Bank of America blocks shareholder proposal against woke policies

Activist shareholders were unable to advance a proposal to scrutinize diversity trainings informed by critical race theory at Bank of America on Tuesday.

The motion called for a civil rights audit of the bank’s diversity policies to ensure no race or gender groups are being discriminated against in the name of equity or anti-racism. It was voted on and failed to advance at BoA’s annual meeting.

The proposal was supported by The Boardroom initiative, a coalition of conservative advocacy groups formed defend shareholders from “woke” corporate policies.

“While the shareholder proposal didn’t pass, this is still a victory for Americans because we’ve drawn a tremendous amount of attention to this issue,” Ed Resni, executive director of TBI and former CEO of McDonalds, said in a statement.

Resni, who is credited with the creation of McDonalds iconic McNuggets, said that CEOs have a responsibility to deliver value to shareholders.

“There are millions of Americans, including many retirees living on fixed incomes, who depend on their 401k income and are facing record inflation,” he said.

“These Americans are depending on CEOs to deliver value, not cater to left-wing activists.

TBI was launched last month when The Job Creators Network, founded by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, joined two other conservative advocacy groups, The Free Enterprise Group and Second Vote.

It hopes to act as a counter to progressive groups who have bought stock in companies and lobbied boards to adopt leftist policies on a wide range of issues, such as green energy, gender issues and social justice. Critics like TBI are concerned these boardroom politics are coming at the expense of shareholder returns.

Last year, Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow and director of the initiative on critical race theory at the Manhattan Institute, reported that BoA’s North Carolina and Charlotte market president Charles Bowman promoted a new “equity” initiative called United in Action. According to leaked documents, the program promoted ideas such as putting “marginalized staff” above “privileged staff” and teaching them to “decolonize their minds.”

Bank of America has said that the program was run independent of the company and is not part of its training materials.

“Every day, capitalism is under attack, and in too many instances, the source of those attacks is the corporate boardroom,” Andy Puzner, Executive Chairman of Second Vote, said in a statement.

“By demanding corporate transparency and accountability, The Boardroom Initiative is playing a crucial and growing role in this policy debate.”