America First Legal Foundation has renewed its request for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to initiate a civil rights investigation into Disney following new allegations of racial discrimination in employment. This comes after AFL filed a federal civil rights complaint in February against The Walt Disney Company and its subsidiaries, accusing them of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in illegal race, sex, and national origin discrimination.
The recent call for investigation is based on videos published by the O’Keefe Media Group (OMG), which reportedly show senior Disney executives discussing race-based hiring practices. In one video, an executive allegedly stated, “Certainly, there have been times where, you know, there’s no way we’re hiring a white male … There are times when [that’s] spoken.” The same executive also purportedly said, “I’ve been up for jobs internally against people who have less experience than me, and you know, I haven’t gotten them… In one or two cases, you know, I was told explicitly that it did [have to do with race].”
Given that Disney apparently disregarded the letter AFL sent to their board in February and seems to have continued its pattern of race discrimination, AFL is urging the EEOC once again to investigate these new allegations.
Gene Hamilton, Executive Director of America First Legal, stated: “We have asked the EEOC once again to investigate Disney’s employment practices. Disney was once an iconic American brand—truly the epitome of the American dream in the business world in the Twentieth Century. Yet it appears to have gone far astray from what made it great—particularly with the failure of its senior leadership to ensure that employment decisions are made based on merit and not immutable characteristics. We are once again presenting the EEOC with evidence of discrimination at Disney and asking for it to take corrective action to ensure equal opportunity for all Americans.”