The Home Depot was the target of online controversy over a pamphlet for employee training that was found in a Canadian store. The information was shared on social media and led to accusations that the company had gone “woke.”
According to reports, the flyer was posted in Calgary’s Home Depot’s break room. It featured the logo of Home Depot and was entitled “Leading practices: Unpacking privilege.” It asked employees to “check” their privilege, whether it is white privilege, class privilege” or Christian privilege.
This two-pager encourages workers to talk with colleagues about white privilege and race, and provides tips for doing so.
The document was posted on Twitter on Sunday. Debate continued for several days. By Wednesday, the hashtag “Home Depot” was trending on Twitter.
Critics slammed Home Depot’s flyer on one side of the debate.
One person tweeted, “I came to get a hammer & some mulch, not for a wake eduction.” “Get in your lane Home Depot.”
People on the other hand defended privilege training and claimed that critics were “the problem.”
One person said, “Imagine a company encouraging their employees to think from multiple perspectives and growing empathy for other humans. This is something that I am upset about.”
FOX Business received confirmation from the U.S.-based firm that the pamphlet was posted for employees in the north, but that corporate had not approved its contents.
A spokesperson for Home Depot stated that while we support diversity in our company, the material was not approved or created by our corporate diversity equity and inclusion department. “This was a resource within our Canadian division, and it wasn’t required programming.”