In the minds of many, Sam Walton was the epitome of “The American Dream.” He was born on March 29, 1918, in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, attained the rank of Eagle Scout, and served in World War II before he purchased a small Ben Franklin store in Arkansas. He opened the first Walmart in 1962.
Success and Controversy
To call his stores plain would be an understatement. In his mind, the road to financial success was simple—sell a lot of products as cheaply as possible. During his lifetime, he occupied a plainly decorated office in Bentonville, Arkansas, where he pursued this vision.
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Three weeks before “Mr. Sam’s” death on April 5, 1992, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George Bush the elder. By that time, he was also the wealthiest man in America. The President praised him, saying, “We come here to honor a man who shows that through hard work and vision and treating people right, many good things can happen.” At the time, the chain consisted of 1,928 stores with 371,000 employees. Within a year, the company would celebrate selling a billion dollars worth of products in a single week.
Walmart was always controversial. Many customers praised its wide variety of products and low prices. Others saw it as an evil force that killed off business for hundreds of small-town Main Streets. Over the years, leftists made vague charges about unfair labor conditions and low wages.
Adopting Leftist Goals
As the company grew, it became an increasingly large target for radical leftists. By 2000, it was nearly three times the size it had been when the founder passed away eight years earlier. It had also become an international behemoth.
Caving in to activists because of its possible vulnerability, Walmart was an early and willing participant in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) movement.
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Its DEI policy did not affect its outward appearance. Its customers saw the same stores that they had been patronizing for decades. Only on rare occasions did the company’s DEI impulses make their way into the shopping experience—as when it promoted a “Pride” line of products.
Walmart’s DEI efforts were largely back-office projects. In 2020, it established its “Center for Racial Equity,” which was set up to “address the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black and African American people in education, health, finance and criminal justice systems.”
Abandoning DEI
All the same, reports CNN, Walmart’s DEI efforts will cease in 2025.
Walmart is scrapping its racial equity training programs for staff and re-evaluating programs designed to increase “diversity” among its suppliers.
The credit for this abrupt turnaround can be attributed to a single individual named Robbie Starbuck, a video producer in Tennessee. Mr. Starbuck’s biggest weapon is an account on X—formerly Twitter—where, according to Forbes, he has over 700,000 followers. He also has a considerable following on Instagram. No less an oracle than The New York Times calls Mr. Starbuck “The Anti-D.E.I. Agitator That Big Companies Fear Most.”
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Mr. Starbucks’s national following is of recent vintage. In June 2024, he aimed his cell phone at Tractor Supply. Less than a month later, the nationwide chain reversed its DEI policies.
The victory of Tractor Supply provided Mr. Starbuck with a template. It consisted of finding companies whose customer bases consisted primarily of conservatives. Then, he exposed that company’s support of items on the leftist agenda. From that point, the customers took over, registering complaints and threats to take their business elsewhere. It is an amazingly simple process, and it is also quite successful.
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The NYT article relates that success in a single paragraph.
“The reversal made national headlines and ushered a clamorous new voice into a highly divisive issue. In the months that followed, Mr. Starbuck kept prodding one of the more jangled nerves of the body politic, posting a series of similar videos about John Deere, Harley-Davidson, Caterpillar, Stanley Black & Decker, Jack Daniel’s, Lowe’s, Ford Motor, Molson Coors and, most recently, Toyota.”
The Times noted that all the companies retreated from their DEI policies, without giving reasons.
The Times may be surprised by Mr. Starbuck’s reach. However, the influence of individuals can be highly effective when applied correctly. In his book Return to Order: From a Frenzied Economy to an Organic Christian Society, author John Horvat develops the idea of “representative characters” who organically appear as agents of change. Mr. Starbuck is an excellent example of a “representative character.”
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As Mr. Horvat describes them, “Representative characters take the principles, moral qualities, and virtues desired and needed by their community and translate them into concrete programs of life and culture. They quickly transform thought into action, doctrine into reality, and tendencies into fashions.”
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In Mr. Starbuck’s case, his gathering concerns about the effect of DEI on American culture compelled him to use his ability to gather and disseminate information. He displayed the necessary courage to represent the concerns of countless Americans upset with DEI mandates. He inspired thousands of others to act independently and register complaints. As is typical of organic growth, there was no need to create a bureaucracy to coordinate those actions. Indeed, the undirected and spontaneous nature of these actions amplified their effectiveness.
No doubt, Mr. Starbuck has gained influence and recognition from his efforts. However, the real winners are everyone who wants to see the leftists’ lies unmasked, their followers scattered, and their agenda derailed. His action also proves that one man’s action can be extremely effective. Even mighty Walmart had to bow to accommodate the anti-woke concerns of one determined individual.
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