Harley-Davidson is severing its relationship with a northwest Tennessee dealership after its owner allegedly made racist comments on social media.
Russell Abernathy II is the owner of Abernathy’s Harley-Davidson in Union City. A social media post from earlier this month attributed to Abernathy featured comments critical of the Black Lives Matter movement and encouraged Black Americans to go “back to Africa.”
Harley-Davidson responded with the following statement:
![](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7ea57ed/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1198x1496+0+0/resize/880x1099!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fwkms%2Ffiles%2F202006%2Fscreen_shot_2020-06-25_at_12.54.03_pm.png)
Credit Twitter Screenshot
Abernathy said he did not make the post. He released a response on the dealership’s website:
![](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/803305c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2172x784+0+0/resize/880x318!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fwkms%2Ffiles%2F202006%2Fscreen_shot_2020-06-25_at_12.41.33_pm.png)
Credit Abernathy's Harley-Davidson