A conservative consumer watchdog has blown the lid off many companies’ deceptive practices to conceal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs they either announced to end or seemed to have paused.
According to Consumers’ Research (CR), these companies, including Kohl’s, Dollar Tree, Disney, UPS, and Nationwide, have rebranded their woke programs likely to deceive unsuspecting users.
“Recently, companies have stated they are scrapping their DEI programs and policies, but for some companies, this declaration is merely a PR stunt. Instead of doing away with these illegal and discriminatory policies, these five companies are just rebranding their woke policies by calling DEI by a new name: ‘belonging,'” CR warned.
Shortly after Trump signed the “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” executive action to end DEI in federal government and encouraged other companies to follow suit, Kohl changed the title of its DEI program to “inclusion and belonging” and expanded its scope to include small businesses. However, it still aims to become a “welcoming, respectful, and inclusive company,” suggesting that DEI is still a priority.
Dollar Tree also changed the name from “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” to “Culture of Belonging” but still maintained the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Executive Council.” Nationwide also changed its DEI page to “Belonging, Respect and Fairness”, while UPS called it “Inclusion and Belonging.”
However, Consumers’ Research says these name changes were likely an attempt to hoodwink Americans that they had given up on the racially discriminative practices. The watchdog warns that the word “belonging” is a metaphor for DEI.
“It’s the same racism under a different name,” Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild told Fox News Digital.
“Rebranding from DEI doesn’t change the anti-White and anti-Asian nature of these activities. Corporations should focus on serving customers by finding and retaining the best talent, not engaging in a retrograde racial patronage scheme.”
Many other companies rebranded their DEI programs to more subtle and palatable language without changing actual policies. Other names used by various companies to conceal DEI programs include “Responsible Innovation,” “Inclusive Culture,” “Equity and Belonging,” “inclusive leadership,” “employee resource groups (ERGs),” and “culture of care and connection.”
Besides the five companies that CR highlighted, other likely culprits include JPMorgan, which renamed its DEI to “diversity, opportunity, and inclusion (DOI),” while Citi rebranded the program to “Talent Management and Engagement.”
Banks have historically encouraged racially discriminative practices, such as enforcing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which usually include an element of racial equity, for a favorable credit rating. The SDGs made DEI an industry standard. They could also prevent many companies from ditching the practice for fear of losing their favorable credit rating.
Meanwhile, these companies will continue to purport ditching DEI likely to avoid potential investigations as the Trump’s executive order tasked federal organizations to “identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations of publicly traded corporations, large non-profit corporations or associations, foundations with assets of $500 million or more, state and local bar and medical associations, and institutions of higher education with endowments over $1 billion.”
Besides private and public companies, some federal agencies have also attempted to conceal DEI practices through subtle wording. In January 2025, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was exposed for trying to rename Lisa T. Boykin’s job title from “Chief Diversity Officer” to just “Senior Executive.”
The apparent attempt to disguise DEI prompted the White House to direct federal workers to report “any efforts to disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language.”
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point also renamed the “Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management Branch” to “Opportunity, Diversity, and Inclusion Branch.”
Besides the subtle name change, which does not suggest any significant changes, the academy’s objective remains to maintain “an equitable, inclusive, and effective organization.”
Subsequently, conservative advocacy group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to cast light on a potential attempt to conceal ongoing DEI practices.
“It seems games are afoot at West Point to disguise its radical DEI agenda,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
