Wisconsin’s Top Companies Were Outraged Over George Floyd. Why Won’t They Condemn Hamas?

In 2020, America’s biggest corporations poured millions of dollars into Black Lives Matter while lecturing the country on its “systemic racism.” Now those same corporations are hypocritically mute over the murder of thousands of Israelis by Hamas terrorists. Woke CEOs made their bed—time for them to lie in it.

Originally published at Must Read Alaska (Nov. 6, 2023)

In 2020, America’s biggest corporations poured millions of dollars into Black Lives Matter while lecturing the country on its “systemic racism.” Now those same corporations are hypocritically mute over the murder of thousands of Israelis by Hamas terrorists. Woke CEOs made their bed—time for them to lie in it.

If silence is complicity, then much of corporate America is all-in for Hamas terrorism. 

That’s the lesson we’re learning from Kohl’s, Miller, and other top Wisconsin companies which blasted America’s “systemic racism” following the death of George Floyd in May 2020. 

Never mind that Floyd was an opioid abuser with a criminal record (recall that he tried to pass a counterfeit bill the night of his death). Or, according to a media-suppressed coroner report, that he had a “fatal level” of fentanyl in his body at the time of his death. 

For “woke” corporations, Floyd’s sad death was yet one more example of “police brutality” and “white supremacy”—and they made sure everyone knew it by backing Black Lives Matter riots across America’s cities. Their motto: If you aren’t with us, you’re against us.

Fast forward to November 2023, and these same virtue-signaling CEOs are still deafeningly silent on Hamas’ savage war against 1,300 Israeli women, children, and unarmed civilians, which broke out nearly a month ago. We know because we have it in writing.

It’s too late for activist CEOs to walk back their commitments to the same Black Lives Matter activists supporting Hamas terrorism—silence is violence, remember? It’s up to everyday Americans to punish these “woke” corporations for shoving the far Left’s social agenda down their throats. 

Miller Brewing

“Racism, inequity, injustice, [and] disenfranchisement cannot be supported, tolerated, or ignored,” the beer giant Molson Coors, which owns Miller, tweeted in June 2020. Because of America’s “long history of collective failures,” it added, we’re pledging $1.5 million to “support organizations dedicated to equality, empowerment, justice and community building.”

They called it “Project Justice”: A response to “the civil unrest” (translation: violent Black Lives Matter riots) and “rising injustices facing BIPOC (AAPI, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Native American/Indigenous) communities” by promoting “social justice.”

One of those recipients was UnidosUS, a Latino racial nationalist group founded as the National Council of La Raza—“the race.” UnidosUS—which endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020—was one of the most aggressive lobbyists for President Obama’s Dreamer program for illegal aliens, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). 

In fact, there aren’t many leftist campaigns UnidosUS doesn’t support, including Black Lives Matter, Ketanji Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation, and the fentanyl and potential terrorists pouring across America’s wide-open southern border.

In May 2023, UnidosUS attacked House Republicans as “anti-immigrant” for trying to stop the flow of millions of illegal aliens across the U.S.-Mexico border. Why? Because the group wants these millions granted citizenship and voting rights.

How bankrolling a far-left, Latino supremacist group helps black Americans is a mystery. 

But what’s clear is that Jews in America and Israel shouldn’t expect any such support from Miller Brewing. As of writing, the “Champagne of Beers” brewer has remained completely silent on Hamas terrorists. Do Jewish Lives Matter?

SC Johnson

“Racism and discrimination are egregious, global issues that devastate individuals, their families and communities. We have absolutely zero tolerance for racism or discrimination in any form,” wrote SC Johnson, the Racine-based cleaning supplies manufacturer, in June 2020. “There is simply no place for it at SC Johnson, or in the world.”

The company spent the next 800 words bragging about its deep commitment to “diversity” (per the radical LGBT Human Rights Campaign), feminism, and “respect [for] the dignity of each person as a human being” by funding the Racine NAACP. 

On Hamas? Crickets. Not even a statement condemning a far-left professor at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business for praising Hamas’ fight “for life, dignity, and freedom” against Israeli “colonization, imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy, [for] which the United States is the model.”

Where is SC Johnson’s commitment to ending anti-Semitism? You’d be forgiven for thinking that the company too afraid of criticizing its anti-Semitic allies to bother.

Kohl’s

Less than a week after George Floyd’s death, Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass released an 850-word statement to all 97,000 employees informing them that “I have thought about little else other than the tragic events that were ignited by the horrific death of George Floyd in Minneapolis—a loss of human life that on every level was senseless and beyond comprehension,” “fueled by a history of the pain that comes from racism, discrimination and injustice.”

She hit all the approved leftist buzzwords: “We cannot operate as a civilized society when parts of our population feel marginalized, victimized or targeted just for who they are,” Gass added, before bragging about Kohl’s “diversity and inclusion efforts” and commitment to “economic empowerment.”

Racism is not a new crisis, it is a long-standing systemic problem that has yet to be solved. We must continue to work to address the underlying biases and issues. We can stand together against racism and discrimination.

. . . As our country faces another crisis fueled by racism and discrimination, I hope that we again can take these lessons, face them head-on and work towards more resolutions and progress.

“We are a country in crisis,” Gass concluded. “We need to heal together by uniting to restore peace and calm, and creating space for real dialogue and solutions.”

Where’s the solidarity for unarmed Israelis defending themselves against Islamic terrorists? 

If you’re expecting a strongly worded statement from Kohl’s on the hatred and discrimination fueling Palestinian genocide of Israelis, don’t hold your breath. But the company will gladly tell you about its holiday deals and Black Friday sales.

Where’s Our Apology?

We’ve revealed the same hypocrisy from Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Home Depot, and other major companies that used Floyd’s death as an opportunity to attack the “racist” country that made their free market success possible.

Remember that no one in normal America asked these companies to weigh in on controversial political issues. They did it anyway in the belief that punishing conservatives would curry favor with radicals in the Democratic Party. Those aware of history will recall that many top German companies like AEG, Siemens, and Porsche were equally quick to lick the Third Reich’s boots and avoid government punishment. 

Hamas mass murderers exposed the Democrats’ deep-seated evil to a stunned American public. It also sent these weaselly CEOs scrambling for cover. 

Instead of trying to hide and hope we forget your assault on our nation’s liberties, here’s a better idea: Apologize to the American people for insulting them as bigots, painting our country as a hotbed of racism, and supporting totalitarian “progressives” who aim to abolish the Constitution altogether. Prove your patriotism, earn America’s forgiveness—and stay out of politics for good this time.

Hayden Ludwig is research director for Restoration of America.