Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell is pushing back against Walmart’s plans to do away with its DEI practices, urging the world’s largest retailer to maintain the strategies which she says “benefit both companies and consumers.”

Walmart is just one of a growing list of major corporations that have rolled back their diversity, equity and inclusion policies, a move that opponents say has been made due to backlash from conservatives.

Campbell and attorney general counterparts from 13 other states have written a letter to Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon, recommending the company reconsider phasing out supplier diversity programs and equity training for staff and removing the words “diversity” and “DEI” from company documents and employee titles.

“Recruiting diverse workforces and creating inclusive work environments benefit both companies and consumers,” Campbell said in a statement on Friday. She added that DEI initiatives have been “proven to increase a company’s bottom line, prevent unlawful workplace discrimination, and improve consumer experience.”

Walmart announced its DEI cutback plans in November, weeks after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. Changes also include not renewing a five-year commitment for an equity racial center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd and pulling out of a prominent gay rights index.

The company also announced it won’t be giving priority treatment to suppliers based on race and gender.

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms Inc. announced on Friday that it will also be getting rid of its DEI program that includes hiring, training and picking vendors. Other companies that have ended related initiatives include John Deere, McDonald’s, Ford, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply.

Companies like Walmart have connected their DEI cutbacks to the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in 2023 that ended affirmative action in college admissions.

Federally, Republicans have pushed for a ban on DEI programs within the government and to prevent associated mandates in contracting and grants.

Boston Democratic Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley called a bill that looked to achieve that an “utter disgrace,” demanding Republicans who backed the legislation not to quote Martin Luther King, Jr.

Locally, the Boston City Council is looking to establish protocols that ensure all ordinances and budgetary decisions “adhere to principles of racial and social equity.”

Walmart has also said it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don’t feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors. That would include chest binders intended for youth who are going through a gender change.

The Arkansas-based retailer will also be reviewing grants to Pride events to make sure it is not financially supporting sexualized content that may be unsuitable for kids.

A company spokesperson said some of its policy changes have been in progress for a while.

For example, it has been moving away from using the word DEI in job titles and communications and started to use the word “belonging.”

“We’ve been on a journey and know we aren’t perfect, but every decision comes from a place of wanting to foster a sense of belonging, to open doors to opportunities for all our associates, customers and suppliers and to be a Walmart for everyone,” the company said in a statement.

Campbell and the other attorneys general pointed out how McMillion stated in 2020 that Walmart’s commitment to DEI would prompt company employees to “work together to actively shape our culture to be more inclusive, not just accepting our differences … but celebrating them … every day … in every part of the company.”

“It is difficult to ascertain what has caused Walmart to shift so drastically from this position just four years later,” their letter states, “other than as a reaction to concerted efforts by a few to bully corporations into adopting their own cynical worldviews.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Walmart is rolling back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, a decision that Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell says the retailer should reconsider. (Herald file photo)