After going through a generation (baby-boomers) of supporting equal rights for “all” which includes women (later in the effort), Corporate America (in this case John Deere) is reversing its course. The stance is a “whatever will be, will be” and we will not make an effort to level the playing field. I was working on a cable scaffold about 20 stories up. A 20th floor window opened up and another worker with his canvas bag of tools stepped on the scaffold. About that time, Marty (foreman) let loose with a lengthy list of explicatives at the new worker including “nigger.” This was 1970 and equal rights was still a dream and racial tension was high. If they can not work as an equal in capabilities, how can you hold them responsible. Marty left the
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Bill Haskell considers the following as important: history, integration, politics, US EConomics
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After going through a generation (baby-boomers) of supporting equal rights for “all” which includes women (later in the effort), Corporate America (in this case John Deere) is reversing its course. The stance is a “whatever will be, will be” and we will not make an effort to level the playing field.
I was working on a cable scaffold about 20 stories up. A 20th floor window opened up and another worker with his canvas bag of tools stepped on the scaffold. About that time, Marty (foreman) let loose with a lengthy list of explicatives at the new worker including “nigger.” This was 1970 and equal rights was still a dream and racial tension was high.
If they can not work as an equal in capabilities, how can you hold them responsible. Marty left the scaffold out of the window the Black man exited from and screaming at him. In a matter of minutes, the Black tuckpointer went to the same window he entered from and left. While leaving, he looked at this almost 19-year-old man-boy and left. The hurt in his face was evident. I still remember the look.
John Deere is reinforcing similar action by no longer sponsoring social or cultural awareness.
Today, John Deere’s position is a matter of silent contempt. Read on . . .
John Deere ends support of ‘social or cultural awareness’ events, AP News
SUMMARY: Farm equipment maker John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, becoming the latest major U.S. company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash.
In a statement posted Tuesday to social media platform X, John Deere also said it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws. It did not specify what those messages would include.
Moline, Illinois-based John Deere added . . .
“The existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.”
But it noted that it would still continue to “track and advance” the diversity of the company, without providing further details.
The move from the company known on Wall Street as Deere & Co. arrives just weeks after rural retailer Tractor Supply ended an array of its corporate diversity and climate efforts. Both announcements came after backlash piled up online from conservative activists opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, sponsorship of LGBTQ+ Pride events and climate advocacy.
MY TAKE: This is bad news for America, not just because it shows a weakening of our commitment to support diversity and inclusion at a time when systemic racism is increasing, but it also shows a lack of moral commitment by corporations to embrace American ideals.
John Deere’s faltering means that either they were bullied by public sentiment to show “social or cultural awareness,” or they actually cared but are now being bullied by the conservative climate to abandon “social or cultural awareness.” Either way, they certainly don’t represent the American idea of standing up to bullies—or standing for anything. Instead, they embrace the corporate amorality of whatever brings the most profit. This indicates their corporate policy goes whichever way the political wind blows, which makes them as empty and inconsequential as that wind.