The Dictatorship

McDonald’s is clowning itself with its DEI rollback

Published

1 year ago

January 11, 2025

McDonald’s is clowning itself with its DEI rollback

During the height of the racial justice protests that came after Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd, McDonald’s joined the fray of businesses and institutions declaring their solidarity with all those committed to ending racism. In a post on June 3, 2020on the platform then known as Twitter, McDonald’s shared a short video listing Floyd’s name alongside other Black victims of violence, including Trayvon Martin and Atatiana Jefferson.

McDonald’s announced this week that it’s stepping away from its previously established DEI goals.

In muted red and yellow tones, the video read: “He was one of us; she was one us,” and continued that the “entire McDonald’s family grieves.” McDonald’s declared itself in solidarity with “victims of systemic oppression,” and made it clear that the corporation stands “with Black communities.” It offered as proof its donations to the Urban League and the NAACP. The video ended with a black screen with white letters: “Black lives matter.”

It’s unlikely that McDonald’s will be posting a similar video anytime soon. McDonald’s announced this week that it’s stepping away from some of its previously established DEI goalsretiring a specific DEI pledge and changing the way it refers to its diversity team.

The gestures made during the summer of 2020 appear to have been compelled more by peer pressure than by principle. Now, leaders of organizations from big-box stores to universities have publicly disavowed policies promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, whose acronym DEI has become shorthand for any and all attempts to address centuries of homogeneity, inequality and exclusion in educational and professional spaces.

In other sectors, leadership and development support programs for racial and ethnic minorities have been renamed, restructured or simply retired. And in light of the Supreme Court curtailing affirmative action in higher education and a concerted conservative onslaught on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, McDonald’s frames its move as an attempt to pre-empt further court challenges to its diversity efforts.

In a Jan. 6 open letter to employees and franchisees that acknowledges “the shifting legal landscape,” the company’s senior leadership team announced what it called “a new concept: the power of OUR ‘Golden Rule’ — treating everyone with dignity, fairness and respect, always.” The company says it is:

“retiring setting aspirational representation goals and instead keeping our focus on continuing to embed inclusion practices that grow our business into our everyday process and operations”
“pausing external surveys to focus on the work we are doing internally to grow the business”
“retiring Supply Chain’s Mutual Commitment to DEI pledge in favor of a more integrated discussion with suppliers about inclusion”
and “evolving how we refer to our diversity team, which will now be the Global Inclusion Team.”

McDonald’s senior leadership said it remains committed to inclusion and believes a diverse workforce is a competitive advantage.

How it distributes its supply contracts not only impacts which companies get the opportunity to stock McDonald’s restaurants with hamburger buns and sausage patties, but it also impacts workers who prepare these essential goods. “Pausing external surveys” means aggrieved employees may have trouble collecting data and information on potentially discriminatory action within the organization.

McDonald’s is among a few corporations that have profited heartily from the idea that they are a friend to Black communities. Long before the summer of 2020, the summer of 1968 (which followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.) spurred soul-searching and reflection about how people in power could be vehicles for social change. Unfortunately, in both eras, many of the proposed solutions pivoted on businesses making commitments to recruit more talent of color while also eyeing the ways that these seemingly pro-social policies could also yield more profits.

McDonald’s has profited heartily from the idea that it is a friend to Black communities.

McDonald’s had already emerged as a dominant presence in the fast-food world, but in the late 1960s, the company would distinguish itself as leader in what would eventually be called DEI. The first step was recruiting its first Black franchisee, Herman Petty, to reopen a store on Chicago’s South Side in December 1968, and enlisting Black regional managers and advisers to build what would be called “Black stores.” A numerically modest but economically impactful group of Black franchise owners introduced and revived the brand among urban consumers of color. McDonald’s devoted an advertising budget to create content exclusively for minority media and recruited Black celebrities like Michael Jordan and Gladys Knight for national campaigns, making the company a leading source of contracts for Black-owned radio and TV networks, as well as marketing and consulting firms.

The McDonald’s logo appeared on material heralding contributions to civil rights organizations, historically Black colleges and universities and cultural initiatives. Many of those actions were initiated and funded by its growing network of Black franchise owners, who tried to hold McDonald’s accountable for contributing to a loyal and critical part of their consumer market.

Forty-four years after the first Black franchise owner entered the McDonald’s system, the chain selected Don Thompsonits first Black CEO, in 2012. That felt like a sign that the Golden Arches could recognize Black talent after decades of touting itself as a diversity champion in its recruitment efforts. Much of the company’s success — from the 1980s until the mid-2000s — was related to the work of Patricia Sowell Harrisa pioneer in the field of corporate diversity who started her early career at McDonald’s as an affirmative action officer in 1985.

In light of the national backlash against discussing the nation’s history or racism, it may not come as much of a surprise to those who don’t know the company’s history that McDonald’s is disavowing DEI. But so much of McDonald’s branding strategy for the last 50 years has promoted the chain as not just a place to eat cheap food served fast but as a supporter of the Black community and Black entrepreneurship.

This thinking and strategy expanded to other communities that gave birth to affinity groups for Latino franchisees, members of the AAPI community, women and LGBTQ people. This was smart business because it was lucrative, but it was also protective business because such demonstrations of appreciating diversity could also be used to deflect serious and important challenges to the labor experiences of its workers, most of whom are people of color.

So much of McDonald’s branding strategy has promoted the chain as a supporter of the Black community and Black entrepreneurship.

In recent years, when Black franchisees have organized and filed lawsuits against McDonald’s claiming racial discrimination related to the assignment of restaurants and alleging a lack support during challenging times such as the Covid-19 shutdowns, McDonald’s was able to argue its bona fides in creating Black wealth through franchises and its internal commitment to diversity.

But with its announcement that it’s retiring certain DEI policies, McDonald’s seems to have concluded that it doesn’t need the diversity talking points anymore, and although it’s one of the most powerful and influential global corporations with a record that speaks volumes about how diversity initiatives have enriched the company, it doesn’t appear to believe that diversity — no matter how superficial — is worth fighting for anymore.

In McDonald’s announcement, the company argued that its “early and full adoption of inclusion gives us a competitive advantage,” which both recognizes and glosses over the dynamic history that McDonald’s has had in DEI and signals that the company hopes the public will use the past to inform the present. But it’s still uncertain what the future will hold for a company that once touted itself to be a fast-food leader and has revealed that, like most corporations, it’s just a self-interested follower.

Marcia Chatelain

Marcia Chatelain is a professor of African American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America.”

The Dictatorship

Trump says he will announce his Federal Reserve pick on Friday

Published

6 hours ago

January 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump says he will announce his Federal Reserve pick on Friday

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he plans to announce his choice for chairman of the Federal Reserve on Friday morning, a long-awaited decision that could set up a showdown on whether the U.S. central bank preserves its independence from the White House and electoral politics.

For the past year, the president has aggressively attacked Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term as the head of the U.S. central bank ends in May. Trump maintains that Powell should cut the Fed’s benchmark interest rates more drastically to fuel faster economic growth, while the Fed chair has taken a far more judicious approach in the wake of Trump’s tariffs because inflation is already elevated.

“I’ll be announcing the Fed chair tomorrow morning,” Trump told reporters Thursday night as he went into a screening of the documentary “Melania” about his wife. “It’s going to be, somebody that is very respected, somebody that’s known to everybody in the financial world. And I think it’s going to be a very good choice. I hope so.”

Trump stayed relatively cryptic about his pick. His search was led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with four known finalists: Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor; Christopher Waller, a current Fed governor; Rick Rieder, an executive with the financial firm BlackRock; and Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council. Trump previously suggested Hassett was the frontrunner, only to recently say that he wanted him to remain in his current post.

Trump did say on Thursday night that “a lot of people think that this is somebody that could have been there a few years ago,” fueling speculation that he had chosen Warsh, who was a finalist in the 2017 search for Fed chair that led to Powell’s selection.

Tensions between Trump and the central bank had been steadily mounting as the president used the renovation costs of the Fed’s headquarters to further lambaste Powell, a campaign that resulted in the Fed getting subpoenas from the Justice Department earlier this month. The Fed chair took the rare step of issuing a video statement in which he said, “The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.”

Trump has long teased his Fed choice while saying his nominee would slash interest rates that influence the supply of money in the U.S. economy, the rate of inflation and the stability of the job market.

On the cusp of Trump’s announcement, Powell might have the ability to block him in an effort to ensure the Fed preserves its credibility by staying away from political considerations.

While his term as chair ends in roughly three months, Powell’s term on the Fed’s board of governors runs through 2028 and he could choose to remain in that post, likely blocking Trump’s ability to have his nominees control the majority of the seats on the board. Of the seven Fed governors, former President Joe Biden picked three of them in addition to renominating Powell to a second term as chair.

If Powell stays on the board, he could also create a small procedural hurdle for Trump’s ability to nominate someone new to the board. This would mean Trump would either have to choose an existing board member as chair or replace Stephen Miran, who is on leave from his job as chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers to fill a term as governor that technically ends on Saturday. If Trump chooses to replace Miran, he could name someone new to the board.

At a Wednesday news conference, Powell declined to say whether he would leave the board. But he did offer some advice to any successor about balancing the need for independent judgment with public accountability.

“Don’t get pulled into elected politics — don’t do it,” Powell said. “Another is, that our window into democratic accountability is Congress. And it’s not a passive burden for us to go to Congress and talk to people. It’s an affirmative regular obligation.”

The Dictatorship

Trump threatens tariffs on any country selling oil to Cuba

Published

6 hours ago

January 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump threatens tariffs on any country selling oil to Cuba

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, a move that could further cripple an island plagued by a deepening energy crisis.

The order would primarily put pressure on Mexico, a government that has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba and has constantly voiced solidarity for the U.S. adversary even as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to build a strong relationship with Trump.

Trump was asked by a reporter Thursday whether he was trying to “choke off” Cuba, which he called a “failing nation.”

“The word ‘choke off’ is awfully tough,” Trump said. “I’m not trying to, but, it looks like it’s something that’s just not going to be able to survive.”

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and a number of other Cuban officials condemned Trump’s executive order. Rodríguez called it a “brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people … who are now threatened with being subjected to extreme living conditions.”

He accused the U.S. of resorting to “blackmail and coercion to try to force other countries to join its universally condemned blockade policy against Cuba.”

Cuba relies on allies for energy

This week has been marked by speculation that Mexico would slash oil shipments to Cuba under mounting pressure by Trump to distance itself from the Cuban government.

In its deepening energy and economic crisis, fueled in part by strict economic sanctions by the U.S., Cuba has relied heavily on foreign assistance and oil shipments from allies like Mexico, Russia and Venezuela before a U.S. military operation ousted former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Since the Venezuela operation, Trump has said no more Venezuelan oil will go to Cuba and the Cuban government is ready to fall.

In its most recent report, Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex said it shipped nearly 20,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba from January through Sept. 30, 2025. That month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Mexico City. Afterward, Jorge Piñon, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute who tracks shipments using satellite technology, said the figure had fallen to about 7,000 barrels.

Uncertainty simmers in Mexico

Sheinbaum has been incredibly vague about where her country stood, and this week has given roundabout and ambiguous answers to inquiries about the shipments, and dodged reporters questions in her morning press briefings.

On Tuesday, Sheinbaum said Pemex had at least temporarily paused some oil shipments to Cuba. But she struck an ambiguous tone, saying the pause was part of general fluctuations in oil supplies and a “sovereign decision” not made under pressure from the U.S. Sheinbaum has said Mexico would continue to show solidarity with Havana, but didn’t clarify what kind of support Mexico would offer.

On Wednesday, the Latin American leader claimed she never said Mexico has completely “suspended” shipments and “humanitarian aid” to Cuba would continue and decisions about shipments to Cuba were determined by Pemex contracts.

“So the contract determines when shipments are sent and when they are not sent,” Sheinbaum said.

Trump and Sheinbaum spoke by phone Thursday morning. Sheinbaum said they did not discuss Cuba.

“We didn’t address the issue of Cuba,” Sheinbaum said, adding that Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary had discussed with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it was “very important” for Mexico to maintain its humanitarian aid to Cuba and Mexico was willing to serve as an intermediary between the U.S. and Cuba.

‘Under threat of tariff coercion’

The lack of clarity from the leader has underscored the extreme pressure Mexico and other Latin American nations are under as Trump has grown more confrontational following the Venezuelan operation.

It remains unclear what the Thursday order by Trump will mean for Cuba, which has been roiled by crisis for years and a U.S. embargo. Anxieties were already simmering on the Caribbean island as many drivers sat in long lines this week for gasoline, many unsure of what would come next.

On Cuban state television, commentator Jorge Legañoa, who usually expresses views aligned with the government, asserted “Cuba was not a threat,” but rather that the island’s authorities were fighting gangs and preventing regional drug trafficking with their zero-tolerance policy.

Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos F. de Cossio wrote on social media platform X that the U.S. is tightening its Cuban blockade after “the failure of decades of relentless economic warfare” and attempting to “force sovereign states to join the embargo.”

“Under threat of tariff coercion, they must decide whether to forgo their right to export their own fuel to Cuba,” he wrote.

___

Janesky reported from Mexico City. Andrea Rodríguez and Danica said.

The Dictatorship

Trump threatens Canada with 50% tariff on aircraft sold in US

Published

6 hours ago

January 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump threatens Canada with 50% tariff on aircraft sold in US

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened Canada with a 50% tariff on any aircraft sold in the U.S., the latest salvo in his trade war with America’s northern neighbor as his feud with Prime Minister Mark Carney expands.

Trump’s threat posted on social media came after he threatened over the weekend to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada if it went forward with a planned trade deal with China. But Trump’s threat did not come with any details about when he would impose the import taxes, as Canada had already struck a deal.

In Trump’s latest threat, the Republican president said he was retaliating against Canada for refusing to certify jets from Savannah, Georgia-based Gulfstream Aerospace.

Trump said the U.S., in return, would decertify all Canadian aircraft, including planes from its largest aircraft maker, Bombardier. “If, for any reason, this situation is not immediately corrected, I am going to charge Canada a 50% Tariff on any and all Aircraft sold into the United States of America,” Trump said in his post.

Trump said he is “hereby decertifying” the Bombardier Global Express business jets. There are 150 Global Express aircraft in service registered in the U.S., operated by 115 operators, according to Cirium, the aviation analytics company.

Bombardier and Gulfstream are head-to-head rivals, with the Global series battling for market share against Gulfstream’s latest models.

Bombardier said in a statement that it has taken note of the president’s post and is in contact with the Canadian government. The Montreal-based company said its aircraft are fully certified to Federal Aviation Administration standards and it is expanding U.S operations.

“Thousands of private and civilian jets built in Canada fly in the U.S. every day. We hope this is quickly resolved to avoid a significant impact to air traffic and the flying public,” the company said.

Spokespeople for the Canadian government didn’t respond to messages seeking comment Thursday evening.

John Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University, said certification is about safety and it would be unprecedented to decertify for trade reasons.

“Certification is not trivial. It is a very important step in getting planes to operate safely,” Gradek said. “Somebody is not picking on the Gulfstream. Decertification for trade reasons does not happen.”

Gradek said many Gulfstreams have been certified for years in Canada.

“This is really a smokescreen that’s basically throwing up another red flag in the face of Mr. Carney,” Gradek said. “This is taking it to the extreme. This is a new salvo in the trade war.”

The U.S. Commerce Department previously put duties on a Bombardier commercial passenger jet in 2017 during the first Trump administration, charging that the Canadian company was selling the planes in America below cost. The U.S. said then that Bombardier used unfair government subsidies to sell jets at artificially low prices.

The U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington later ruled that Bombardier did not injure U.S. industry.

Bombardier has since concentrated on the business and private jet market in its Global and Challenger families of planes. Both are popular with individual owners and businesses as well as fractional jet companies like NetJets and Flexjet. If Trump cuts off the U.S. market it would be a major blow to the Quebec company.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned Carney on Wednesday that his recent public comments against U.S. trade policy could backfire going into the formal review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the trade deal that protects Canada from the heaviest impacts of Trump’s tariffs.

Carney rejected Bessent’s contention that he had aggressively walked back his comments at the World Economic Forum during a phone call with Trump on Monday.

Carney said he told Trump that he meant what he said in his speech at Davos, and told him Canada plans to diversify away from the United States with a dozen new trade deals.

In Davos at the World Economic Forum last week, Carney condemned economic coercion by great powers on smaller countries without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the gathering.

Besides Bombadier, other major aircraft manufacturers in Canada include De Havilland Aircraft of Canada, which makes turboprop planes and aircraft designed for maritime patrols and reconnaissance, and European aerospace giant Airbus. Airbus manufactures its single-aisle A220 commercial planes and helicopters in Canada.

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Gillies contributed to this report from Toronto. AP writers Lisa Leff and Josh Funk contributed to this report.