US lawsuit: Banker sees ‘reverse discrimination’

In the United States, white employees are struggling against their companies’ diversification campaigns.

Kevin Myersberg received an unexpected spring call. In it, one of his bosses told him he was no longer director of the employee health program at Morgan Stanley. The longtime finance employee claims he lost his job to a Black woman who “does not have a similar level of experience and background to justify the decision.” So the white Myersburg feels discriminated against. She appealed against the decision.

In the statement of claim filed in the Southern District of New York, Myersberg notes that the supervisor who issued the termination did not personally approve it. He expressed “concerns” about the new director’s qualifications, citing the bank’s efforts to diversify its workforce as the reason.

“This is an example of DEI programs wreaking havoc,” Louis Beckman, the plaintiff’s attorney, told The Washington Post. “Race should not be a factor in hiring decisions. Period.” Myerzberg points, among other things, to the Supreme Court ruling, which declared preferential treatment of minorities with the same qualifications, known as “affirmative action,” at elite universities inadmissible.

This landmark decision inspired a wave of lawsuits against companies that conservatives criticized as “woke” and invested more than $340 billion in diversifying their workforces in the wake of the killing of Black man George Floyd in 2020. This information comes from the McKinsey Institute for Black Economic Mobility, which Tracks DEI programs.

A loophole in the Civil Rights Act

Just last week, conservative activists filed a lawsuit against two major law firms, Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster, over their efforts to increase diversity and improve advancement opportunities for members of minorities. In August, five white employees of the Gannett newspaper group went to court, claiming “reverse discrimination.”

Attorney Bechman expects more trials. “The floodgates have been opened wide.” The white plaintiffs are trying to exploit a loophole in the Civil Rights Act, which was actually passed in 1964 to protect minorities from discrimination in the workplace. This categorically prohibits private sector employers from making hiring decisions based on race.

Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the lawsuit filed by Myersburg, which has been terminated. This is understandable, as the bank was recently sued by civil rights attorney Ben Crump for “deep and widespread anti-Black bias.”