Target: L.E. Whiting, CEO for Brown-Forman
Goal: Restore initiatives that support marginalized employees and consumers.
“Fair treatment and full participation”: these should be core and non-controversial goals for every business and educational institution in a nation that prides itself on its diversity and its equality. Yet because of a few loud and outsized voices like social media influencer Robby Starbuck, an increasing number of businesses, schools, and even entire state policies are turning away from these ideals. Major corporations like Ford, Lowe’s, John Deere, and Harley Davidson have caved to pressure from these influencers and cut back on initiatives and programs designed to offer support for marginalized communities and to help level the playing field for these individuals. In the process, the fundamental American concepts of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (or DEI) have become dirty words and political weapons.
The latest company to jump on this bandwagon should be especially ashamed. Brown-Forman, a parent company of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, has announced that it will completely end the DEI goals for which it has long served as a champion. The uber-popular whiskey arose from the partnership of Jack Daniel with a former slave: a man who taught Daniel how to distill whiskey. Now, this legacy has devolved into yet another cultural wedge issue where real people are suffering the consequences.
Sign the petition below to call on this powerful organization to reaffirm its legacy and to stand up against attacks on core American values.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Whiting,
Rather than “reevaluating” policies that have been in place for decades, this company should instead reevaluate its own history. Jack Daniel was a man who championed diversity, equity, and inclusion not through empty words but where it mattered — through his actions. Without the immense contributions of Daniel’s friend and distilling partner, former slave Nathan Green, neither Jack Daniel’s whiskey nor Brown-Forman would exist today.
Cutting this company off from DEI programs and policies is a slap in the face to the employees and consumers (nearly two-thirds of whom support DEI policies) you are abandoning to appease a few loud voices. Moreover, it is an affront to this company’s historical legacy. Fair treatment and full participation were never an issue for the decades this organization has supported such concepts…that is until the aforementioned loud mouths came up with a fresh line of attack for outdated, tired grievances.
“We put our employees and our values at the forefront of all our decisions and actions.” These words are part of your mission statement. It’s time to put action behind the words. Stop bending to the will of a few and support the real American values cherished by the many.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Quinn Dombrowski
.jpg){kind=link}
With a story like this it is hard to believe people are actually good. What happens to a business described so decently? One man and a slave made the recipe and now, after generations, turn on all who are exactly like the men forming this company. It is best to be positive but when one looks at the formation of acceptable behavior in humans, yet so little is found. That’s depressing. It is obvious the Trumps of the world instigate trouble in the society. Some people should never have been born. Yet so many fall victims and that doesn’t stand for personal respect and strength. People have no sense of self and lack the courage to say, NO!