Why can Goodyear employees wear Black Lives Matter gear, but not MAGA?

AKRON Goodyear isn’t the only major U.S. employer allowing its employees to embrace Black Lives Matter at work — but not Make America Great Again.

So is the federal government.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency headed by a President Donald Trump appointee, last month issued a statement saying that Black Lives Matter is neither political nor partisan, which means federal employees are free to wear or display materials at work related to the social justice cause.

Make America Great Again, however, is off limits, the special counsel has said, because it’s Trump’s slogan and federal workers are prohibited from using slogans or phrases directed toward the success or failure of a partisan political candidate or a political party.

It’s not clear if Trump was aware of the federal government position when he called for a boycott of Goodyear for mirroring the government policy.

But the kerfuffle -- prompting local leaders to leap to the defense of one of the city’s largest, oldest and most respected employers even as its stock dropped 6% -- has raised a larger issue for companies and their workers across the country.

As Americans’ identities are increasingly intertwined with the causes they support — especially among younger workers — what’s the dividing line between politics and issues like racial justice or LGBTQ equity?

Politics hard to define

Beyond legal rulings and human resources rules, there is no clear definition about what’s considered politics and what’s not, said Brant Lee, a University of Akron law school professor and assistant dean of diversity and social justice initiatives.

“What is happening now, and what happens every now and then in history, is that there’s a change in values,” Lee said. “And, we’re at one of those moments now.”

The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which ultimately led to the most important breakthrough in equal rights legislation for Black Americans since the Civil War, was a similar moment, he said.

“People think the non-violent civil rights movement was popular, but it was unpopular at the time,” Lee said. “People said it’s not civil. They asked, ‘Why are you bringing up politics when we’re just trying to have lunch at the counter?’ ”

Now, generations later, it’s not controversial for a company to say it supports civil rights for its employees, Lee said.

“But it would have been in 1964,” he said.

Similarly, people who believe Black Lives Matter is not political now have already made a values change, Lee said.

“For them, we’ve crossed over. This is now a value and they say we should be agreeing as a society that there’s clearly a problem with the way Black people have been treated,” he said.

But that’s not universal, he said, at least not yet.

“What’s not clear yet is whether we’re going forward or we went too far and we’re going to snap back,” Lee said.

In five years, he said, we’ll be able to look back and know whether Black Lives Matter was political — or not.

Meanwhile, companies like Goodyear are left trying to sort things out themselves.

“Businesses are concerned about social issues. It’s a big part of being a responsible company,” said Mark Whitmore, who teaches human resources and leadership at Kent State University.

“What employees wear is symbolic of the company and symbolic messages are very important.”

Deciding on policies that satisfy everyone can be a challenge, he said.

Imagine, for instance, if a company adopts an open-ended policy that allows employees to wear hats supporting causes they believe in.

“Someone comes in wearing a Black Lives Matter hat and someone else comes in wanting to wear a neo-nazi hat with a big swastka in the center,” Whitmore said. “So what do you do? You’ve painted yourself in a corner.”

That’s why some companies try to play it safe by forbidding employees from conveying any messaging, political or otherwise, through what they wear or have on their desks, he said.

“But they can run into friction, too,” he said.

Last month in Akron, protesters gathered outside of a Marc’s store on East Waterloo Road after an employee was prevented from wearing a COVID-19 mask that said “Black Lives Matter.”

The local grocery chain pointed to its longstanding dress code mandating that its workers must wear company-approved apparel free of any non-work related logos or writing while on-the-job.

When an employee showed up with a Black Lives Matter mask, store managers offered him a different one, Marc’s officials said at the time. But the employee refused, left the store and later quit.

Other well-meaning policies can look hypocritical, Whitmore said, offering this example: “I can’t wear a Black Lives Matter hat at work, but my company supports Black Lives Matter issues.”

In that case, he said, the issue may be keeping employees focused on work and not sidetracked by a disagreement over an issue.

But company policies are evolving, he said.

“As younger generations are going into the workforce, they are interested in working for companies that also have a positive impact on the world,” Whitmore said. “They want to be able to identify themselves with that.”

Goodyear clarifies position

At Goodyear, it’s still not entirely clear what specific issues employees can embrace at work.

Trump’s tweet last week to boycott Goodyear was prompted by a Kansas television station’s report featuring a slide shown at Goodyear’s Topeka plant about workplace-appropriate clothing.

At the top of one slide, it says “Zero Tolerance” and then lists what is acceptable and unacceptable at work.

Black Lives Matters and LGBT Pride were both deemed acceptable (The “Q,” for queer, was not included in the Pride reference. It is not clear why).

Blue Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, MAGA attire and politically affiliated slogans or materials were listed as unacceptable.

In his statement Thursday, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. CEO Rich Kramer said the slide “was not approved or distributed by Goodyear Corporate or anyone outside of that facility,” and that he regretted the impression it left.

Goodyear clarified its policy, allowing workers to wear clothing that supports law enforcement.

Kramer didn’t mention Black Lives Matter or LGBTQ rights, although the company has since reiterated it allows its employees to “express their support on racial injustice and other equity issues.”

He also stood by Goodyear’s policy to “not endorse any political organization, party or candidate.”

“ We have a longstanding corporate policy that asks associates to refrain from workplace expressions in support of any candidate or political party,” he said.

That would, it appears, exclude anything MAGA. It would also exclude anything related to presidential challenger Joe Biden or anyone else seeking political office.

Rebecca J. Erickson, who chairs the department of anthropology and sociology at the University of Akron, said the attention Goodyear has drawn over its employee policies is an opportunity for other companies to reassess their own, making sure their mission statements about values and inclusion line up with what they expect from employees.

She said the line drawn by the U.S. Special Counsel between politics and Black Lives Matter makes sense.

“The key thing here is human rights,” she said.

Black Lives Matter, Erickson said, isn’t political because it’s a constellation of ideas and objectives without a particular leader.

“Racism is not aligned with a political party, Republicans, independents, Democrats, whoever,” she said. “The notion that Republicans aren’t in support of the Black Lives Matter movement is probably demonstrably false.”

The Rev. Ray Greene Jr., executive director of the Akron-based Black Led Organizing Collaborative (Bloc), said last week he was taken aback over what happened with Goodyear and its stance on employees wearing Black Lives Matter apparel.

Black Lives Matter, he said, is about humanity and it can’t be about politics, at least not now

“Because what we’re saying -- I don’t care who is in office -- neither party is doing anything for us,” he said.

Greene said he’d rather companies ban all racial justice and social equity expressions that run into what Goodyear did.

“But Goodyear created a dialogue,” Green said. “People are talking.”

UA law professor Lee pointed out workplace cultures change.

Ten or 15 years ago, many employees wouldn’t have felt comfortable talking about their gay marriage in the office, Lee said..

Now, gay marriage isn’t a big deal, he said, because the country’s values have changed.

How did it start? Maybe someone brought a rainbow flag to work one day.

“Maybe it wasn’t company culture, but they tested it,” he said. “Culture is allowed to change, culture is changing now...and there are employees who step up and say I’m going to help it change.”

Beacon Journal Reporter Jim Mackinnon contributed to this report.

Reporter Amanda Garrett can be reached at agarrett@thebeaconjournal.com.