The Score, Not the Slogan
A motorcycle company can dump its DEI office, exit the Human Rights Campaign index, and still keep a number on this site. That number is the whole argument.
Harley-Davidson scores 10/100 on BuyWokeFree — labeled mildly woke, status published. It is not a zero. It is also not Apple at 100/100, Nike at 75, or Target at 71. The Milwaukee cruiser brand is one of the few household names that actually reversed course in 2024 and left a paper trail. The score still includes the years before that reversal, plus the net-zero program that never got the same funeral.
If you want the automotive foil that kept more of the old playbook, that is Ford Motor at 66/100. If you want the EV company that tore DEI out by the roots, that is Tesla at 20. Those four numbers beat any slogan on a tank decal.
An Ex-Manager Sued Over the Rollback
The 2026 wrinkle is not a Pride float. It is a lawsuit.
As reported by HR Dive and Human Resources Director, former supplier-diversity manager Jennice Samuels sued Harley-Davidson Motor Company in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan (Samuels v. Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Inc., 1:26-cv-01969). The original complaint was filed June 29, 2026. A first amended complaint dated September 1, 2026 alleges the company dismantled her role as it wound down diversity work, then retaliated after she objected. The filing traces the dispute to mid-2024 — the same window as Harley’s public DEI retreat.
Those are allegations, not findings. The complaint says the EEOC dismissed her charge and issued a right-to-sue notice on April 8, 2026. She seeks reinstatement or pay in its place, lost wages, and additional damages under Title VII, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. Harley-Davidson has not, in public court coverage we reviewed, admitted liability. A lawsuit about a wind-down is not proof the wind-down was fake. It is proof someone who built the old program is fighting to keep it.
What Harley Actually Dropped in 2024
In August 2024, after a public campaign by activist Robby Starbuck, Harley stated it had not operated a DEI function since April 2024, had no hiring quotas, and was ending supplier-diversity spending goals. CBS News reported the same package: withdrawal from HRC Corporate Equality Index scoring, a review of training materials for socially motivated content, and a stated shift of sponsorships back toward the riding community.
HRC answered from its side. In a September 2024 press release, the HRC Foundation said it docked Harley-Davidson 25 points under Responsible Citizenship on the 2025 Corporate Equality Index and would keep rating Fortune 500 companies whether they participate or not. That is how these indexes work when a company walks: they do not delete the row. They punish the exit.
SupplierDiversity.com later summarized the commercial change in plain English. Harley had reported roughly 9% diverse spend — about $265 million — in 2022, with a 15% target by 2030. Those numeric goals are gone. A diversity certification is no longer a stated tiebreaker. Price, quality, capacity, and reliability are. That is the receipt conservative riders asked for. It is also the receipt the lawsuit is now attacking from the other direction.
New CEO, Old Accusations, Same Score
Jochen Zeitz retired as CEO on October 1, 2025. Former Topgolf chief Artie Starrs took over, per Harley’s investor announcement. In June 2026, Starbuck renewed a boycott call, as reported by USA Today and the New York Post, arguing Starrs and chief brand officer Marcus Fischer had promoted DEI and Pride work at prior employers. Harley’s public line, as quoted in Newsweek’s July 2026 profile, was that Starrs spent his first months listening to riders, dealers, employees, and unions, and that the “only agenda is getting back to basics: building great motorcycles.”
Past-employer biographies are not a reinstated DEI office. Harley has announced no return to HRC scoring and no new hiring quotas. The BuyWokeFree score stays 10 because the database is a multi-year record, not a press-release eraser. ESG and net-zero commitments — Scope 1 and 2 cuts at U.S.-owned facilities, LiveWire electrification, 2050 net-zero language — are why it is not a 0. If you want a 0 in a different aisle, that is a different SKU. In sneakers, the switch we keep citing is New Balance at 20 versus Nike at 75. On two wheels, Harley is the rare heritage name that actually moved.
The Automotive Ladder, Not the Myth
Harley lives next to Non-Woke Automobile Brands and automotive manufacturing more than it lives next to a Pride calendar. Ford at 66 still carries the Pride-ad and DEI-era record that built that score. Tesla at 20 is the other rollback story, driven by Elon Musk’s public demolition of DEI language rather than a Milwaukee board fight. Apple at 100 is the keep-DEI contrast the brief keeps handing us. Target at 71 is the retailer that still catches heat from both flanks after renaming programs and walking back some Pride merch.
None of those companies is Harley. Do not flatten them. A 10 is a 10 because the 2024 cuts were real and because the ESG stack was not cut with them. A 100 is a 100 because the company kept the machinery. Shop the integer.
What a 10 Means at the Dealer
If you boycott on vibes, you will miss this. Harley spent years collecting the usual corporate-equality badges, then dropped the function, the index, and the supplier-spend targets under customer pressure. The CEO who owned that era is gone. An ex-manager is now suing over how the wind-down was handled. That is the opposite of a company secretly doubling down while issuing a cuddly memo. It is a company that moved, got sued for moving, and still sits at 10 because sustainability reporting did not move with DEI.
Ride it or don’t. Just do not pretend the scorecard is a hashtag. Harley-Davidson is 10. Ford is 66. Tesla is 20. Apple is 100. Nike is 75. Target is 71. New Balance is 20. That is the database talking. The lawsuit is the 2026 receipt that the rollback had a body count inside HR — which is exactly what a real rollback looks like.