Allegations of Discrimination Against White Candidates in Meta-Supported Diversity Initiative
Meta Platforms Inc. and three entertainment industry groups are the most recent entities to be sued, as they are accused of deliberately discriminating against White men and women through their workplace diversity program.
The conservative America First Legal Foundation, led by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, filed a lawsuit in New York federal district court on Tuesday against Meta, Something Ideal Inc., the Independent Commercial Producers Association and BBDO Worldwide Inc.
Groups supporting an ad production apprenticeship program for minority workers claimed it discriminated against James Harker, a white man who worked behind the camera in commercials, film and television productions for nearly three decades. Despite his years of experience in the commercial film industry, he was denied job opportunities that the defendants reserved for candidates of color, the complaint said.
Harker was also required to report to a non-white employee hired under the program who had no experience or qualifications as an electrician, it was alleged.
Harker filed a charge of racial discrimination with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. However, the agency in June refused to investigate or make a decision on whether laws had been broken.
DEI Targeted
The lawsuit comes amid mounting legal threats and lawsuits from conservative groups to block corporate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the use of race in college admissions.
The Supreme Court decision concerns race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, which conservative majorities say discriminate against white and Asian applicants and are not necessary to ensure campus diversity.
Labor law attorneys told Bloomberg Law that the ruling will have a downstream effect on companies by disrupting DEI practices and inviting challenges to those programs under the federal and state laws that govern them.
The latest suit against Metal and other manufacturing companies challenges the legality of the AICP’s “Double the Line” diversity program. The program works with advertisers and agencies to improve career opportunities for Black, Indigenous and people of color in the advertising industry.
The defendants “conspired” and agreed to “implement” AICP’s racially discriminatory program in violation of Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the New York Civil Rights Act, “all of which guarantee racial neutrality,” the lawsuit alleged.
“For many decades, New York and federal laws have prohibited discrimination based on race, color, national origin, and sex. “The defendants, with their morally twisted ‘woke’ view that racism, bigotry and sexism are really good whenever they choose to be, have arrogantly declared themselves above the law,” said Reed D. Rubinstein, senior counsel for America First Legal, which recently urged EEOC to investigate DEI’s programs for discrimination.
“The defendants here, and the entertainment industry more generally, will soon find that the costs of racist virtue communication have risen,” Reed said.
The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
