Color Us United is urging company executives to listen to workers experiencing race-based discrimination as a result of so-called “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs.
The organization continues to receive thousands of complaints of “increased division by group identity and hostility,” and that these programs distract from productivity. The wave of complaints, kept confidential to protect the identity of workers fearing retaliation, shows that there is widespread concern over the effects of these policies. A high-profile case of retaliation involved Nick Williams, a white employee who sounded the alarm about controversial programming and systematic discrimination at American Express.
“Workers are being harmed by race-based discriminatory policies under the so-called ‘diversity, equity and inclusion,’ framework,” spokesman for Color Us United Christian Watson said. “We stand with Nick Williams and the countless employees at Amex who have been targeted and discriminated against, and workers across the nation in similar situations at the hands of ‘woke’ corporations."
According to Fox News, Williams worked at Amex for eight years as an Iowa-based manager of business development. He says he was terminated in March 2021 after refusing a corporate Amex card to a black female small business owner on the grounds that she didn't have the required documents necessary to apply. The applicant grew agitated and abusive toward one of Williams' co-workers, who is also black, so Williams told the applicant her behavior wouldn’t be tolerated and cut her off. Williams said he's never met the applicant face-to-face, so he didn't know that the business was minority-owned.
Williams said he was let go shortly after the incident because the company feared a lawsuit. The six-figure settlement offered to him demanded his silence on the company’s policies, but he rejected the settlement so that he could sound the alarm and speak out about his experience.
"It's taken me quite a bit of time to decide and really process and research what is happening inside American Express. But there comes a point in time where you can't take anymore. It's like, enough is enough. And at this point in my life and my career, I feel like this is my cross to bear, and it's time to tell my story," Williams told Fox News.
According to Williams, American Express is currently pushing for diversity in the loan process and has been giving employees raises based on giving loans to minority-owned businesses instead of performance. Williams also shared with Fox News an internal company document showing that "diversity representation" is one of the metrics that the company weighs when awarding incentives.
"One of the companies that actually was the one of the worst offenders [of DEI programming] was American Express," the Manhattan Institute's Christopher Rufo previously told Fox News. "American Express is teaching its employees that the country was fundamentally racist, that capitalism was fundamentally oppressive and that their white employees were guilty of white privilege and internalized white supremacy."
Rufo and Color Us United President Kenny Xu have teamed up to hold Amex accountable, with the "UnAmerican Express" campaign urging investors of the credit card company to distance themselves from Amex until "woke policies" cease to exist.
Xu tweeted, “READ: A truly incredible, and heartbreaking story of how No. 1 sales performer Nick Williams was terminated from Un-@AmericanExpress under a diversity policy that financially incentivized the firing of white males and the hiring of minorities and women,” citing the Fox News report. “Ex-American Express employee speaks out on ‘woke’ corporate America: ‘Shame on you.’”
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