to do with this crash?
TRUMP: "Because I have common sense."
Mic drop. pic.twitter.com/Uzdl1ogBFZ
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 30, 2025
The Daily Mail provided additional coverage of Google’s latest decision:
Meanwhile, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, removed a sentence stating the company was ‘committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do and to growing a workforce that is representative of the users we serve.’
The clause was included in its reports from 2021 until 2024, according to the WSJ. It marks a major policy row-back.
Following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in 2020, the American internet giant set a target of increasing the proportion of ‘leadership representation of underrepresented groups’ by 30 percent by 2025.
Some 5.7 percent of Google’s US employees were black and 7.5 percent were Latino last year, according to its latest diversity report seen by the WSJ.
Those figures rose from 3.7 percent and 5.9 percent respectively four years earlier.
Here’s how CNBC reported the trend from a generally pro-DEI perspective shortly after Election Day:
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