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Rosalind Brewer, the CEO of Sam’s Club and the first woman and Black woman to head any of Walmart‘s companies, spoke with CNN recently for an interview. During the talk, Brewer spoke at length about promoting diversity at her company which was met by bigoted responses and comments calling her a racist.

Business Insider writes:

Brewer was asked by the interviewer how she promotes diversity within her company.

“It has to start with top leadership,” Brewer said. “My executive team is very diverse and I make that a priority. I demand it within my team.”

She said she mentors women inside and outside of her company, as well, and also encourages Sam’s Club’s partners to hire a more diverse workforce.

Now here’s the comment that ignited the uproar. Brewer said:

Just today we met with a supplier and the entire other side of the table was all Caucasian males. That was interesting. I decided not to talk about it directly with [the supplier’s] folks in the room because there were actually no female, like, levels down. So I’m going to place a call to him.

Critics are claiming that Brewer’s remarks are evidence that she advocates against employing and hiring white men — even though four of the eight people on her executive team are white men. Some customers are now accusing Brewer of being “racist” toward white men and are threatening to boycott Sam’s Club.

The interview has since been shared widely by right-wing sites, including RedState, BizPac Review, and TeaParty.org, prompting some customers to criticize the company online.

“As a white male I’m deeply offended by the remarks of your employee,” one person wrote on Sam’s Club’s Facebook page. “We will not be patronizing Sam’s Club until this is corrected.”

Because context and nuance are lost arts, it’s pretty clear that the critics of Brewer’s comments missed her point completely. Not to mention that tidbit that eight white men are part of her executive team.

Common sense is free. Never forget.

Photo: screen cap/YouTube/CNN