The advocacy group America First Legal (AFL) filed a complaint against IBM with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that the company engages in racial discrimination in employment against Asians in favor of black and Hispanic people.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits companies from engaging in discrimination against an employee or an applicant for employment based on their race, religion, color, national origin, or sex. “However, the evidence is that IBM is knowingly, intentionally, and systematically engaging in such unlawful employment practices,” the Dec. 12 AFL letter to the EEOC said.
“On Dec. 11, 2023, a tape of IBM Chief Executive Officer and Board Chairman Arvind Krishna was released on X. In the video, Krishna promises to fire, demote, or deny bonuses to corporate executives who either fail to meet the corporation’s racial and national origin hiring quotas or who hire too many Asian individuals,” the letter said.
In addition, “Paul Cormier, the chairman of IBM subsidiary Red Hat, admits employees who failed to meet or comply with the corporation’s unlawful racial and national origin quotas were terminated.”
The letter noted that IBM’s 2022 environmental, social, governance (ESG) report details an annual incentive program for executives based on boosting representation of women and American minority groups, “specifically black and Hispanic,” in executive positions.
Citing another judgment, the letter called IBM’s employment practices as “odious and destructive” as they could foment contention and resentment among people.
AFL argued that the EEOC should take action against IBM since the company has “knowingly and intentionally violated federal law and intends to continue doing so.”
The legal advocacy pointed to IBM’s 2023 Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement which included a “diversity modifier” when calculating incentive compensation in 2022.
The diversity modifier was aimed at reinforcing “senior management’s focus on improving a diverse representation of our workforce that reflects the labor pool demographics of the communities in which we operate.”
IBM’s 2022 ESG report states that executive representation of women globally, excluding Red Hat, rose by 0.3 points last year. Black representation rose by 0.7 points and Hispanic by 0.3 points.
“The executive incentive program will continue to include a diversity modifier and our goal remains to close the gap in executive representation in these key areas,” it said.
“In 2022, of our global promotions, 42.2 percent were women and, of our U.S. promotions, 8.3 percent were black employees and 7.7 percent were Hispanic employees.”
IBM’s Discrimination Policies
The controversial recordings from IBM execs were released by journalist James O’Keefe through a Dec. 12 X post.In the video, Mr. Krishna explained the diversity bonus programs for executives: “Asians in the U.S. are not an underrepresented minority in a tech company. However, others are. Ditto on gender diversity. So, we take underrepresented and gender. You’ve got to move both forward by a percentage. That leads to a plus on your bonus. By the way, if you lose, you lose part of your bonus.”
IBM is looking to ensure that its workforce represents the racial demographics, he said. “So, for blacks, we should try to get toward 13 point something percent. On Hispanics, you got to get into the mid-teens.”
As to female representation, “We are somewhere in the mid-30s, I think, for all of IBM. But I think if I notice right, the representational [target] is 50 … I think it’s actually by biology, you can go debate this. I think it’s actually slightly over 50. I think it’s 50.1 or something. And so, we should try to aspire. And that’s why I say let’s improve one point a year.”
On Dec 16, the O’Keefe Media Group, owned by Mr. O’Keefe, published a leaked document from IBM’s subsidiary Red Hat. The “Allyship Commandment” document contains 10 race-based rules employees are required to observe.
This includes accepting that “white people are responsible for dismantling racism,” accepting that “only white people are racist,” committing to never engage in “white saviorism,” openly acknowledging that “privilege and systemic racism exists and result in trauma,” and accepting that “the black community owes us nothing in this work.”
- Blindness: “White people don’t know what we don’t know, so what we do get carefully taught is what’s passed down. Lies and omissions of the truth get equal billing in what we are taught,” it states.
- Divide + Conquer: “Non-white spaces are easily ‘othered’ and then judged accordingly.”
- Power: “White is the default, everything else exists in proximity to it. Whiteness constructs the game, hides the rules, then rigs the game, over and over again.”
“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.”
The Epoch Times reached out to IBM for comment.
