Leaked audio from a Goodyear diversity training in Kansas released Thursday shows the company lied this week when it denied reports of discriminatory programming held for employees, which sparked President Donald Trump’s calls for a boycott. The training, reports of which surfaced Tuesday, featured what appeared to be a slide from a presentation instructing employees to adhere to a code of conduct prohibiting pro-police expressions and even the phrase “All Lives Matter,” while deeming support for the explicitly Marxist group “Black Lives Matter” as “acceptable.”
WBIW, a local Topeka news outlet, wrote that the photo was leaked from an anonymous employee on a training directed from Goodyear’s corporate offices in Akron, Ohio.
According to @goodyear tires, a MAGA shirt is a zero tolerance hate symbol. But Black Lives Matter is allowed. pic.twitter.com/1kWRqSDFQa
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 18, 2020
“Yesterday, Goodyear became the focus of a conversation that created some misconceptions about our policies and our company,” the tire company wrote in a Wednesday statement. “The visual in question was not created or distributed by Goodyear corporate, nor was it part of a diversity training class.”
Yesterday, Goodyear became the focus of a conversation that created some misconceptions about our policies and our company. Goodyear has always wholeheartedly supported both equality and law enforcement and will continue to do so. pic.twitter.com/oO6jUg2rTR
— Goodyear (@goodyear) August 19, 2020
Leaked audio that emerged from the training, released by a Topeka NBC affiliate, however, contradicts the company’s statement.
“Some people may wish to express their views on social justice or inequity or equity issues such as Black Lives Matter or LGBTQ pride on their face coverings, shirts, or wristbands. That will be deemed approved because it applies with a zero-tolerance stance,” one instructor is heard on the recording. “However if any associate wears all, blue, white lives matter shirts or face coverings, that will not be appropriate.”
Goodyear LIED pic.twitter.com/GdJnA9LBN1
— AmericaFest Poso (@JackPosobiec) August 20, 2020
Shortly before Goodyear released its statement, Trump called for a national boycott of the Ohio-based company that led the corporation’s already-struggling stock prices to plummet even further.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1296092859226042368?s=20
Goodyear’s decision to endorse Black Lives Matter, which is demanding state and local governments defund police departments, over the law enforcement agencies purchasing its products provoked condemnation from police officers nationwide.
