Harley-Davidson Cancels Dealership Franchise After Racist Post

Harley-Davidson said this week it was done with a dealer in Tennessee over a racist social media post. In a now-familiar ritual, the dealer has denied writing the post, saying it got hacked. The dealer also owns a Honda store, and Honda said it was investigating. Harley decided this week it had seen enough.

The post in question was attributed to Russell Abernathy, the owner of the Honda and Harley stores, in addition to a Polaris store, all in Union City, Tennessee. It was flagged by a local activist group on Twitter and is almost cartoonishly racist:

MDarringer - 6/25/2020 10:09:02 AM

-1 Boost

HD is suffering a sales implosion and they are looking to kill franchises. Thus, they killed a franchise under the guise of being SJWs.

Agent009 - 6/25/2020 10:40:59 AM

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He also has a Polaris and Honda dealership as well. I bet they do the same and one short sighted post will have cost him a fortune.

MDarringer - 6/25/2020 11:19:14 AM

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The irony though is that the First Amendment guarantees his freedom of expression whether HD likes it or not. He could have a great lawsuit against HD because--while they may not have liked his comments for SJW reasons--they have no right to curtail his freedom of expression.

Car4life1 - 6/25/2020 10:28:12 AM

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LMAO dumbass dealer, hope it was worth it...”I got hacked” hahahaha

valhallakey - 6/25/2020 12:42:42 PM

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The First Amendment prohibits government restrictions on free speech, has nothing to do with companies policies regarding racism etc... Also Freedom of Association is inherently part of the rights of free speech. Harley Davidson absolutely has the right to disassociate themselves from racist dealer and the government cannot do a thing about it.

MDarringer - 6/25/2020 1:30:59 PM

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Harley Davidson DOES NOT have the right to yank his franchise based on what he does as a private person.

dlin - 6/25/2020 1:22:51 PM

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Just sell Ducati or Suzuki

MDarringer - 6/25/2020 1:31:49 PM

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Ducati is having a sales implosion that predates the China virus.

carloslassiter - 6/25/2020 6:54:42 PM

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Harley Davidson DOES NOT have the right to yank his franchise based on what he does as a private person.
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Of course they do. Any such agreement would contain standard language giving HD the right to terminate the relationship based on actions they believe materially and adversely affect their reputation. Such as a dealer posting hate speech on the internet, for example.

valhallakey - 6/26/2020 12:28:17 AM

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Exactly - thanx carloslassiter