WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal’s (AFL) Center for Legal Equality filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) for alleged racial and sex discrimination. AFL also wrote to IBM’s Board of Directors, demanding an end to the corporation’s systemic violations of law to prevent the waste of corporate assets and harm to shareholders.
On December 11, 2023, James O’Keefe released a recording on X of IBM Chief Executive Officer and Board Chairman Arvind Krishna. In the recording, Krishna promises to fire, demote, or deny bonuses to corporate executives who either fail to meet the corporation’s racial, national origin, and sex-based hiring quotas, or who hire too many Asian individuals. Also, Paul Cormier, the chairman of IBM subsidiary Red Hat, admits that Red Hat terminated employees who failed to meet the corporation’s unlawful racial, national origin, and sex-based quotas.
The evidence strongly suggests IBM’s management has created a culture of systemic racism. IBM’s 2022 ESG Report includes information about IBM’s “Annual Incentive Program,” which vows to “continue to include a diversity modifier” to “close the gap in executive representation in these key areas.” IBM does so by providing executives additional compensation if they reach their targets. The corporation’s 2023 Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement even provides a chart highlighting the “Diversity Modifier” as part of the Annual Incentive Program.
Unsurprisingly, motivating executives through compensation achieves results.
IBM also runs a race quota-based “Supplier Diversity program.” According to CEO Krishna, IBM will have “15% of IBM’s first-tier diversity spending with Black-owned suppliers by 2025.” IBM spent $1.1 billion on its “First-Tier” Supplier Diversity spend in the United States in 2022.
On IBM’s “Be Equal: Black” webpage, their Chair for IBM’s Racial Equity in Design Initiative, Nigel Pretence, states that IBM is “authentic to the very value of equity” and notes the importance of looking at “who we hire, how we hire, how we promote.”
Notably, IBM’s “diversity” webpage excludes White male employees.
IBM’s merchandise page further demonstrates the corporation’s obsession with race – bizarrely, it markets a shirt saying “Emb(race).”
America First Legal will not cease fighting corporate America’s destructive, illegal, and repugnant race-based hiring and contracting practices. IBM’s management has chosen to elevate its immoral DEI policies over the law; it is time that they face the consequences.
Statement from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Vice President and General Counsel:
“America First Legal has been at the forefront of the fight against pernicious corporate discrimination, and we have seen extensive documentation of overtly discriminatory policies in sectors across the business world. But rarely do you have such extreme, blatant statements on video documenting the extent to which this is happening everywhere. Apparently, based on the video and the publicly available material on its website, the senior leadership at IBM is wholly committed to discriminating against Americans as a matter of formal corporate policy. This cannot stand,” said Gene Hamilton.
Read the EEOC letter here and the letter to the board here.
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