Amazon, the nation’s second-largest private employer, has announced a significant shift in its diversity and inclusion strategy, joining a wave of major corporations making similar adjustments in response to mounting public and legal scrutiny.
In an internal communication dated December 16, obtained by CNBC, Amazon’s Vice President of Inclusive Experience and Technology, Candi Castleberry, revealed that the company is “winding down outdated programs and materials” as part of a comprehensive review of hundreds of initiatives.
Castleberry emphasized the company’s new direction, stating, “Rather than have individual groups build programs, we are focusing on programs with proven outcomes — and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture.”
While the specific programs being discontinued remain undisclosed, this decision marks a notable departure from Amazon’s previous diversity commitments.
Amazon Joins the Retreat: DEI Initiatives Under Fire
In 2020 and 2021, the company had set ambitious goals, including doubling the number of Black employees in vice president and director positions and increasing Black employee representation by 30% in corporate roles such as product management and engineering.
This shift in strategy isn’t unique to Amazon. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, recently announced similar changes to its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
The social media giant’s decision to end its approach of considering qualified candidates from underrepresented groups for open roles, along with discontinuing its equity and inclusion training programs, has sparked internal criticism. One Meta employee pointedly remarked, “If you don’t stand by your principles when things get difficult, they aren’t values. They’re hobbies.”
It has now expanded to other large corporations, including McDonald’s, Walmart, and Ford, all of which have modified their DEI programs in some way. The moves were largely a reaction to increased conservative opposition and the Supreme Court’s decision in 2023 to overturn affirmative action, leading many companies to rethink their diversity efforts.
Amazon’s DEI Messaging
Amazon’s evolving stance on DEI is further reflected in recent modifications to its “Our Positions” webpage. The company has consolidated previously separate sections on “Equity for Black people,” “Diversity, equity and inclusion,” and “LGBTQ+ rights” into a single, streamlined paragraph. This revised section now broadly states the company’s commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive environment while maintaining that inequitable treatment is unacceptable.
When questioned about these changes, Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel provided a measured response, stating, “We update this page from time to time to ensure that it reflects updates we’ve made to various programs and positions.”
These developments at Amazon and other major corporations signal a significant shift in how American businesses approach diversity and inclusion initiatives. As companies navigate the complex intersection of social responsibility, legal compliance, and public opinion, the evolution of DEI programs continues to be a closely watched aspect of corporate policy-making.
Here’s the Internal Memo of Amazon
Team,
As we head toward the end of the year, I want to give another update on the work we’ve been doing around representation and inclusion.
As a large, global company that operates in different countries and industries, we serve hundreds of millions of customers from a range of backgrounds and globally diverse communities. To serve them effectively, we need millions of employees and partners that reflect our customers and communities. We strive to be representative of those customers and build a culture that’s inclusive for everyone.
In the last few years we took a new approach, reviewing hundreds of programs across the company, using science to evaluate their effectiveness, impact, and ROI — identifying the ones we believed should continue. Each one of these addresses a specific disparity, and is designed to end when that disparity is eliminated. In parallel, we worked to unify employee groups together under one umbrella, and build programs that are open to all. Rather than have individual groups build programs, we are focusing on programs with proven outcomes — and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture. You can read more about this on our Together at Amazon page on A to Z.
This approach — where we move away from programs that were separate from our existing processes, and instead integrating our work into existing processes so they become durable — is the evolution to “built in” and “born inclusive,” instead of “bolted on.” As part of this evolution, we’ve been winding down outdated programs and materials, and we’re aiming to complete that by the end of 2024. We also know there will always be individuals or teams who continue to do well-intentioned things that don’t align with our company-wide approach, and we might not always see those right away. But we’ll keep at it.
We’ll continue to share ongoing updates, and appreciate your hard work in driving this progress. We believe this is important work, so we’ll keep investing in programs that help us reflect those audiences, help employees grow, thrive, and connect, and we remain dedicated to delivering inclusive experiences for customers, employees, and communities around the world.
#InThisTogether,
Candi
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