The bell tolls for DEI

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but your tractor supplier has decided to stop yelling at you.

If you’re one of the millions upon millions of Americans who could not care less about the personal political views of the people working at companies like John Deere, Ford, Target, and maybe even Lowe’s, there was some really good news recently: They’re going to stop telling you about them.

And if you’re one of the millions of Americans who care very much indeed about whether your purchasing power is supporting retailers who openly promote and agitate for evil, there’s even more good news: Many of these same retailers are backing away from shilling for progressive politics altogether.

A very disappointed Axios reported two weeks ago that the Ford Motor Company has joined a growing list of major U.S. companies in announcing an end to its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and its decision to stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which ranks some of America’s biggest companies every year on how well they support LGBTQ causes. Judging by the index, HRC quantifies that “support” by tallying the amount of money and the amount of time these companies—yes, even companies manufacturing farm equipment—are willing to spend promoting, celebrating, or generally talking exhaustively about so-called LGBTQ rights. In between the selling of the tractors, I guess.

Let’s set aside, for a minute, the absurdity of an organization ranking businesses based on how much they talk about and celebrate the sexual proclivities of their employees. Let us first celebrate the Corporate Equality Index’s diminishing power. For decades, HRC has shrewdly used this ranking as preemptive blackmail: Say what we want you to say, or we won’t be able to protect you anymore. All the companies who went along to get along only gave the list more power, which means those who are thumbing their noses at it now give it a little less. This alone is good news because bullies shouldn’t win.

It’s also good news that the list of companies standing up to the bullies is growing. In eschewing DEI and divorcing itself from the LGBTQ lobby, Ford joins Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply, John Deere, and Brown-Forman (owner of Jack Daniel’s). Target, with its mascot puppy’s tail between its legs, officially “scaled back” its pride displays this June, limiting its best and brightest rainbow gear to just a few stores in “strategic” locations. Bud Light is a cautionary tale sure to be taught as a case study in marketing degree programs for years to come. Home improvement retailer Lowe’s is rumored to be planning a similar divorce from the LGBTQ cause soon.

Even as we celebrate these victories, it’s reasonable to find the about-face all a bit distasteful. All these companies, with their logos emblazoned on banners at every major pride parade and their CEOs making speeches and releasing official statements about racial equity, inclusion, and “decentering cis/het privilege” (I apologize if these are not making sense; I’ve just never actually understood what any of them were saying), were they really only concerned with their bottom line?

Maybe, and maybe that’s not as bad as it sounds. Culture influences the market, but the market also makes culture. It’s better for everyone if it’s at least engaged in making good culture instead of terrible, harmful culture.

Of course, the ideal would be for every American company and every business leader to know and acknowledge the truth. Axios spun this story as a troubling sign that America’s farm manufacturers and the like are “no longer committing … to provide a beneficial work environment to LGBTQ+ employees,” ignoring, of course, that providing a “work environment” in the first place is inherently beneficial. And if the argument here is that people who identify with a letter on the acronym can only be “safe” at work if their boss’s boss’s boss is saying the right things online, giving money to HRC, and just generally concerning himself to a troubling degree with the skin color and the sexual preferences of his employees, he has bigger problems (which a pastor or a therapist—not a human resources department—may be better equipped to tackle).

Thankfully, there are others out there nudging businesses toward a better way. For-profit companies have an obligation to prioritize their bottom lines. That’s how the free-market system works. Their money belongs to their shareholders, just as the money we spend where we choose to shop belongs first to us. That’s why, in direct opposition to the HRC Corporate Equality Index, the 1792 Exchange has compiled what it calls the Corporate Bias Ratings. It has combed through the policies, internal communications, and even the political donations of some 3,000 businesses to make a thorough assessment of just how inappropriately ideological they’ve become—thereby directly endangering their profits. 1792 Exchange’s mission is to “steer public companies in the United States back to neutral on ideological issues,” as well as to help nonprofit organizations and other conscientious stakeholders to find vendors who have not caved to the progressive mob.

This is the right idea: Companies should invent products, market them, and sell them. They should go about this work with excellence, and they should ignore the weakening progressive mob. The “right side of history” is on a tilt, and brands will fare much better the sooner they return to the rational side.