As Harley-Davidson ‘Goes Woke’, Anti-DEI Campaigners Look to Break Its Resolve

This rising tension highlights a growing rift between the company and its dealerships, who argue that Harley’s current strategies could be damaging to their long-established businesses.

A number of long-time Harley enthusiasts are distancing themselves from the brand due to CEO Jochen Zeitz’s endorsement of various social and environmental policies. This shift has not resonated well with a segment of their dedicated customer base.

This move has triggered fears of job cuts at the American facilities, leaving employees anxious about their positions and the company’s direction.

This glut is causing financial headaches for dealers at a time when motorcycle sales are lagging.

This statement illustrates the deep-seated fears about the future sustainability of their businesses under current corporate strategies.

This investment comes at a particularly tough time, with sales dwindling and the financial justification for such expansions growing thinner.

This network includes hundreds of outlets worldwide.

He suggested that dealership profitability is largely influenced by their own management and market conditions.

This has sparked a broader debate about the brand’s values and how they align with the traditional views of its customer base.

This includes their stance on trans care for children and critical race theory, highlighting a divide among the brand’s followers.

Calls for Zeitz’s resignation were vocal, with one attendee notably demanding, “They need to figure out a way to get rid of him.”

Last year, Target became embroiled in a social media firestorm over its Pride line of clothing and accessories that resulted in a pretty significant hit to its bottom line. As a result, it massively scaled back its Pride activities this year.

Walmart were far less cagy than the likes of Target and other brands in the face of such backlash, going all-in on its Pride promotions this year rather than making concessions to appease a segment of vocal online opposition.

Harley-Davidson would appear to have gone a step further, caving to such pressure entirely and walking back their previous proposals.

After its previous commitments, the motorcycle maker has now simply become the latest in a string of manufacturers to drop diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

In the online statement, the company confirms that it has not in fact operated a single DEI corporate function since April.

This would appear to be a complete 180 on the previous sort of messaging coming out of the company regarding endorsement of social policies.

In the statement, Harley-Davidson stated that it recognizes “every leader’s role to ensure we have an employee base that reflects our customers and the geographies in which we operate.” This messaging would seem designed to placate the “anti-woke” critics who had become vocal recently.

They would now focus on mentoring, training and business development. The statement adds Harley-Davidson’s acknowledgement that cultivating a “broad customer base is good for business.” The U-turn seems to have been initiated long before this statement, though.

This review was undoubtedly in response to the online criticism from the likes of Starbuck and similar anti-DEI campaigners who were accusing Harley-Davidson of adopting the far left’s “woke agenda.”

They’re not even the only company in the auto market segment that Starbuck and his ilk have hounded for supporting any sort of socially progressive initiatives. The end result is even pretty much the same.

Earlier this summer, this campaign bore similar fruit as these companies made the same sort of concessions as Harley-Davidson. The tractor maker issued a statement in July saying it would no longer participate in “cultural awareness parades.”

But DEI initiatives and the threat of the “woke agenda” weren’t the only concerns being felt in relation to the business changes Harley-Davidson were considering.

“We believe jobs are leaving but they don’t want to say how many,” a concerned employee reported to TMJ4, pointing to uneasy times ahead for the company’s U.S. workforce.