Florida Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody wants the state agency in charge of investigating violations of the Florida Civil Rights Act to inspect Starbucks’ diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. Gov. Ron DeSantis and Moody announced the complaint against Starbucks on Wednesday during the governor’s guest host stint on “The Sean Hannity Show.” “We’re going to […]

Move over, Disney. Florida has a new boogeyman.

  • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.worldEnglish
    43·
    1 month ago

    I’m going to go against the grain here.

    From the article:

    In the four-page complaint, Moody argues that the company’s goal of inclusivity for people of color in 30% of corporate roles and 40% of retail and manufacturing roles by 2025 violates federal and Florida civil rights acts. More than 48% of employees at Starbucks are white, 31.7% are Hispanic, 8.1% are Black, and 5.9% are Asian, according to the company’s most recently released data.

    Additionally, Moody pointed to ties between the diversity goals and executives’ bonuses to claim the company has racial quotas. According to the Nation’s Restaurant News, 7.5% of Starbucks executive bonus consideration was tied to diversity in 2023.

    Companies that have these kind of goals are problematic. And it can cut both ways: One company could say “we have enough minorities now, so we can go back to hiring a bunch of white people”, while another could say “Hey, we’ve only got 25% minorities here and our bonus is tied to having 40%. Better hire a bunch of minorities even if they’re not the best qualified for the job.” Either viewpoint is problematic, especially if those making the decisions benefit financially (even if indirectly) by making at least some choices based on ethnicity rather than qualifications.

    If you hired the best qualified people and you happen to have a good mix of minorities, men, women, etc., then you have a diverse team. If you hired some minorities in order to meet a quota or save your own bonus, then you hired a bunch of “token black guys” based on their skin tone rather than qualifications. If you stopped hiring minorities and just intend to hide behind the quota instead of continuing to hire qualified minorities, you’re just a racist asshole.

    With all of that said, we all know why DeSantis is doing this: He’s a racist, narcissistic asshole who wants to build his political career off of racism and hate. But having what are essentially hiring quotas in place as part of your policy gives people like DeSantis ammo to do it, while also doing little to nothing to actually help the minority populations they’re supposed to be helping.