Apple is the largest company in the world — and, unfortunately, one of the ones most given to leftward corporate drift. Apple is a top-tier sponsor of the Human Rights Campaign, a radical organization that pressures companies to provide puberty blockers under the guise of ‘healthcare.’ It acquiesces to requests from the Chinese Communist Party to censor Bible and Quran apps in its Chinese market. It held entrepreneurship camps only for applicants of targeted racial minority groups. And the company donated a million dollars to the widely-discredited Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that routinely blacklisted conservative organizations, such as Alliance Defending Freedom and Moms for Liberty, as extremists without cause. In a sea of companies that have kowtowed to woke corporate activists, Apple stands apart as one of the worst actors in this space.
That’s why it came as a welcome surprise to hear Apple CEO Tim Cook address the changing climate around diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at the company’s annual meeting yesterday. In response to a shareholder question my firm asked about DEI, Cook responded, “As the legal landscape around this issue evolves, we may need to make some changes to comply, but our north star of dignity and respect for everyone and our work to that end will never waver.”
President Trump quickly responded to Cook’s remark, noting on Truth Social that “Apple should get rid of DEI rules, not just make adjustments to them.”
That’s a big hint that things may be changing for Apple in the future. There’s almost no doubt this is Apple adapting to the new corporate world, where championing DEI is no longer a mainstay of corporate policy but a real source of legal and reputational risk from an administration that’s made rooting out discriminatory ‘diversity’ programs one of its primary missions. But that doesn’t mean we can’t treat this as a positive development for Apple’s political neutrality and fiduciary focus. Although Apple has opposed many efforts from conservative shareholders to get the company ‘back to neutral’ on politics, let’s take Tim Cook’s statement on its face. As someone in the weeds on fighting biased corporate policies, here are 4 ways Apple can bring its corporate policies back in line with being business first.
End Partnership With The Human Rights Campaign
If Apple publicly drops its partnership with the Human Rights Campaign and ends its participation in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, it might be the biggest sign that it’s serious about making changes to its public perception. For companies serious about their fiduciary duty, severing ties with the HRC is the first step, with companies like Walmart and Target having publicly walked away from the organization in the recent past. If Apple wants to drop a major PR liability overnight, throwing the HRC’s mailer in the trash and never responding again would be a good start.
Take Pro-Fiduciary Shareholders Seriously
Apple’s meeting yesterday was notable in that its entire shareholder agenda was from investors who aren’t ESG/DEI-aligned. 3 years ago, Left-wing, DEI aligned shareholders dominated Apple’s agenda and set the tone for who exactly was influencing the company. Now, the opposite influences are being felt and yet the company hasn’t exactly been forthright in responding to them.
The firm I work for, Bowyer Research, represented conservative shareholders at Apple’s annual meeting yesterday. We got to witness first-hand the company’s disingenuous dodging of not only questions about the company’s divisive charitable partnerships and lax approach to curbing online child exploitation, but the company’s coverage of transgender surgeries and hormone regimens for children (coverage that’s required as part of its HRC partnership). If the company is serious about its response to the large-scale vibe shift in corporate America, it could stand to actually listen to the shareholders and institutions that are fueling it.
Actually Ditch Discriminatory DEI Programs
This was the obvious one. It’s beyond clear that diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in corporate America do more to create risk and politicize brands than they do to ensure political neutrality. Costco is a perfect example — its defense of DEI resulted in Al Sharpton making it the focus of his pro-DEI messaging (spoiler alert: Al Sharpton filming propaganda videos at your store is not what political neutrality looks like). IBM is another example — its alleged use of racial quotas is so egregious that it’s brought a lawsuit from the Missouri Attorney General’s office, along with a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation demanding transparency on the risks such diversity initiatives create. When other tech giants, including Microsoft and Google, begin slashing DEI initiatives, Cook’s admission about changes is an indicator that Apple can see which way the wind’s blowing.
Right before Christmas last year, Apple melted thousands of hearts with a wholesome, family-first ad about how its AirPods Pro 2 made life more meaningful for the hearing-impaired. That kind of messaging acknowledges a simple truth: it’s Apple’s products, not its radical corporate partnerships or its donations to partisan groups, that have made the world a better place. If Apple accurately reads the room on corporate culture, Cook’s hint at “making changes” will mean tangible efforts to get the company out of divisive politics and back to making innovative products that create human flourishing in a way that no DEI program ever could.
* * *
Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X @IsaacWillour.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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[[{“value”:”
Apple is the largest company in the world — and, unfortunately, one of the ones most given to leftward corporate drift. Apple is a top-tier sponsor of the Human Rights Campaign, a radical organization that pressures companies to provide puberty blockers under the guise of ‘healthcare.’ It acquiesces to requests from the Chinese Communist Party to censor Bible and Quran apps in its Chinese market. It held entrepreneurship camps only for applicants of targeted racial minority groups. And the company donated a million dollars to the widely-discredited Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that routinely blacklisted conservative organizations, such as Alliance Defending Freedom and Moms for Liberty, as extremists without cause. In a sea of companies that have kowtowed to woke corporate activists, Apple stands apart as one of the worst actors in this space.
That’s why it came as a welcome surprise to hear Apple CEO Tim Cook address the changing climate around diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at the company’s annual meeting yesterday. In response to a shareholder question my firm asked about DEI, Cook responded, “As the legal landscape around this issue evolves, we may need to make some changes to comply, but our north star of dignity and respect for everyone and our work to that end will never waver.”
President Trump quickly responded to Cook’s remark, noting on Truth Social that “Apple should get rid of DEI rules, not just make adjustments to them.”
That’s a big hint that things may be changing for Apple in the future. There’s almost no doubt this is Apple adapting to the new corporate world, where championing DEI is no longer a mainstay of corporate policy but a real source of legal and reputational risk from an administration that’s made rooting out discriminatory ‘diversity’ programs one of its primary missions. But that doesn’t mean we can’t treat this as a positive development for Apple’s political neutrality and fiduciary focus. Although Apple has opposed many efforts from conservative shareholders to get the company ‘back to neutral’ on politics, let’s take Tim Cook’s statement on its face. As someone in the weeds on fighting biased corporate policies, here are 4 ways Apple can bring its corporate policies back in line with being business first.
End Partnership With The Human Rights Campaign
If Apple publicly drops its partnership with the Human Rights Campaign and ends its participation in the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, it might be the biggest sign that it’s serious about making changes to its public perception. For companies serious about their fiduciary duty, severing ties with the HRC is the first step, with companies like Walmart and Target having publicly walked away from the organization in the recent past. If Apple wants to drop a major PR liability overnight, throwing the HRC’s mailer in the trash and never responding again would be a good start.
Take Pro-Fiduciary Shareholders Seriously
Apple’s meeting yesterday was notable in that its entire shareholder agenda was from investors who aren’t ESG/DEI-aligned. 3 years ago, Left-wing, DEI aligned shareholders dominated Apple’s agenda and set the tone for who exactly was influencing the company. Now, the opposite influences are being felt and yet the company hasn’t exactly been forthright in responding to them.
The firm I work for, Bowyer Research, represented conservative shareholders at Apple’s annual meeting yesterday. We got to witness first-hand the company’s disingenuous dodging of not only questions about the company’s divisive charitable partnerships and lax approach to curbing online child exploitation, but the company’s coverage of transgender surgeries and hormone regimens for children (coverage that’s required as part of its HRC partnership). If the company is serious about its response to the large-scale vibe shift in corporate America, it could stand to actually listen to the shareholders and institutions that are fueling it.
Actually Ditch Discriminatory DEI Programs
This was the obvious one. It’s beyond clear that diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in corporate America do more to create risk and politicize brands than they do to ensure political neutrality. Costco is a perfect example — its defense of DEI resulted in Al Sharpton making it the focus of his pro-DEI messaging (spoiler alert: Al Sharpton filming propaganda videos at your store is not what political neutrality looks like). IBM is another example — its alleged use of racial quotas is so egregious that it’s brought a lawsuit from the Missouri Attorney General’s office, along with a shareholder proposal from the Heritage Foundation demanding transparency on the risks such diversity initiatives create. When other tech giants, including Microsoft and Google, begin slashing DEI initiatives, Cook’s admission about changes is an indicator that Apple can see which way the wind’s blowing.
Right before Christmas last year, Apple melted thousands of hearts with a wholesome, family-first ad about how its AirPods Pro 2 made life more meaningful for the hearing-impaired. That kind of messaging acknowledges a simple truth: it’s Apple’s products, not its radical corporate partnerships or its donations to partisan groups, that have made the world a better place. If Apple accurately reads the room on corporate culture, Cook’s hint at “making changes” will mean tangible efforts to get the company out of divisive politics and back to making innovative products that create human flourishing in a way that no DEI program ever could.
* * *
Isaac Willour is an award-winning journalist focusing on race, culture, and American conservatism, as well as a corporate relations analyst at Bowyer Research. His work has been featured at outlets including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Opinion, C-SPAN, and The Daily Wire. He is a member of the Young Voices contributor program and can be found on X @IsaacWillour.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
“}]]
