Robby Starbuck, Tennessee political commentator and documentary filmmaker, said the goal behind his work exposing companies that push DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives in the workplace is to have those companies get back to embracing “corporate neutrality.”
Since June, Starbuck has exposed multiple companies – including Tractor Supply, John Deere, Harley Davidson, Jack Daniels, Lowes, Ford, and others – for their DEI policies and funding of controversial causes which do not align with the values of their consumer bases.
Starbuck’s work to expose such policies have led the targeted companies to publicly reverse course amid backlash from consumers.
Now, as reported by The New York Times, companies are “preparing” for a “Starbuck offense” by hiring law firms and communications and consulting specialists to “handle backlash” from consumers:
Communications and consulting firms trawl through any content that companies have on their website, annual report or elsewhere that might expose them to a potential attack from Starbuck. (Words like “diversity” and any public association with the Human Rights Campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group, are a particular red flag.)
Amid companies’ efforts to prepare for being his next target, Starbuck said the amount of money being spent by companies to prepare for such backlash could be distributed among their employees as he would happily direct the companies how to not “draw the ire” of his investigations.
“[Companies] could stop wasting these millions of dollars on consultants. If they really want to figure out how to not draw the ire of my investigations, they can just drop me an email and I’ll tell them for free, and they can take those millions of dollars and distribute it among their employees,” Starbuck said on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“The fact that this entire industry is being created around fighting what we’re doing, basically just me and a couple of people, is pretty bizarre, honestly,” Starbuck added.
Starbuck explained that his strategy of singling out companies individually has been successful as companies find themselves “willing to do anything to survive” amid widespread consumer backlash which leads to monetary losses.
“For us, it’s just a matter of picking the right targets. I think we’re proving that it just takes concerted effort going one by one and understanding that on an individual basis, these companies are like wounded animals. The thing that has been the mistake that people have tried in the past is they’ve tried going at corporate America at large, which means you’re going after an entire pack of animals. They’re much more powerful in packs. So you’ve got to go after them one by one and they turn into this wounded animal that’s willing to do anything to survive,” Starbuck explained.
“We’re putting them in this corner where they’re scared and just want to find a way out,” Starbuck added.
Amid his initiative to drive change within companies that push DEI policies, Starbuck said he would be willing to speak to executives implementing such decisions and offer advice on how companies can “embrace a way forward” so that everyone can “coexist in business again.”
“I’ll go into the lion’s den anywhere…We can help them out with ideas on how to embrace corporate neutrality because at the end of the day, it’s not about embracing my politics. It’s about embracing a way forward for everybody to coexist back in business again where everything’s just normal. We just want normal America back,” Starbuck said.
Starbuck said he predicts in a year’s time, corporate America will be wiped of “wokeness.”
“I think this whole thing is going to draw them back. It’s probably going to take about a year for this to come to a point where we’ve really wiped out wokeness in corporate America, but I think within a year, you’re going to see a seismic change,” Starbuck said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
