The Levi Strauss Corporation used to personify what it meant to be blue-collar America. Tough, hardworking, built to last and high quality. That notion certainly seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? Since new Levi CEO Chip Bergh took over the boardroom, the brand and company have moved farther left almost by the day. Bergh has implemented and executed his radical leftist ideology and turned the company into a woke nightmare.
Former Levi executive and Democrat Jennifer Sey lost her job after speaking out against pandemic school closures, and the experience has opened her eyes. So much so that she rips Levis and woke corporate America in a scathing new memoir. Check this out.
Jennifer Sey, a longtime Levi’s executive and lifelong Democrat, argues in her new memoir, “Levi’s Unbuttoned: The Woke Mob Took My Job But Gave Me My Voice,” that “woke capitalism” is simply “corporate America’s attempt to profit off Millennial and Gen Z activism,” and she spells out why.
Sey says many executives “want to distance themselves from the greedy image of past business leaders” by taking on causes to help society or the planet.
“Corporate leaders want us to believe they are do-gooders, not money-grubbers,” she writes. “They’ll get rich, too, but they don’t want you to think that is their mission.”
Before 2020, Jennifer Sey was an executive at Levi Strauss & Company and a top candidate to be the company’s next leader. Two years later, she was out of a job. Her advocacy for school reopenings during the pandemic made her a pariah at work, she said. https://t.co/1JaB2RIAq7 pic.twitter.com/kFnrIVi48f
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 25, 2022
It is obvious to anyone with a functioning brain that all of these virtue-signaling, woke corporations don’t REALLY believe what they peddle, rather they are erring on the side of caution by overcompensating and aligning themselves with the small minority on the very far left. In the process, they are alienating the broader swath of consumers, fans, viewers, etc. Does anyone really believe the NFL thinks black men are being hunted by the police, or that systemic racism is real? It’s a league full of old, rich white men in charge. They will say whatever they have to in order to stay out of trouble. Sey points all the hypocrisy out in her book.
“Business executives would have us believe that they are our saviors,”
“Bill Gates is eliminating malaria and saving the children in Africa,” Sey wrote. “Howard Schultz is running for president to save our democracy. Elon Musk is not only saving the planet with electric vehicles, he is exploring new frontiers in space and defending free speech for the masses.”
Sey says one primary reason why wokeness is prevalent in so many major companies is that the leaders are often influenced by their Gen Z kids and bend to their children’s entitled demands.
Sey is spot on with her criticism of Gen Z parents. As a father of four millennials, I saw countless examples of parents attempting to be their kids’ friends rather than their parents. As a society we stopped keeping score and started patting every kid on the head and telling them they are special. What we have now is a direct reflection on a generation of failed parents. Now we have entitled, spoiled brat kids that have no idea how to handle criticism, pressure, or failure.
The ex-Levi’s executive called the younger generations of workers “ideological terrorists” who are “policing their peers and elders relentlessly,” and she said that company leaders are unwilling to stand up to them.
“Most CEOs lack the moral courage to hold their ground, Because they know, deep down, that they aren’t do-gooders, and they don’t want that curtain lifted.”
“So they kowtow to the very vocal minority — the scant few employees marching outside of headquarters or emailing the head of Human Resources. These CEOs are frauds and have no actual courage.”
A scathing assessment by someone that was on the inside, and an obvious observation to most on the outside. Corporate America shunned Sey, and she is now having her say by putting the hypocrites and cowards on blast for the frauds we all know them to be. Kudos to her. I don’t support Levi Strauss and haven’t for some time, and Jennifer Sey has reinforced my resolve to not pour my hard-earned money into a company that hates my values. We should all follow suit. Go woke, go broke!