The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America
Written by Charles Gasparino. Published by Center Street in August 2024
The noxious ideology of progressive politics in the boardroom, aka corporate wokeness, needs to stop. This mad trend ignores risk management and is damaging to businesses, the economy, and American culture.
It started with CEOs taking mild political stands and evolved to a full embrace of far-left causes. The annual meetings in Davos, Switzerland stimilated social and environmental initiatives to investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists.
For a while, going woke didn’t seem to matter. For Nike it was even advantagious. Nike successfully tapped into the cultural and political climate by featuring Kaepernick, who became a symbol of protest against police brutality, with the tagline “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. #JustDoIt,”. Sales went up. But they also alienated a large portion of their customer base.
The killing of George Floyd in 2020 ignited more extreme wokeism in American society. Just questioning Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, or the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, could result in users being “shadow banned” or “cancelled from the national discussion.” Social media like Facebook and Twitter played a big role in this. eg The Hunter Biden laptop story was throttled and was labeled “fake news.”
Major companies engaged in excessive focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, and other progressive causes:
- In 2019 Goldman Sachs almost boycotted eating at Chick-fil-A.
- Silicon Valley Bank’s failure after engaging heavily in progressive causes
- Companies adopting critical race theory in HR training
- Corporate donations to groups like Black Lives Matter
- Bud Light’s marketing controversy with a transgender influencer
- Disney’s opposition to Florida’s education law
- BlackRock’s ESG investing practices
- Rebranding of the Washington Redskins to the Commanders
- CEO of JP Morgan taking a knee during George Floyd protests (2020)
- Target celebrating Pride Month, showcased tuck-friendly female bathing suits, along with LGBTQ+ merchandise featuring provocative slogans.
Leftist activist groups like the Human Rights Campaign and the Center for American pressured business leaders to implement more progressive corporate governance policies. Jay Clayton, as SEC chairman from 2017, was surprised to be under pressure to use SEC authority to implement mandatory diversity quotas on boards, restrictions on political spending, and limits on fossil fuel use.
In this climate external accusations were difficult to counter in a courtroom, especially when a firm is predominantly comprised of white men. Another problem was that many HR, PR and marketing departments were staffed with woke zealots.
Ed Rensi, a former CEO of McDonald’s, criticized the tendency of many CEOs to pass off progressive agendas to junior staff, thereby evading personal engagement. He contends that fear and government regulatory pressures compels corporate America to embrace wokeness.
Traditional business goals were neglected. Controversial social justice causes, such as reparations and defunding the police, BLM (Black Lives Matter), CRT (Critical Race Theory) and lgbtqia2s+ rights were supported at the expense of more established charities. Shareholder capitalism became stakeholder capitalism.
Then some started to fight against corporate wokeism. Ed Rensi, former McDonald’s USA CEO, along with other business leaders like Bernie Marcus (Home Depot co-founder), felt that Disney CEO Bob Chapek was overstepping in Florida’s Education Act in 2022. They launched a “Boardroom Initiative” to encouraging CEOs to focus on business rather than political activism. Ron DeSantis revoked Disney’s special self-governing status in the state.
Musk purchased Twitter (renaming it “X”) to reduce its “wokeness” and promote free speech. He reinstated banned accounts and released the “Twitter Files,” revealing alleged collusion with government bodies to suppress certain viewpoints.
Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company became a target of conservative groups, particularly Consumers’ Research, for his promotion of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investing and other progressive corporate policies. An aggressive campaign against Fink was launched, including billboards and mobile ads in Manhattan. This lead to lost business for BlackRock in some red states and forced Fink to hire personal security. They underwent a PR campaign to rehabilitate its image and rebrand itself as more pro-business and pro-American.
In 2023 the Bud Light brand partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a social media campaign to appeal to new demographics. This led to one of the largest consumer backlashes in American history. Bud Light’s traditional customer base boycotted the company. Sales of rival beers exploded. AB InBev tried to rebrand through partnerships with more traditionally masculine entities like mixed martial arts sports platform UFC and Power Slap competitions. Year-over-year sales for Bud Light have plummeted 30% in the closing weeks of January 2024, underscoring the ongoing brand damage.
Corporations are now reassessing their progressive strategies. Public sentiment has seen a cultural shift. Unwoke comedians like Dave Chappelle and Joe Rogan gained popularity. There is a growing movement rejecting woke ideologies.