Disney Officially Drops DEI, Reverts Back To Sanity

The 2024 election was a massive wake-up call to corporate America that the era of obsessive focus on progressive politics was officially over. That focus has manifested itself in recent years in Bud Light's disastrous decision to use Dylan Mulvaney to advertise beer, Target's release of absurdly excessive Pride Month merchandise for children, and, of course, Disney's incorporation of far-left messages into children's movies.

All of these choices proved to be extremely costly, financially and otherwise. Disney's share price is down roughly 40% from just a few years ago. All the while, the rest of the market soared. Target lost billions in revenue and now faces a shareholder lawsuit over its DEI initiatives. Bud Light's sales collapsed, forcing them to completely revamp their advertising. And public opinion of those respective brands has yet to recover.

But after President Donald Trump won easily in November, corporations started pulling back on left-wing activism. Quickly. And now Disney's become the latest to abandon progressive politics, specifically by ending the discriminatory DEI policies and misplaced focus that have cost it and its shareholders billions.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES - 2019/07/17: Cinderella Castle in Walt Disney World. (Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Disney Ending DEI Policies Is Good For Everyone

Axios reported Tuesday that Disney's corporate leadership sent a letter to employees relaying that the entertainment giant would refocusing the company's efforts away from DEI and towards "business outcomes." What a novel concept for a business; to focus on the best possible outcomes instead of pointless, divisive virtue signaling with no clear financial benefits. 

Another part of the corporate "shift," per Axios, is "moving and changing" the "content disclaimers" Disney introduced as part of the Great Woke Panic in 2020.

Classic Disney films like Peter Pan, The Swiss Family Robinson, The Aristocats and Dumbo were slapped with labels warning modern audiences that films made in a different era had different cultural representations. Naturally, these changes were made after consulting with organizations like the African American Film Critics Association, Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment and GLAAD.

These messages protected millions of Disney+ subscribers from having to see storylines or characters that differed from modern progressive views. Heroes, all of them. 

This protection, so valuable and necessary, provided helpful disclaimers ahead of The Swiss Family Robinson telling viewers that the pirates in the film were shown as a "stereotypical foreign menace," with costumes that showed off their "barbarism and ‘otherness.’"

It'd be too dumb to believe, if every corporation hadn't also used similarly nonsensical messaging.

They're also changing executive incentives; replacing the prior "Diversity & Inclusion" performance evaluation with a "Talent Strategy" focus. While still a bit of a DEI rebrand, it at least instructs executives to focus on "business success" as opposed to simple discrimination.

Disney's "Reimagine Tomorrow" initiative and website is also now dead. That corporate buzzspeak was focused on separating content out by race or ethnicity, one of the many hypocritical exclusionary policies created by "inclusive" organizations.

All these changes, while not going nearly far enough, are a tremendous win for consumers, culture, Disney employees and its shareholders. DEI policies have accomplished nothing, other than creating the very hierarchies they claim to dismantle. Disney is the poster child for the damage misplaced political focus can cause; collapsing box office revenues, declines in park interest, and inserting itself into conversations where it doesn't belong.

And it turns out, after all the criticism he took, that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis comprehensively won the battle with Disney over the state's Parental Rights in Education bill. This latest letter is a complete and thorough surrender. Took them long enough.