American Express built one of the most aggressive corporate DEI machines in America. A $3 billion DEI commitment. A perfect 100/100 score on the BWF Woke Index. Critical race theory training so extreme that conservative journalist Christopher Rufo's leaked documents launched the #UnAmericanExpress boycott campaign. And then, quietly — almost embarrassed — Amex started walking it back.
In October 2025, Amex signed a back-channel agreement with the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) to strip diversity language from its board criteria. By February 2026, the company had also dropped DEI metrics from executive compensation. And the class-action lawsuit alleging Amex discriminated against white employees just added three more plaintiffs.
Here's what's actually going on behind the scenes at the country's most woke-captured financial institution — and why Amex's quiet surrender doesn't get them off our list.
The 100/100 Woke Score: How Amex Earned Every Single Point
Buy Woke Free scores companies across six research-backed dimensions: ESG initiatives, DEI programs, Pride sponsorships, the HRC Corporate Equality Index, political donations to left-leaning causes, and the CEO Action for Diversity pledge. American Express scored maximum points across the board.
- $3 billion DEI commitment — One of the largest corporate DEI pledges in U.S. history
- 15% of executive bonuses tied to diversity metrics (since dropped, but the structure existed for years)
- Perfect 100% HRC Corporate Equality Index rating, year after year
- #ExpressLove Pride campaign supporting same-sex marriage, plus a partnership with Out magazine
- $1.74 million in 2024-cycle PAC contributions (per OpenSecrets) and $1.37 million in lobbying spend
- Net-zero greenhouse gas emissions pledge by 2050 baked into ESG reporting
- CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge signed by former CEO Kenneth Chenault
This isn't a company that drifted into wokeness. This is a company that led the institutional capture.
The Christopher Rufo Bombshell: "Anti-Racism" Training That Targeted White Employees
In 2022, Christopher Rufo published internal Amex training materials that read like a parody of corporate DEI gone feral. The documents reportedly described capitalism as inherently racist, ranked employees on a "privilege hierarchy" based on race, and instructed white employees to view their professional identity through the lens of racial guilt.
Rufo's reporting triggered the #UnAmericanExpress campaign and put Amex squarely in the crosshairs of CPAC, the Heritage Foundation, and Color Us United, which formally labeled the company's policies as "racially divisive."
The fallout wasn't just public relations. It was litigation — and that litigation is now actively expanding.
The Class Action Just Got Bigger
Former Amex employee Brian Netzel — a 10-year veteran fired in 2020 — filed a class-action lawsuit alleging Amex's "anti-racism" overhaul created a hostile work environment for white employees. The complaint claims white workers were passed over for promotions while Black employees were elevated, in some cases, to fill quotas.
That lawsuit didn't quietly disappear. Three additional plaintiffs joined the class action, bringing fresh allegations of pattern-and-practice discrimination. Amex denies wrongdoing, but the case is now precisely the kind of "test case" that the EEOC has been signaling it wants to pursue against corporate DEI regimes — the same playbook it just deployed against Nike.
The Quiet 2026 Walk-Back
For all of Amex's public bravado about diversity, the company has been quietly dismantling some of its most visible DEI infrastructure:
October 2025: NLPC Back-Channel Agreement
Amex signed an agreement with the National Legal and Policy Center to remove specific demographic criteria from board candidate selection. The previous language sought a "mix of directors" defined by "gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and nationality." All five identity categories — gone.
February 2026: Public Disclosure
The agreement was publicly reported by Bloomberg, alongside similar deals NLPC reached with Deere & Co. and Johnson & Johnson. NLPC's Paul Chesser called it "a significant unraveling" of corporate board DEI architecture.
Executive Compensation Restructured
The 15% diversity-tied bonus structure that defined Amex executive pay for years is gone. Diversity performance goals no longer factor into compensation calculations.
What remains is softer language: "diverse skills, backgrounds, experience and viewpoints." That's the kind of phrase you can drive any policy through.
Don't Mistake a Walk-Back for a Conversion
Here's the question Buy Woke Free readers should be asking: did American Express change its mind, or did it just hide the evidence?
The honest answer is the second one. Amex's CEO and board haven't apologized. They haven't disavowed the Rufo-exposed training. They haven't made the laid-off plaintiffs in the class action whole. They haven't withdrawn their HRC submissions, their Pride sponsorships, their net-zero pledge, or their PAC contributions to left-leaning campaigns.
What they did was strip the most legally exposed language from board criteria and compensation formulas — the parts most likely to lose in court. Everything underneath is still running. The institutional infrastructure that made Amex a 100/100 woke score didn't get dismantled. It got buried.
This is the corporate playbook for 2026: say less publicly, change less internally, keep the activist commitments on autopilot, and hope the lawsuits go away.
What Conservative Cardholders Should Do
If you're carrying an American Express card, you're funding a company that:
- Spent $3 billion on DEI you didn't authorize
- Funded political activity that overwhelmingly tilts left
- Is currently defending itself against a discrimination class action that just expanded
- Has not disavowed any of its woke-era policies — only repackaged them
Conservative-friendlier alternatives in the credit-card space include Coign Bank (the explicitly conservative card launched in 2022), Old Glory Bank debit products, and credit unions that don't publish ESG reports or sponsor Pride parades. None of them are perfect, but none of them are 100/100 woke either.
The Bottom Line
American Express remains extremely woke on the BWF Index. The company's 2026 retreat is real, but it's a legal-defense retreat, not an ideological one. Amex didn't conclude that its anti-racism training was wrong. It concluded that its anti-racism training was indefensible in court.
That's a meaningful distinction. And it's why Amex stays right where it is on the Buy Woke Free list — at the very top of the brands worth replacing in your wallet.