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Yesterday, CNN ran an even more encouraging story headlined, “Harley-Davidson is dropping diversity initiatives after right-wing anti-DEI campaign.” It’s been a tough summer for woke termites infesting historically red corporations. First Tractor Supply and now this.
Harley Davidson was sad, just like Leslye Headland. “We are saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks, designed to divide the Harley-Davidson community,” the company wrote in its mea culpa posted on Twitter/X.
The motorbike company growled, “we have not operated a DEI function since April 2024, and we do not have a DEI function today. We do not have hiring quotas and we no longer have supplier diversity spend goals.” The classic American brand promised to focus only on motorcycles and to avoid getting involved in other shiny, distracting virtue signals, like its now-defunct relationship with the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ activist group.
One person created change. Influencer and conservative filmmaker Robby Starbuck went to war with Harley Davidson at the beginning of July. “It’s time to expose Harley Davidson,” Starbuck’s July 23rd post said. He listed twenty examples of how the company has “gone totally woke.” Such as Harley-Davidson’s ‘bootcamp’ for LGBTQ entrepreneurs, its donations to the United Way, and its public promise to increase employee diversity.
Just this year, Starbuck also successfully challenged Tractor Supply and John Deere, causing them both to publicly repent and ditch DEI. It’s a story of how just one persistent person can push back the battle lines in the culture war. I’m not saying Starbuck is like homemaker Phyllis Schlafly, who single-handedly derailed the awful 1972 Equal Rights Amendment, but it’s encouragingly similar.
Progress! Keep pushing.
Ending their DEI department and stopping donations to the Vile "Human Rights Campaign" (HRC) is a big step.
It ain't perfect, but we can praise steps in the right direction - while standing by to pounce if they dissemble.