Amazon is ‘winding down’ some of its DEI programs

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Like Meta, Amazon is ending some of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. In a memo sent last month, Candi Castleberry, Amazon’s VP of inclusive experiences and technology, said the company has been “winding down outdated programs and materials” related to its efforts around representation and inclusion, as reported earlier by CNBC and Bloomberg.

In the memo, a copy of which Amazon provided to The Verge, Castleberry wrote that over the past few years, Amazon has been evaluating its programs across the company, each of which “addresses a specific disparity, and is designed to end when that disparity is eliminated.” At the same time, Castleberry noted that the company worked to “build programs that are open to all” instead of having “individual groups build programs.” Castleberry said Amazon aimed to complete the discontinuation of some of these “outdated” programs by the end of 2024.

Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser declined to identify which programs had been ended.

“This approach — where we move away from programs that were separate from our existing processes, and instead integrating our work into existing processes so they become durable — is the evolution to ‘built in’ and ‘born inclusive,’ instead of ‘bolted on,’” Castleberry wrote.

News of the December memo comes just hours after Meta confirmed a report from Axios detailing the company’s plans to eliminate its DEI program entirely, citing the “legal and policy landscape” in the US. Corporations outside of tech are also stepping away from DEI, with McDonald’s and Walmart also scaling back programs.

As noted by CNBC, Amazon also recently removed sections from its “Our Positions” page, which outlines the company’s stance on various political and social issues. An archived version of the page from November 2024 shows two separate sections with the headings “The inequitable treatment of Black people is unacceptable,” and “The rights of LGBTQ+ people must be protected.”

The current page removes both sections in favor of a single sentence reading

We also believe that inequitable treatment of anyone—including Black people, LGBTQ+ people, Asians, women, and others—is unacceptable, and we advocate for policies designed to remove barriers to equity and create an inclusive environment for all employees.

The company also replaced a section heading stating “Diversity, equity, and inclusion are good for business—and more fundamentally, they’re simply right.” with “We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive company that helps us build the best range of products and services for our broad customer base.”

“We update this page from time to time to ensure that it reflects updates we’ve made to various programs and positions,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement to The Verge.

Here’s the December 16th memo in full:

As we head toward the end of the year, I want to give another update on the work we’ve been doing around representation and inclusion.

As a large, global company that operates in different countries and industries, we serve hundreds of millions of customers from a range of backgrounds and globally diverse communities. To serve them effectively, we need millions of employees and partners that reflect our customers and communities. We strive to be representative of those customers and build a culture that’s inclusive for everyone.

In the last few years we took a new approach, reviewing hundreds of programs across the company, using science to evaluate their effectiveness, impact, and ROI – identifying the ones we believed should continue. Each one of these addresses a specific disparity, and is designed to end when that disparity is eliminated. In parallel, we worked to unify employee groups together under one umbrella, and build programs that are open to all. Rather than have individual groups build programs, we are focusing on programs with proven outcomes – and we also aim to foster a more truly inclusive culture. You can read more about this on our Together at Amazon page on A to Z.

This approach – where we move away from programs that were separate from our existing processes, and instead integrating our work into existing processes so they become durable— is the evolution to “built in” and “born inclusive,” instead of “bolted on.” As part of this evolution, we’ve been winding down outdated programs and materials, and we’re aiming to complete that by the end of 2024. We also know there will always be individuals or teams who continue to do well-intentioned things that don’t align with our company-wide approach, and we might not always see those right away. But we’ll keep at it.

We’ll continue to share ongoing updates, and appreciate your hard work in driving this progress. We believe this is important work, so we’ll keep investing in programs that help us reflect those audiences, help employees grow, thrive, and connect, and we remain dedicated to delivering inclusive experiences for customers, employees, and communities around the world.

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