7 White Institutions and Companies Caught Faking Diversity

affirmative action memes

Does Affirmative Action Create Equal Opportunity?

The debate surrounding the continued need for the U.S. government’s affirmative action program has centered around arguments about the extent systemic discrimination and bias still persists, and the extent that the programs have unfairly benefited African-Americans and other people of color at the expense of the white majority. Interestingly, the data suggests not only does inequality still exist, but the affirmative action program maybe contributing to it. According to the United States Labor Department, the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action are white women.  This ultimately translated to more wealth for white families and a consistent widening of the wealth gap instead of a level playing field.

Below are seven companies and institutions, that in effort to show more diversity as prompted by affirmative action policies, missed the mark entirely.

 

microsoft-diversity-retouch

McDonald’s – The Black Guy Flip

In 2009, McDonald’s didn’t really think that a Black guy was a good fit for an overseas version of an ad. When the English-language version of the company’s business productivity infrastructure site was compared with the Polish-language version, it is obvious the Black man was photoshopped out and replaced by a white man.  They forgot, however, to remove the Black hand.

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