A Little Good News

You have seen how businesses have been backing off their diversity program well one company stood up and buzz off!

Costco is pushing back — hard — against the anti-DEI movement

CNN

By Nathaniel Meyersohn

December 27, 2024

Costco is battling an anti-DEI wave with a stern rebuke to activist shareholders looking to end the warehouse retailer’s diversity ambitions.

Walmart, John Deere, Tractor Supply and other companies are changing or walking away from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. But Costco believes DEI helps its “treasure hunt” shopping atmosphere, and it is standing behind its efforts.

Costco’s board of directors unanimously recommended that its shareholders vote against a proposal brought by a conservative think tank, the National Center for Public Policy Research, that would require Costco to evaluate and issue a report on the financial risks of maintaining its diversity and inclusion goals. The group criticized Costco for possible “illegal discrimination” against employees who are “white, Asian, male or straight.”

You know the dribble that the conservatives push about how the Whites are discriminated against. If a minority is hired instead a White person by their definition it must be discrimination.

Costco has a chief diversity officer and a supplier program that focuses on expanding with small and diverse businesses. It also donates to organizations like the Thurgood Marshall College Fund that serve minorities and underrepresented groups.

OMG! OMG! They are must be discriminating against us because they donate to a Black college fund! Um… what about all their other donations to non-Black colleges?

“Among other things, a diverse group of employees helps bring originality and creativity to our merchandise offerings, promoting the ‘treasure hunt’ that our customers value,” Costco said in its proxy statement to investors. “We believe (and member feedback shows) that many of our members like to see themselves reflected in the people in our warehouses with whom they interact.”

They make that sound like a bad idea, having diverse workforce.

When I hear of things like this I am reminded of IBM back in the late 60s and early 70s, they had this bright engineer that co-foundered one of the major advancement in computer science and they booted her out when she came out trans. Lynn Conway went on to be come one of the major innovators in computing. (You can read her story here, and it is very, very interesting.) By the way the same thing may have happened when these two hippies Jobs and Wozniak walked in trying to sell them on the idea of a desktop computer to the mainframe computer company.

There’s no single definition of DEI, but it’s generally a mix of employee training, employee resource networks and recruiting practices to advance representation of people of different races, genders and classes, people with disabilities, veterans and others.

The shareholder resolution contends that Costco’s DEI practices are potentially discriminatory. But Costco said its policies are legal and non-discriminatory.

Diversity is good!

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