Wall Street and Silicon Valley have little to show for diversity pledges, critics say

A clash between Wells Fargo and a prominent investor over racial equity at the banking giant highlights the mounting pressure on some of America's biggest companies to follow through on their pledges to improve their diversity practices. 

Wells Fargo is urging shareholders on Tuesday to vote against a proposal calling on the lender to improve its racial diversity policies for employees as well as assess the company's impact on communities of color. According to a regulatory filing, the Service Employees Union pension plan proposal calls for the bank to conduct an internal review to help "identify, prioritize, remedy and avoid adverse impacts on nonwhite stakeholders and communities of color." The findings would then be publicly disclosed on the company's website. Wells Fargo's board of directors has said that a "human rights impact assessment" is already in the works.