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Credit: Inside the MagicThe immediately notorious Disney “no white men” tape has kicked off a new firestorm, as a powerful legal organization is renewing its scrutiny of the Mouse House and demanding it cease its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices.
“There’s No Way We’re Hiring a White Man for This Role”
Earlier this month, The Walt Disney Company came under fire from conservatives when a tape of 2oth Century Television Senior Vice President Michael Giordano stating that the corporation, under some circumstances, would not hire a “white man” for a senior position instead of a person of color was released online. In the edited video, Giordano said:
“Certainly, there have been times where, you know, there’s no way we’re hiring a white man for this…. There are times when it’s spoken.
Reporter: How would they say it?
There’s no way we’re hiring a white man for this role. They’d be very careful how they’d message that to agents.”
Giordano (who reportedly has taken a leave of absence from his position at Disney and deleted his LinkedIn account) was speaking to an unknown person, who has been characterized as a “reporter” or “interviewer” without proof. The tape itself was released by James O’Keefe, a far-right activist who has faced lawsuits for selectively editing video footage to misrepresent events.
Most famously, James O’Keefe was forced to pay $100,000 to an employee of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), who he falsely depicted as helping him to organize a prostitution ring. In another circumstance, O’Keefe was convicted of entering a U.S. senator’s office with two men posing as phone repairmen and is barred from fundraising in the state of Louisiana due to a law that prevents people found guilty of fraud from doing so.
Related: Senator Tells Disney to Lawyer up After Leaked Exec Video Claims Company Doesn’t Hire ‘White Men’
The Westchester County District Attorney’s Office is currently investigating O’Keefe for improper use of funds at Project Veritas, the conservative activist organization he founded and was fired from last year. Project Veritas has notably admitted to spreading misinformation with “no evidence” regarding the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
Despite this, the “white man” tape is being taken at face value by some media organizations. In the video, Giordano continued, saying, “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].”
The tape is frequently presented as an official admission by The Walt Disney Company that it discriminates against white men in hiring practices rather than an employee complaining in what appears to be a social interaction that he had not been hired for a job that he felt he should have been. Neither Disney nor Giordano has made an official statement regarding the video.
However, Disney has been facing accusations of prioritizing DEI practices over “traditional” values the company has represented; a recent survey by the American Conservative Values ETF (ACVF) labeled Disney as the “most woke liberal company” in the country, and this tape is unlikely to help that perception.
In fact, it is even further incentivizing the America First Legal Foundation to continue to put pressure on Disney to stop its DEI efforts, which it claims are illegal and discriminatory.
Stephen Miller, AFL, and Disney
In February, America First Legal filed a complaint against Disney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), claiming that the Mouse House was “intentionally discriminating against white American men, Christians, and Jews simply because of their race, sex, religion, and citizenship,” further asserting that the iconic media company was “violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in illegal race, sex, and national origin discrimination.”
The complaint primarily used a memo on inclusion policies from Disney as evidence of these practices:
America First Legal, which includes former Trump officials like White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, and advisor Stephen Miller, released a letter in April demanding that Disney (an independently operating company and not its subsidiary in any way) allow the foundation to form a body to oversee its entertainment operations.
America First Legal is demanding that Disney “[r]etain an independent counsel for a full investigation of and a report on the events and circumstances behind and resulting from the Company’s Inclusion Standards” “immediately cease and desist [DEI practices], and “investigate the acts described above that threaten consumer acceptance and misalignment with public and consumer tastes.”
These new videos from James O’Keefe have reignited American First Legal’s efforts, with the foundation releasing a new statement from director Gene Hamilton. It demands that the EEOC submit to its will and investigate Disney, using the O’Keefe-edited footage as evidence of dramatic corporate crimes:
“In footage released to the public earlier this week, two Disney executives—Michael Giordano and Sohrab Makker—are on camera making discriminatory statements…
Such clear evidence cannot be ignored. Giordano’s statements are an example of what Disney admits to doing in its corporate disclosures, including its Form 10-K. These practices are blatantly unlawful under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(m). Accordingly, we renew our request that you investigate the unlawful conduct that AFL presented to your office in February and investigate the recently reported statements made by two Disney executives.”
The EEOC has not yet responded to America First Legal’s demands.
America First Legal’s full letter can be read here:
Do you think Disney’s DEI efforts have crossed the line into breaking the law? Give us opinions in the comments below!