Tennessee political commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck announced Wednesday that automobile manufacturer Nissan would be dropping its “woke” policies and other practices in response to Starbuck and his team’s investigation into the company.
Since June, Starbuck has worked to expose multiple large American companies that push DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives in the workplace. Starbuck’s work to expose such policies have led the targeted companies to publicly reverse course amid backlash from consumers.
https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1869492524391309597
On Wednesday, Starbuck announced that Nissan was the latest company that would be dropping its “woke” policies after he had reached out to the company to notify it that he would be publishing a story about the company’s policies.
Instead of publishing an attack piece on the company as he has done in the past, Starbuck said Nissan “was ready to listen right away” and take the necessary steps to reevaluate and change its controversial policies.
Starbuck said Nissan has committed to no longer participating in the HRC’s woke Corporate Equality Index or in any third party survey that has a political activism angle.
In addition, Starbuck said Nissan has committed to reviewing “future funding of events to ensure that sponsorships align with brand standards and business priorities,” which include Pride events.
Starbuck also said Nissan will change its supplier diversity and hiring practices to ensure there are no quotas for hiring, promotions or diverse suppliers and instead pivot to hiring based off merit and performance.
Finally, Starbuck said Nissan has agreed to only require training related to the “core business” going forward, meaning “no more forced DEI or LGBTQ trainings.”
In a post on X, Starbuck explained the reason why the number of changes Nissan has committed to are lower than companies he’s exposed in the past is simply because the automobile manufacturer had not implemented as many controversial policies as other companies had.
“Nissan was important to me because they’re one of the top employers in Tennessee and I wanted to get this done for my fellow Tennesseans,” Starbuck said.
“This won’t just have a positive impact for their employees who will have a neutral workplace without divisive issues being injected but it will no doubt also extend to their many suppliers dropping woke policies,” Starbuck added.
Starbuck’s conversations with Nissan that prompted the company to change its policies comes weeks after Walmart Inc. announced it would also be dropping its “woke” corporate policies in response to Starbuck’s questions about its practices.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
