Investors Craft Counterattacks After Influencer’s Anti-Diversity Blitz

Shareholder groups are considering options from proxy proposals to litigation to reinstate diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments at John Deere, Lowe’s, and other companies that dropped such initiatives following pressure from conservative social media influencer Robby Starbuck.

Activist investors are weighing how to push back on at least seven public companies that have cut diversity programs targeted by Starbuck, who initiated an online campaign earlier this summer seeking to prove DEI has no place in business operations.

The campaign is part of a broader conservative backlash to corporate America’s push to grow more diverse and inclusive in the wake of George Floyd’s police murder in 2020. The Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision striking down affirmative action in university admissions had a further dampening effect on corporate DEI programs, though recent polls have shown the majority of businesses remain committed to diversity but have changed the way they talk about it.