On Tuesday, a former employee of the credit card company American Express sued his former employer, claiming that he was fired because he is White.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Brian Netzel was fired in 2020 after working at the company for 10 years. He is now filing a class-action lawsuit against American Express, saying that other White employees besides him faced similar “racially discriminatory” policies and actions due to the company’s push for greater “diversity” in its ranks.
American Express was one of many companies that virtue-signaled in favor of racial diversity in the aftermath of the accidental fentanyl overdose death of George Floyd in May of 2020, which subsequently led to mass race riots across the country which resulted in widespread death and destruction. Earlier this month, the company announced its intentions to spend as much as $3 billion to produce a “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Action Plan.”
Netzel’s lawsuit claims that these “antiracism” policies ultimately “gave preferential treatment to individuals for being black and unambiguously signaled to White employees that their race was an impediment to getting ahead in the company.” In addition, high-ranking executives were given financial incentives to “decrease the percentage of White employees in their departments,” with Netzel’s firing being one alleged example.
“They’ve been subjected to seminars and trainings that labeled them as bigots, denied opportunities due to the color of their skin, and—to add insult to injury—punished and fired for asking to be treated equally,” said Netzel’s attorney, David Pivtorak. “Once the truth about American Express’s virulent discrimination is exposed in court, I have no doubt that it will be a clear warning to the rest of the country about the dangers of woke capitalism.”
American Express responded with a statement that denied any such discriminatory practices against White employees, declaring that Netzel’s lawsuit was “false and without merit.”