10 Aug 2023 Affirmative Action Is Racist and Illegal in Corporate America, Just as It Was in Higher Education

On the heels of the Supreme Court striking down affirmative action in higher education, conservative activists such as those with our Free Enterprise Project (FEP) are targeting diversity programs at corporations such as Starbucks, Comcast and Amazon.

While our lawsuit against Starbucks was filed before the Supreme Court decision, it remains ongoing and has the potential to influence change in companies that have trumpeted Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs that are both racist and illegal.

In the Wall Street Journal, Theo Francis and Lauren Weber write:

Starbucks officers and directors were sued in August 2022 by National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank that owns 56 shares in the coffee chain. It accuses Starbucks of violating Title VII and Section 1981, and the officials of breaching their fiduciary duty to shareholders by embracing policies it says violate antidiscrimination law in areas including employment, supplier contracts and executive compensation.

Under the policies, Starbucks says it wants at least 30% of its U.S. workforce at all levels to be Black, indigenous or people of color by 2025. It plans to implement an analytics tool that lets managers see their progress and uses workforce diversity measures to help set executive pay.

Starbucks and company officials are seeking to dismiss the case, with a hearing scheduled for Friday.

In a recent motion to dismiss the case, Starbucks executives confirmed that BlackRock and Vanguard are pressuring the company to discriminate, an affirmation that could have wide-ranging consequences in potential future suits.  We are grateful for the American Civil Rights (ACR) Project, which is partnering with us in this suit.

Read the entire Wall Street Journal article here.