Woke Corporatism May Have Lost Its Most Powerful Weapon

Facing brewing consumer backlash and likely recalling the public relations fiasco that consumed rival Anheuser-Busch last year, alcoholic beverage giant Molson Coors announced last week that it was immediately abandoning its so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) policies. The company specifically stated that it would no longer be participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) corporate equality index (CEI) – one of the most powerful tools the left has used to coerce companies into embracing woke politics.

As reported by National Review, in an email to employees, Molson Coors said it would end its “supplier diversity goals” and “open its business resource groups to any employee who wants to join.” The company also said that it would no longer have specific “representation goals” in hiring – in other words, employees will be hired based on merit alone, rather than to meet racial quotas.

“The driving force behind this shift was the understanding that when all our people know they are welcome, they are more engaged, motivated, and committed to our company’s collective success,” the email reads. “Since then, we have reviewed all our policies and practices to ensure our work is aligned with this renewed focus.”

The news came just days after Ford and Lowes announced similar moves to abandon their DEI initiatives. Jack Daniel’s, Harley-Davidson, John Deere, and Tractor Supply Company have also reversed their stance on DEI policies in recent months.

Perhaps the most noteworthy part of the Molson Coors policy shift was the announcement that the company would no longer be participating in the Corporate Equality Index. In effect, CEI is a social credit system that grades how well companies adhere to LGBTQ ideology and other left-wing political agendas in the workplace.

According to the HRC, companies earn better CEI scores by taking “concrete and dedicated steps to establish and implement comprehensive policies, benefits, and practices that ensure greater equity for LGBTQ+ workers and their families.” In practice, this means relentlessly pushing the latest ideological fads on the cultural left.

The credit system is based on four main criteria. The first is “Workforce Protections.” These are written policies of “inclusivity” and “nondiscrimination” on the basis of gender identity and orientation – in effect requiring every employee to embrace the most extreme elements of LGBTQ ideology.

The second criteria is providing so-called “Inclusive Benefits,” which effectively means requiring employers to pay for so-called “gender-affirming” care for employees who claim to be transgender – including surgeries and cross-sex hormones.

The third criteria is “Corporate Social Responsibility,” which broadly means using a company’s platform and resources to advance LGBTQ ideology. This includes mandatory “sensitivity training” for employees, permitting men to use women’s restrooms, diversity quotas for senior management, explicit marketing to LGBTQ individuals (like rainbow packaging during pride month), and requirements that companies explicitly show that they are prioritizing working with LGBTQ individuals over non-LGBTQ individuals.

The fourth criteria is “Responsible Citizenship.” This factor deducts 25 social credit points from any company whose leadership has any “anti-LGBTQ blemish” on its records. This includes “advocating for public policies or regulations related to LGBTQ equality that would be detrimental to employees and their families.” HRC considers the Republican Party to be explicitly “anti-LGBTQ.” Any corporation or company official caught publicly supporting Republican candidates or conservative causes automatically loses 25 points on their CEI score.

The CEI ranking system was first debuted in 2002. Since then, HRC, with the backing of major institutional investors like BlackRock and Vanguard, has effectively wielded it as a weapon to bully corporations into embracing left-wing ideology. Noncompliant companies are threatened with boycotts – which the HRC has already rolled out against Molson Coors and other companies that have dropped their DEI initiatives.

Molson Coors itself obtained a perfect score in the most recent CEI rankings. The fact that the company now feels compelled to abandon CEI altogether could signal a broader shift in the corporate environment, where association with woke initiatives like the CEI is increasingly viewed as a net negative rather than a net positive by corporate leadership.

If this is indeed the case, left-wing activist groups like HRC have serious cause for concern. The entirety of the woke corporatism racket is built on the premise that companies benefit, both in terms of attracting top talent and building goodwill with customers, from being associated with left-wing policy priorities.

If that perception, always a false one, is shattered, having a high CEI score will become not just irrelevant, but a sign that a company prioritizes appeasing activists over providing quality goods and services to its customers. As the backlash against Bud Light last year proved, that is something that will hurt companies where it hurts the most – in their bottom line.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.