America First Legal Files Federal Discrimination Lawsuit Against The Walt Disney Company
America First Legal (AFL) has filed a federal civil rights complaint against The Walt Disney Company for violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by “engaging in illegal race, sex, and national origin discrimination.”
The lawsuit stems from a document on Disney’s Reimagine Tomorrow website that the AFL says “strongly suggests that race, color, religion, sex, or national origin are often the only motivating factor in Disney’s hiring, training, and promotion decisions and that the company is intentionally discriminating against white American men, Christians, and Jews simply because of their race, sex, religion, and citizenship.”
According to the lawsuit, all Disney General Entertainment productions must comply with Disney’s DEI “Inclusion Standards.”
Disney’s Inclusion Standards
Some of these standards explicitly state that fifty percent of the jobs must be filled by “Underrepresented Groups.” These include:
- Regular and recurring actors and characters in Disney content
- Producers and writing staff
- Overall crew or project staff
- Line producers and/or production department heads. This includes the director of photography, composer, costume designer, editor, production designer, and music supervisor.
As part of Disney’s guidelines, productions can also comply with Disney’s inclusion standards by promoting members of Underrepresented Groups, creating jobs “to facilitate union eligibility for members of Underrepresented Groups,” and facilitating a “[s]ubstantial year-over-year increase in members of Underrepresented Groups as directors and in writing staff.”
The AFL Says Disney’s Grand Program is Illegal
Finally, AFL says that the Disney grant program, which funnels $25,000 award grants to “women, AAPI, Black, Indigenous/Native, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, disability-identifying, and religiously marginalized individuals” is illegal.
“Disney appears to be engaged in pervasive, far-reaching, and illegal race and sex discrimination in violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Accordingly, we have filed a formal complaint with the EEOC that Disney is engaged in illegal conduct. It is sad and tragic that a company whose name was once synonymous with wholesome and charming childhood fantasies is now dedicated to spreading divisive bigotry. We urge Disney to cease and desist its unlawful and destructive conduct at once,” said Stephen Miller.
To this point, Disney has not responded to the lawsuit.