While many have heard the phrase, “Go Woke, Go Broke,” some may be unaware that a corporation can potentially be too woke for government work. Specifically, as noted in an analysis by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, “the government is likely to begin … requiring contractors … to ‘certify that [they do] not operate any programs promoting DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.’” The Trump administration is also no fan of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) commitments, so corporations may also have a harder time getting government contracts if they are all-in on things like utopian and value/security-destroying net zero commitments.
All of which brings us to Dell, which included the following in its most recent (FY24) ESG Report:
(1) “By 2050, we will achieve net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across scopes 1, 2 and 3.”
(2) “By 2030, 50% of our global workforce and 40% of our global people leaders will be those who identify as women”
(3) “By 2030, 25% of our U.S. workforce and 15% of our U.S. people leaders will be those who identify as Black/African American or Hispanic/Latino”
(4) Employee resource groups that divide employees by race, including a “Black Networking Alliance”
(5) “Recognized as a leader in LGBTQ+ inclusion by meeting all criteria to earn a score of 100” on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. (For more on the problems with HRC’s CEI, go here.)
One could go on at length about each of these initiatives, but suffice it to say that committing to costly net zero commitments that are likely unattainable and furthermore likely to do absolutely nothing about climate change should they be achieved, while at the same time embracing arguably nothing short of race and sex quotas (note the added wokeness of apparently counting men “who identify as women” as women for purposes of female representation), on top of apparently supporting radical gender ideology that can reasonably be described as waging a revolutionary war on biological truth, women’s safety, and children’s innocence certainly should qualify one as woke. And all of these quotes were found after only a short web search, suggesting this is likely only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Dell’s corporate wokeness.
And Dell certainly has reason to be concerned about whether it’s too woke for government work. While a bit dated, it has been reported that Dell “in 2018 collected federal contracts worth $782.5 million, ranked No. 32 on the list of the U.S. government’s largest contractors.” More recently, Dell “won a potential four-and-a-half year, $794.6 million contract that tasks the company to provide Adobe Enterprise software licenses and related services for users across the Defense Department.” In fact, Dell has an entire webpage devoted to “Federal Government IT.”
Nor is Dell unaware of the possibility of negative consequences in related areas. In 2024, Dell paid “$2.3 million to settle claims that it overcharged the US Army for computers.” And, Dell was recently cited in a Wall Street Journal article titled, “Trump Administration Targets Tech Firms as It Cuts More Contracts.”
Perhaps this is all just an issue of timing, and since the FY24 ESG Report was published, Dell has decided to embrace things like colorblind equality, climate realism, and *not* supporting the mutilation of children in the name of “gender affirming care.” However, readers should probably be doubtful of that given Dell recently reaffirmed its commitment to divisive and discriminatory DEI.
For what it’s worth, the Orrick publication linked-to above provides guidance on how employees with relevant inside information can potentially blow the whistle on employers like Dell, which can be quite lucrative. Successful whistleblowers can receive “up to 30 percent of the total amount recovered.” Those who seek long-term shareholder value should prefer that value-destroying wokeness be exposed even at the cost of the short-term share-price pain such exposure could involve.
Finally, on the “Go Woke, Go Broke” front: While obviously complicated, readers may be interested to know that according to Yahoo Finance, Dell’s trailing 12-month total returns as of 6/20/2025 apparently underperformed the S&P 500 by almost 30%.
