The right-wing activist riding a wave of opposition to DEI in corporate America

Robby Starbuck, a former Hollywood music video director and turned conservative activist, has caught fire campaigning online against some major American brands’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI), support for gay Pride marches and LGBTQ events, strategies to slow climate change and other social policies.

Robby Starbuck, a former Hollywood music video director turned conservative activist, has caught fire campaigning online against some major American brands’ diversity, equity and inclusion programs (DEI), support for gay Pride marches and LGBTQ events, strategies to slow climate change and other social policies. Starbuck is both riding a wave of right-wing hostility to DEI programs and corporate advocacy on issues like climate change and LGBTQ rights and advancing the opposition himself. He has channeled energy on the right to target specific brands popular with politically conservative customers — Harley-Davidson, Tractor Supply Co. and John Deere — and relentlessly drawn attention online to their past publicly-stated policies. Starbuck has also claimed credit for Brown-Forman and Lowe’s internal announcements in recent weeks to scale back some of their diversity and inclusion programs. Starbuck has selected brands whose programs on some of these issues were only implemented in recent years and may be less likely to resist pressure. The full impact of his activism is not entirely clear, but companies are rethinking their programs amid a changing political environment and online pressure. Starbuck told CNN in a phone interview last month that he is “exposing” companies. But more than anything, Starbuck is showing how “haphazard” many companies’ support for diversity, inclusion and climate programs were to start, said Shaun Harper, a professor of education and business at the University of Southern California and founder and executive director of its Race and Equity Center. “The larger takeaway is about the fragility of corporate DEI initiatives. If one person can take to Twitter and ultimately inflame a campaign to dismantle DEI in large companies, it means those things were not strong to begin with,” Harper said. “Most companies and the people who lead them were not committed to this in the first place.” Starbuck, 35, whose real name is Robert Starbuck Newsom, lives outside of Nashville with his wife, Landon, and their three school-age kids. Landon Starbuck has been a leading advocate in Tennessee for right-wing causes like banning both transgender-affirming medical care for minors and drag shows with children present.