IBM was served with a federal civil rights complaint on Tuesday by the America First Legal Foundation, charging the tech company with illegally discriminating against Whites and Asians in its hiring practices.
According to the motion filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a leaked video exposes IBM CEO Arvind Krishna for coercing staff into adopting “racial and national origin hiring quotas” by threatening their employment.
In a statement announcing the federal complaint, America First Legal accused Krishna and the rest of IBM’s management of “creating a culture of systemic racism” in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. At the core of the case is a video reportedly recorded by an IBM insider in 2021 and published by journalist James O’Keefe on Monday.
“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,” the foundation wrote. The letter also accuses IBM subsidiary Red Hat of punishing employees for not meeting similar “unlawful racial, national origin, and sex-based quotas.”
“I’m not going to finesse this. So, for Blacks, we should try to get towards 13-point-something percent,” Krishna said in the video. “On Hispanics, you’ve got to get into the mid-teens. On gender, okay, we are somewhere in the mid-30s, I think, for all of IBM.”
“Let me say it: Asians in the US are not an underrepresented minority in a tech company,” the CEO continued, stating that all company executives must “move forward by 1 percent on … underrepresented minorities.”
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The video also captured Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier and Senior Communications Director Allison Showalter discussing the importance of DEI programs in the company’s operation. Cormier describes how certain executives have been terminated for refusing to abide by discriminatory hiring policies, stating “We’re never going to cross DEI off our list of priorities. This is an ongoing thing.”
Showalter further stated that executives are “held accountable for DEI goals” to further IBM’s policy of “promoting and recruiting underrepresented minorities in executive roles.”
BREAKING LEAKED VIDEO: CEO of IBM @ArvindKrishna admits to using coercion to fire people and take away their bonuses unless they discriminate in the hiring process.
“You got to move both forward by a percentage that leads to a plus on your bonus," Krishna said about hiring… pic.twitter.com/UUK26HX8IP
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) December 12, 2023
America First Legal also cited information from IBM’s 2022 ESG Report, which vows to “continue to include a diversity modifier” to “close the gap in executive representation in these key areas.” A separate document from the company provided a chart outlining these “modifiers” on annual bonuses.
Other examples of IBM’s DEI policies include a race-based “Super Diversity Program” that is pushing to make 15 percent of the company’s first-tier suppliers Black-owned businesses by 2025.
America First Legal also sent letters to the board of IBM and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, warning of a “waste of corporate assets” and “harm to shareholders.”
As O’Keefe noted, this exposé comes mere weeks after IBM pulled its advertising from X, accusing owner Elon Musk of allowing hate speech and racism on the platform. The report behind these accusations (now known to be a fraudulent smear campaign by leftist watchdog group Media Matters) led to a massive advertiser boycott against the social media app.
Responding to O’Keefe’s report, Musk called IBM’s actions “extremely concerning and obviously illegal.”
Extremely concerning and obviously illegal
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 12, 2023
“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,” wrote AFL General Counsel Gene Hamilton.
“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.”
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