Source: AFP
Ordinary Americans are “fed up” with inclusion and diversity policies at corporate America, according to Robby Starbuck, who led a one-man campaign against the controversial initiatives.
In just three months, he persuaded half a dozen US companies to withdraw their so-called “DEI” policies, practices aimed at correcting historical discrimination but which the right has long criticized as unfairly targeting whites and men, including auto giant Ford.
In an undated memo released by Starbuck this week and confirmed by Ford, the automaker said it would not impose quotas on minority dealerships or suppliers.
“Sense is coming for corporate America,” Starbuck wrote in X.
His video “expose” and letter-writing campaign has seen Harley Davidson motorcycles, John Deere tractors and whiskey maker Jack Daniel’s drop their own policies, some of which have supported LGBTQ workers and racial minorities.
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“You end up in a position where every worker is told that you have to consume this one ideological type of view and other views are not represented,” he told AFP.
“People have a right to their opinions and we need to have a system that creates an equal footing for everyone and doesn’t force any ideology down everyone’s throat.”
The LGBTQ Human Rights Campaign, which Ford withdrew from as part of its departure from DEI, called Starbuck an “extremist troll” and said it was using corporate America “as pawns.”
HRC had rated Ford as part of its corporate equity index.
The director and producer of the Starbuck music video said that before he became an activist he was a supporter of Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in the November election.
He argues against policies that champion what he describes as a “culture of awakening” aimed at redressing racial inequalities and promoting LGBTQ rights that gained traction after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
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He has also campaigned against the imposition of anti-climate change policies on corporations and in a recent video on X where he has 600,000 followers denounced US militarism abroad.
“We deserve to respect our ideology, our ideas in the same way that everyone else wants to respect us,” he said.
Starbuck, who wears his hair in a tight ponytail, said the battle against the revival goes beyond Trump.
“Let their voices be heard”
“One of the great things that Trump did was he changed the dynamic in politics where outsiders couldn’t come in. Their voices couldn’t be heard,” said Starbuck, who has run for office before but insists he hasn’t. new designs. seek elections.
Source: AFP
He wondered why he would want to “muddy” himself when he can shape the conversation from the comfort of his country music farm home in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives with his activist lawyer wife and their three children.
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“We’ve accomplished more in two months than any other social movement (has with) corporate America in the last decade — probably the last two decades,” Starbuck said, though he did not elaborate.
“There’s a huge number of people behind me.”
He credits the huge number of supporters he has amassed, as well as whistleblowers from within the companies themselves, who oppose management initiatives.
“They don’t want their lives dictated by this group of people who think they should be able to impose their ideology on every part of our lives, in our children’s schools, in our workplaces, everywhere,” he said.
Source: AFP
