Harley-Davidson (
HOG) is the latest corporation to back away from DEI initiatives following a backlash kickstarted by activist and political commentator Robby Starbuck. An online campaign against the 120-year-old motorcycle company accused the firm and its CEO, Jochen Zeitz, of embracing a "woke agenda of the very far left" that does not align with the business's core customers. It follows similar campaigns
against Deere (
DE) and
Tractor Supply (
TSCO), which both shelved their DEI protocols earlier in the summer.
Quote: "We did it again. 3 for 3," Starbuck wrote on X. "People are sick of the lunacy in their workplace. They just want to go to work and have it be work again. I'm not asking you to become a conservative company. I'm asking you for it to be neutral and to make it a welcoming place for everybody." He also pledged to continue his anti-woke campaign against another major U.S. corporation but hasn't disclosed the name of the company.
Harley-Davidson will no longer have supplier diversity spending goals and is reviewing all sponsorships and affiliations to retain its "loyal riding community, first responders, activity military members and veterans." It will also not participate in
Human Rights Campaign scoring and will evaluate its training program to be absent of socially motivated content. "We are saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks, designed to divide the Harley-Davidson community, and it is our responsibility to respond with clarity, action and facts," HOG said in a press release.
From the SA comments section: "This really isn't all that hard. Don't take sides in the culture war. Why MBAs don't understand this is beyond me. In the past, companies stayed silent and it offended no one,"
writes Alfredo Martinez. The saying "go woke, go broke" is also under the microscope. "HOG went from above $70 to under $40 in the six years before the Floyd controversy,"
adds Herbert Kornfeld. "Since then it has hung around the same under $40 level as before Floyd. In other words: it went 'broke' before it went 'woke.'" (
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