Toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker has been accused ‘scrubbing’ DEI content from its website amid a right-wing boycott over its policies.

The tool firm, which owns brands such as Stanley, Black and Decker, DeWalt and Craftsman, last week became the latest US business to face right-wing criticism and calls for a boycott for having diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies in place.

In recent months, firms across the United States have been hit with backlash from conservatives over their DEI commitments, particularly around issues like LGBTQ+ and racial equality.

The anti-DEI campaign is being spearheaded by Robby Starbuck, a hard-line right-wing activist with a large social media following, who first went after rural retail chain Tractor Supply in June and has subsequently attacked Harley-Davidson, John Deere, Molson–Coors, Lowe’s, Ford and Jack Daniel’s – with many companies caving and rolling back their DEI policies in response.

Starbuck, who has also produced an anti-trans film that was banned by Amazon’s streaming service, has insisted in several posts that “we are winning, and one by one we will bring sanity back to corporate America”.

It’s not just Starbuck leading the charge against DEI, however: Right-wing campaign group Consumers’ Research – which boasts that it targets “wokeness” in businesses – called out Connecticut-based Stanley Black & Decker, saying the company “should focus on its customers, not woke politicians”.

On Monday (9 September) Will Hild, the director of Consumers’ Research, took to X/Twitter to allege that the company had “scrubbed” DEI content from its website.