McDonald’s opened a longstanding diversity program to all races and ethnicities last week following a lawsuit from a legal group opposed to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices.
The lawsuit was filed by American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), an organization dedicated to challenging race-based preferences and discrimination.
AAER argued that the fast-food chain’s HACER National Scholarship Program was discriminatory against non-Hispanic/Latino students as the program required applicants to have at least one parent of Hispanic/Latino heritage.
The settlement last week saw McDonald’s agree to open up the program to applicants of any race or ethnicity.
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“We reached the conclusion that settling this lawsuit and evolving the program is the right thing to do for its recipients,” McDonald’s said in a statement. “To achieve this, we will remove the criteria for at least one parent to be of Hispanic/Latino heritage. Instead, applicants must demonstrate their impact and contribution to the Hispanic/Latino community through their activities, leadership, and service.”
According to the settlement, HACER’s “Eligibility & Requirements” page originally stated that applicants “must be from a family” that originated from one of the 22 Hispanic/Latino countries the site listed.
The applicants were also required to answer, “Are you of Hispanic/Latino heritage?”
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In the statement, McDonald’s did not necessarily agree that HACER was discriminatory but did not want the suit to end its longstanding program nor jeopardize opportunities for the applicants to pursue their educational aspirations.
“To be clear: we disagree with this claim,” McDonald’s said. “A legal challenge would mean this year’s applicants would not have the opportunity to compete for the scholarship funds.”
The HACER program, which has awarded 17,000 students more than $33 million in scholarships over nearly 40 years, has received more than 3,000 student applicants this year, McDonald’s said.
The deadline for this year’s application has also been extended from Feb. 6 to March 6 to accommodate the new applicants, according to the suit.
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The suit was first filed on Jan.12 shortly after McDonald’s conducted a civil-rights audit and scaled back on its DEI policies.
Some alterations included McDonald’s ending its DEI pledge for its suppliers and changing the name of its diversity team to the Global Inclusion Team. The chain also ended its participation in surveys that could have gauged practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCD | MCDONALD’S CORP. | 288.70 | -1.62 | -0.56% |
Following the rollbacks, AAER claimed McDonald’s was still not treating everyone fairly.
“Even after its civil-rights audit, McDonald’s has decided to continue a program that blatantly discriminates against high-schoolers based on their ethnicity,” the lawsuit stated.
“It is astonishing that after what McDonald’s describes as a comprehensive civil-rights audit of its programs and policies, the Hispanic-only HACER scholarship was not flagged for likely being a violation of our nation’s civil rights laws,” AAER President Edward Blum said.
According to McDonald’s, the company will continue to work on inclusion.
“McDonald’s position and our commitment to inclusion is steadfast,” the company said. “As part of our ongoing inclusion efforts, our work is evolving.”
Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
