My colleague Tyler O’Neil covered Goodyear Tire and Rubber company’s incomprehensible decision to ban MAGA hats and other Trump clothing while allowing “Black Lives Matter” and “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride” attire, according to a leaked training graphic.
In addition to anything that spells out the MAGA slogan, “Blue Lives Matter,” “All Lives Matter,” and “Political Affiliated Slogans or Material” were considered “unacceptable.”
While the company may think they’re preventing fights from breaking out over politics on the factory floor, it’s a gross violation of freedom of speech.
Not surprisingly, Donald Trump is not amused.
Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES – They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!).
For their part, Goodyear is playing dumb. Politico:
In a statement following Trump’s tweet, Goodyear denied that the slide was created or distributed by their corporate office and claimed it was not part of a diversity training class.
The company did not indicate the image was doctored and stood by the ban on political messaging articulated in the slide.
“To be clear on our longstanding corporate policy, Goodyear has zero tolerance for any forms of harassment or discrimination,” the statement read. “To enable a workplace environment free of those, we ask that associates refrain from workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party, as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues.”
Aren’t “racial justice and equity issues” political in nature? There’s nothing about “equality” in Black Lives Matter. It is a grassroots political organization. The fact that they have no formal ties with the Democrats should be irrelevant. They are using violence in the streets as the sharp end of the stick to gain political power. Not acknowledging their political role is absurd.
And what of “equity”? Does everyone have the exact same idea of what equity for gays and transgendered people should be? Of course not. Hence, there are going to be arguments. And if the company decides to call disagreements with the gay political agenda “hate speech,” they’ll be even bigger hypocrites than they already are.
Goodyear’s milquetoast statement didn’t sit well with Trump.
Goodyear’s response was not enough to satisfy the White House. Elaborating on his tweet at a news briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Trump accused the company of “playing politics” and claimed that he polled “very well” with its “great workers.”
“When they say that you can’t have Blue Lives Matter, you can’t show a blue line, you can’t wear a MAGA hat, but you can have other things that are Marxist in nature, there’s something wrong with the top of Goodyear,” Trump told reporters.
And press secretary Kayleigh McEnany elaborated on the “equity” issue.
“They came out and said equity issues,” McEnany said. “I will stand at this podium and say Blue Lives Matter is an equity issue, and Goodyear needs to come out and acknowledge that.”
Trump’s call for a boycott probably won’t result in much lost business for Goodyear. Left-wing calls for boycotts don’t work either. But the resulting publicity puts the company in a negative light and may pressure them to change a controversial policy.
I daresay a tweet or two from Trump has profoundly more impact than calls to boycott Goya Foods.
