It is not easy to move the needle when you are a historic company, or even a symbol of your country, in this case the United States. This is what the legendary motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson has found out, having just announced that it is abandoning its “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)” policy.
“We are saddened by the negativity that has permeated social media in recent weeks and which aims to divide the Harley-Davidson community,” the company wrote in a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, August 19, before explaining that it will not practice “recruitment quotas for hiring” in order to promote diversity, or that it will not apply such criteria when choosing its subcontractors.
“We remain committed to listening to all members of our community as we continue our shared journey as the world’s most desirable motorcycle brand,” the statement concludes, displaying the motto “United we ride”.
CEO accused of turning Harley into a ‘woke’ company
Behind this campaign to denigrate Harley-Davidson, we find a certain Robby Starbuck, who can be presented as a conservative activist and accused of conspiracy. He made a controversial documentary “The War on Children”, broadcast on X since February 2024 and highly recommended by Elon Musk himself. Documentary that has just been “censored” by Jeff Bezos’ Prime Video, as its author complained in a tweet from August 21.
At the end of last July, in another post on xRobby Starbuck has criticised Harley for having become “fully woke”, directly accusing its CEO since 2020, Jochen Zeitz, of being at the origin of this ideological drift.
He then goes on to list a long list of criticisms of the actions taken, from supporting “events” or “LGBTQ+ causes” to this strategy “that openly aims to have fewer white suppliers, resellers and employees.”
A YouTuber blows up his Harley
To express his resentment against this “woke turn,” an American YouTuber from the “Columbia War Machine” channel even took to literally machine-gunning a branded motorcycle… before simply blowing it up.
His video, soberly titled “Harley Davidson Woke Up! So I Destroyed My Bike!!!” posted on August 14, has more than a million views.
An extreme case, but one that shows how far hostility towards the brand can go in this context. This YouTuber already destroyed a Ford pickup truck decorated with a rainbow flag in the same way last year, once again accusing the manufacturer of sinking into wokism after an advertisement that was too “gay-friendly” for his taste.
And since he had a second Harley… the YouTuber posted another motorcycle destruction video on August 22. In the introduction, he salutes the measures taken by Robby Starbuck and this abandonment of DEI goals with the press release published three days earlier. However, he regrets that the CEO of Harley-Davidson, who is “so left-wing that he should resign or be fired,” remains in his position.
Hence this renewed violence, this time still with large-calibre weapons of all kinds, but an end to the cannons and disguises of the war of independence.
Microsoft and Meta are also backing off
Before this Harley episode, Robby Starbuck had already campaigned against other companies, criticising them for their “woke corporatism”, notes an article in Courrier International, citing a Harley-Davidson competitor, Polaris, the tractor manufacturer John Deere or even an agricultural product brand, Tractor Supply. Companies are also forced to backtrack on their actions aimed at promoting diversity.
Under pressure from a certain public, large companies such as Microsoft, Meta and Zoom have also reduced their budgets for such actions. Disney is also periodically criticised for the so-called “wake-up shift” by activist funds.
Finally, we can cite the example of the head of Blackrock, forced to increase his security spending: the manager would in fact be the target of the “anti-awakening” who criticize him for developing financial investments based on environmental and social criteria.
Source: BFM TV
