Planned Parenthood of Illinois Settles DEI Lawsuit

Planned Parenthood’s Illinois affiliate has settled a case with the EEOC over it’s illegal treatment of white employees. 

Planned Parenthood of Illinois, an affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has agreed to pay $500,000 to end a government investigation into charges of discrimination tied to the organization’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

The settlement stems from charges investigated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency tasked with investigating claims of discrimination in the private sector.

Here’s the behavior that got PP in trouble according to a press release by the EEOC. It involved mandatory meetings held every week which were segregated by race:

According to the EEOC’s reasonable cause findings, Planned Parenthood had mandatory “affinity caucuses” that were segregated by race, in which employees of other races were not allowed to participate. In addition to racially harassing statements made by a Planned Parenthood manager, Planned Parenthood demanded that all employees attend DEI-related training sessions which involved repeated harassing and derogatory statements targeting white employees, including that they “are White and do not feel racism the same way non-White patients feel,” and that “white supremacy is exerted at every level of oppression (individual, interpersonal, organizational, and societal).” On a weekly basis, staff were required to attend one to two hour sessions of either the segregated racial affinity caucuses or DEI training. Planned Parenthood also denied white employees access to time off that it granted only to black employees.

“Segregating employees by race violates the core promise of our nation’s civil rights laws,” said EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas. “Title VII guarantees equal treatment for every employee and prohibits race discrimination in America’s workplaces. Those protections equally apply to white workers. There is no DEI exception to Title VII’s requirements. Employers who deliberately separate workers or subject them to harassment because of their race, including white employees, violate federal law. The Commission will continue to enforce these protections to ensure equal opportunity for all.”

The manager who mandated all of this “training” has been fired. Last month the EEOC filed a similar lawsuit aimed at forcing Nike to reveal data about how it hired, promoted and fired people with regard to race:

According to the EEOC’s court filing, the agency is investigating systemic allegations of DEI-related intentional race discrimination, specifically that NIKE may have engaged in “a pattern or practice of disparate treatment against white employees, applicants and training program participants in hiring, promotion, demotion, or separation decisions, including selection for layoffs; internship programs; and mentoring, leadership development and other career development programs.”

The EEOC’s investigation and subpoena sought information related to these allegations, with some requests going back to 2018. Information sought included criteria used in selecting employees for layoffs; information related to the company’s tracking and use of worker race and ethnicity data, including as a factor in setting executive compensation; and information about 16 programs which allegedly provided race-restricted mentoring, leadership, or career development opportunities. When the company failed to produce all the information sought by the subpoena, the agency filed an enforcement action in federal court.

Also last month, the EEOC sent a more general letter out to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies reminding them that discrimination would not be tolerated.

The EEOC’s anti-discrimination mission goes to the heart of the foundational beliefs and promises of our nation, namely that: all Americans are inherently created equal; all citizens are entitled to equal treatment under law and therefore should have equality of opportunity in every sector of our society, including the workplace; and all Americans have the right to be treated in the workplace as individuals, not members of a particular race or group, and judged only by the content of their character, skills, and abilities, rather than by the color of their skin or by their sex.

In the past few years, these bedrock American principles have been under attack by movements and ideologies that elevate group rights over individual rights; demand equal outcomes over equal treatment and equal opportunity; and, most absurdly, twist our nation’s civil rights laws to promote discrimination against certain races or groups, rather than protect all Americans equally and evenhandedly.

Hopefully the settlement with Planned Parenthood is just the tip of the iceberg. If other companies were inspired to provide discriminatory DEI training in 2020 they should also be held accountable.

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