Image Source: SHRM
Reporting by Nancy Levine Stearns, September 9, 2025
Updated: September 10, 2025
On Tuesday, SHRM (Society for Human Resources Management), the largest and most prominent professional membership group of its kind, announced it would platform anti-DEI activist Robby Starbuck as part of its “Blueprint” series. Starbuck is scheduled to be in conversation with former CNN pundit Van Jones at a live event in Kentucky in October.
Robby Starbuck was interviewed in March by Nikkei Asia. “Using DEI practices to artificially raise disadvantaged peoples to the same level as white males is ‘a communist concept that is really not friendly to the idea of free markets and capitalism,’ said Starbuck,” the financial newspaper reported.
Starbuck, a former music producer, claims credit for pressuring corporations to “flip” their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI or by any other name). He has no legal training nor business education or corporate experience, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The Heritage Foundation, organizer of Project 2025, announced in an April press release that Starbuck was joining the organization as a visiting fellow for its capital markets initiative, which pressures businesses to address “agendas that are unethical, immoral, and illegal—like so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.”
Though Starbuck has claimed credit for getting companies to “flip,” in fact, shareholders of 30 corporations, collectively valued at more than $13 trillion voted overwhelmingly to reject anti-DEI proposals in 2025, most by 98-99% of voting shares, as Impactivize has reported. CEOs including those from Goldman Sachs and Merck were vocal, telling shareholders that diversity and inclusion are business-critical. As Merck CEO Rob Davis told investors at their 2025 annual meeting, diversity and inclusion are “a strategic imperative.”
David A. Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America told PBS about the Heritage Foundation’s vision:
“The priority really is on men as breadwinners. They see women raising children as being the highest calling for them. And they see the Christian heritage of the United States as being essential and something that needs to be brought to the fore.” And “when they take on DEI programs,” those initiatives are coming from this vision.
The NAACP wrote: “Project 2025 is a policy proposal that seeks to undermine our progress, dismantle democracy, and take us back to a time when we did not have a vote or a voice. The overarching goal of the project is to ‘gut the administrative state from within,’ and is incredibly harmful to the Black community.”
GLAAD reported: “Heritage’s stated support for freedom and limited government does not extend to LGBTQ Americans, as evidenced by decades of waging losing battles against” numerous LGBTQ+ initiatives.
The war on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI or by any other name) has been well chronicled. On President Trump’s first day of his current presidency, he issued an executive order instructing federal agencies to target DEI, with focus on publicly traded corporations and large nonprofit organizations.
America First Legal, a nonprofit organization cofounded by Trump’s senior advisor Stephen Miller has recently filed formal federal complaints and lawsuits against companies including the Los Angeles Dodgers and Shell Oil, stemming from DEI programs, which, the filings complain, amount to discrimination against white people.
Republicans in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held an anti-DEI hearing on July 23. Senators made clear that DEI by any name, including “culture” or “belonging” would be targeted. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon for Civil Rights testified to Senators: “Either DEI will end on its own, or we will kill it.”
SHRM’s announcement to platform Starbuck comes on the heels of Supreme Court’s decision on Monday to overturn a federal judge’s order that had prohibited federal agents in Los Angeles from stopping people and questioning them about their immigration status based solely on “racial profiling.”
“Giving a platform to voices like Robby Starbuck under the banner of ‘fairness’ isn’t neutrality—it’s regression disguised as balance,” posted Katica Roy, gender economist, on LinkedIn. She wrote, “Starbuck’s framing—that DEI is communism and that inclusion is ‘immoral’—isn’t just anti-economic, it’s anti-American.”
Impactivize advisory board member Shari Dunn, JD, penned an open letter to SHRM, writing:
“SHRM moved away from the word equity, calling it ‘polarizing’ and ‘unclear.’ But now it’s platforming an unqualified anti-DEI influencer who has said, in substance, that Black people shouldn’t be ‘elevated’ to the level of white men. If ‘equity’ is too controversial to say, but this is acceptable, something is wrong.”
On 9/10/25, SHRM released this statement:
“We firmly believe engaging with a broad spectrum of perspectives is essential for meaningful dialogue and innovation. Robby Starbuck and Van Jones offer viewpoints that resonate with many Americans, and by including them, we demonstrate our commitment to hearing from all points of view. Our nation is built on the foundation of diverse opinions, and our event aims to foster respectful discussion that reflects this reality. Our goal is to help inclusion move forward.” – Tina McCormack Beaty, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer, SHRM, September 10, 2025