Last month, conservative filmmaker Robby Starbuck led a campaign to expose Tractor Supply’s commitment to woke ideology. Following just three weeks of shining the spotlight on the company’s far-left positions and activities, Tractor Supply completely reversed course, acknowledging that they disappointed their customer base and would do away with DEI, ESG, and other progressive positions.
On the heels of that successful effort to “bring sanity back to corporate America,” Starbuck moved on to John Deere.
John Deere is VERY proud of their Rainbow ERG group and promote the woke group publicly.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) July 16, 2024
Here’s just a taste of what they’ve done on CEO John May’s watch @JohnDeere:
• Created "Safe Space" magnets for desks
• Created an LGBTQ+ "Ally pledge" that lists the names of employees… pic.twitter.com/2kP5KX8C99
These are photos from John Deere for pride month. One flag wasn’t enough. They had a LOT of flags, including some I’ve never seen before.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) July 16, 2024
Not enough farmers know how much they love to fly flags showing what kind of sex you like @JohnDeere. Spread the word so they know!
John… pic.twitter.com/ulY9SL0guM
Wow. @JohnDeere won an award at ‘The Outies’ awards. To win this award they launched an LGBTQ awareness course and their Rainbow ERG helped draft a formal statement on racial justice!
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) July 16, 2024
I wonder why they didn’t tell farmers about this big award? Let’s help them spread the word! pic.twitter.com/XBB55iC86o
Think @JohnDeere’s wokeness only happens right here in America? Well… Think again.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) July 16, 2024
This insane gender ideology training about the ‘Genderbread Man’ occurred in Monterrey, Mexico for John Deere employees.
The genderbread man is often used to train little kids into transgender… pic.twitter.com/BFh3v0a89d
Sure enough, John Deere ended up following Tractor Supply’s lead on Monday.
“Our customers’ trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance to everyone at John Deere. We fully intend to earn it every day and in every way we can," the company said on X, posting a lengthy statement backtracking on a number of its woke positions.
Based on ongoing conversations, we have committed to the following:
- We will no longer participate in or support external social or cultural awareness parades, festivals, or events.
- Business Resource Groups will exclusively be focused on professional development, networking, mentoring, and supporting talent recruitment efforts.
- Auditing all company-mandated training materials and policies to ensure the absence of socially motivated messages, while being in compliance with federal, state, and local laws.
- Reaffirming within the business that the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.
- We fundamentally believe that a diverse workforce enables us to best meet our customers’ needs and because of that we will continue to track and advance the diversity of our organization.
We remain committed to listening to our customers, employees, and other key stakeholders. Your trust and confidence in us are of the utmost importance to everyone at John Deere and we fully intend to earn it every day and in every way we can.
Starbuck praised the move but said more could still be done.
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Wow. @JohnDeere just issued this statement in response to me exposing them.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) July 16, 2024
They say that going forward they commit to:
• No longer funding pride parades
• Business resource groups will no longer be divided on identity lines
• Audit all training materials to ensure the… pic.twitter.com/jmcNc2DWpW
"Another huge win in our war on wokeness BUT I don’t think this is enough for customers to go back," he said on X. "Customers want to hear that DEI policies are entirely gone and that they will no longer participate in social credit CEI scoring by HRC. This half measure shows that we’re a powerful force to be reckoned with though. While I’m not completely pleased, I don’t want to downplay the fact that this is another massive win. All of you are helping me force corporate America back to sanity. I won’t rest until we eliminate leftism from corporate America."
In a separate post, Starbuck noted that his strategy is working and some companies are even beginning to roll back woke programs even without an exposé for fear one is coming.
"We’re proving that the customer is king again, not Blackrock, State Street or Vanguard and certainly not the HRC," he said. "DEI is poison and we won’t rest until the public knows how companies have strayed from American values."
