Anheuser-Busch is facing a civil rights complaint related to its programs aimed toward hiring and providing scholarships to women and minorities.
America First Legal, which is led by senior members of the Trump administration, sent a letter to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that the world’s largest brewing company is engaged in discriminatory hiring practices.
The group claimed that companies are using the ‘cloak of equity’ to ‘proudly discriminate based on race, color, national origin, and sex in their employment practices,’ according to the letter obtained by DailyMail.com.
The accusations come amid a firestorm surrounding transgender social media star Dylan Mulvaney promoting Bud Light in a recent TikTok video, leading to a slew of criticism aimed at the beer and its parent company.
AFL, whose president and CEO is former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, sent a complaint letter to the St. Louis, Missouri office for EEOC requesting an investigation into Anheuser-Busch’s programs.
One is the Leadership Accelerator Program, which advertises that it provides ‘formal mentorship, executive interaction, and leadership development curriculum for those who identify with historically underrepresented groups as they join our organization in a full-time capacity.’ It only encourages people of black, Native American and Latino origins to apply.
‘This is not a regular corporate program – rather, the company describes the role as focusing on ‘hiring the next generation of leaders within the North American Sustainability and Procurement department,’ the AFL letter reads. ‘In other words, it is a fast-track program to executive leadership positions at Anheuser- Busch and it is limited to candidates based on race. The proforma Equal Opportunity Employer language at the end of the posting does mask the company’s discriminatory intent and purpose.’
Anheuser-Busch also advertises a race-based scholarship and internship program under Budweiser in partnership with the United Negro College Fund that ‘supports 25 Black college students’ interested in the brewing industry.
AFL alleges in its civil rights complaint that these programs are unlawful because ‘Anheuser-Busch is a publicly traded corporation’ that is engaged in discriminating against certain ethnicities and races when it comes to jobs and programs it offers.
‘The evidence is that Anheuser-Busch is knowingly, intentionally, and unlawfully discriminating based on race, color, national origin, and sex with respect to employment and job training opportunities,’ the letter alleges.
AFL wants the EEOC to ‘open a civil rights investigation of Anheuser-Busch’s systemic and discriminatory hiring, promotion, and job-training employment practices.’
