Kellogg’s ‘woke’ workplace diversity programs are illegal, group claims By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, owned by Kellogg Firm, are seen on the market in a retailer in Queens, New York Metropolis, U.S., February 7, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photograph

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) – A conservative authorized group on Wednesday urged a U.S. anti-discrimination company to research Kellogg (NYSE:) Co over office range insurance policies that it says are illegal, and accused the cereal maker of sexualizing its merchandise.

That is the second criticism filed this week in opposition to an organization by America First Authorized, a nonprofit run by Stephen Miller, who was an adviser to former President Donald Trump.

America First in a letter to the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee (EEOC) stated Kellogg’s hiring, coaching and promotion practices are designed to attain a stability primarily based on race and intercourse that violates the federal legislation banning office bias.

It additionally criticized advertising and marketing campaigns together with bins of Cheez-It crackers that includes drag queen RuPaul and cereal bins celebrating LGBTQ Delight Month.

“Administration has discarded the corporate’s long-held household pleasant advertising and marketing method to politicize and sexualize its merchandise,” the group stated.

The EEOC can sue corporations if it finds that their employment practices quantity to unlawful discrimination.

Kellogg didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Many authorized consultants count on an uptick in authorized challenges to company range packages within the wake of a June U.S. Supreme Courtroom ruling barring race-conscious admissions insurance policies in increased schooling.

America First within the letter stated Kellogg, for instance, has stated it desires to have “25% underrepresented expertise on the administration degree” by 2025 and runs fellowship packages which might be solely open to racial minorities.

“Kellogg’s employment practices are unlawfully primarily based on ‘fairness,’ which is a euphemism for unlawful discrimination,” Reed Rubenstein, a lawyer with the group, wrote within the letter.

America First stated it additionally had despatched a letter to Kellogg’s board of administrators on Wednesday threatening shareholder litigation if the corporate maintains the allegedly unlawful insurance policies.

The nonprofit on Tuesday sued Goal Corp (NYSE:) on behalf of an investor, saying the retailer did not anticipate buyer backlash over LGBTQ-themed merchandise that harm its inventory worth.

The complaints are a part of a marketing campaign conservative authorized teams and Republican legislators are waging in opposition to companies which have enacted so-called woke insurance policies on social points comparable to race, gender and variety.