McDonald’s pulls back on diversity goals amid conservative backlash and ‘legal landscape’

United States fast-food giant McDonald's is scaling back on its diversity program, citing the 2023 US Supreme Court order on affirmative action in college admissions, according to an AP report. In a statement on January 6, McDonald's said it will “retire specific goals” for achieving diversity at senior leadership levels, and intends to end a program encouraging suppliers to develop diversity training and increase in number of minority group members represented within their own leadership ranks, as per the report. In its statement on January 6, McDonald’s said “shifting legal landscape” following last year's SC order and the actions of other corporations caused it to take a hard look at its own policies. In a post on X, on January, Robby Starbuck, a conservative political commentator who has threatened consumer boycotts of prominent consumer brands that don't roll back DEI programs said that he recently told McDonald's he would be doing a story on its “woke policies.” ‘Remain Committed’, Says Leadership McDonald's said it had been considering updates to its policies for several months and planned to time the announcement to the start of this year.