Woke America's McNugget problem: Former McDonald's exec war on Bank of America's CRT program
Former McDonald's CEO Ed Rensi, who is said to have invented the popular McNugget, has decided to wage war against corporations that implement "woke" policies.
Rensi, who served as CEO of the food giant from 1991 to 1997, has partnered with conservative advocacy groups to form The Boardroom Initiative, which aims to protect shareholders and employees of publicly traded companies from woke policies that endanger profits and ultimately betray those who pay the staff's wages. The initiative also plans to counter left-wing groups who purchase stocks in various businesses to eventually lobby the board to adopt controversial policies on gender and race.
RELATED ARTICLES
'Lunatics running the asylum': Internet joins Joe Rogan in slamming 'woke' tech employees
According to Fox Business, the Boardroom Initiative has joined forces with an existing group, Free Enterprise Project, which has reportedly laid out a blueprint to curb woke propaganda. Members recently bought 2,000 Bank of America shares, crossing the threshold to formally propose a motion at the next shareholder meeting. The group is expected to demand the firm undertake a civil rights audit in order to prevent the imposition of critical race theory-inspired 'equity' training on staff.
In recent years, companies have faced pressure to adopt more liberal policies so they are eligible to raise money from large money management firms like BlackRock, which gauges a firm's performance based on controversial "environmental, social, and governance" factors. Meanwhile, several blue-chip firms regularly issue statements on police brutality and transgender treatments for children, including American Express and Disney.
Rensi, however, believes that pursuing wokeness is causing firms to fail in their fiduciary duty to shareholders. "Corporations have no business being on the right or the left because they represent everybody there and their sole job is to build equity for their investors," the 78-year-old told Fox News. He claimed he's not politically active or motivated, but simply wants to act in the best interest of the shareholders of publicly traded companies. Rensi, who has also served on the boards for Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que, Great Wolf Resorts, and Snap-on Inc, insisted that "it's not the providence of board members or executives that take shareholder money profit and spend it on social matters." The former McDonald's CEO is working with Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who founded the Job Creators Network and conservative organizations The Free Enterprise Group and Second Vote.
As mentioned, the Boardroom Initiative is already eyeing Bank of America and plans to raise enough clout to demand the board ensure no race or gender groups are being excluded in the name of equity or antiracism. That said, Bank of America has previously faced backlash following reports that it was allegedly training employees on critical race theory, which considers racism as a social construct deeply rooted in American legal systems and policies.
Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, reported last year that Bank of America's Market President in Charlotte, North Carolina had launched a new initiative called United in Action, in partnership with United Way of Central Carolinas. According to Rufo, the initiative promoted putting "marginalized" staff over "privileged" staff and said they must "decolonize their minds." Bank officials later said the program was run independently and wasn't a part of the company's employee training modules.
Earlier this year, Bank of America and the United Way implemented a race reeducation program called United in Action, encouraging employees to participate in a "Racial Equity 21-Day Challenge," built on the principles of critical race theory and intersectionality. pic.twitter.com/lsWk8xwCdT
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) August 18, 2021
Richard Morrison, a senior fellow at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, told Fox Business that he hoped the Boardroom Initiative marked "the beginning of a new era in corporate America in which extremes of ideological politics are set aside so that everyone can work on creating value for both customers and investors."