Stefan Padfield says the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research identified three ways in which the company appears to still practice "straight-up illegal affirmative action."
- Mastercard plans to "grow U.S. Black leadership at the vice president level and above … by 50% by 2025."
- Mastercard plans to "invest $500 million in Black communities."
- Mastercard has stated its commitment "to increase our procurement with Black-owned businesses to $100 million annually by 2025."
"So, we filed this proposal asking them to assess the risks of that conduct, and that's what we took to a vote," he relays.
Proposal 8 lost, but a pro-DEI proposal also failed to get enough support.
"The reason that's so important is because a lot of the pro-DEI activists will take a loss on our part with one of these anti-DEI proposals and run around saying, 'Shareholders love DEI,'" says Padfield. "They really can't do that, although they still will, but they can't do it if both the pro-DEI and the anti-DEI proposal lost by over 90%, which is most likely what happened in this case."
He says there have been some victories in terms of getting corporations back to neutral and away from discrimination on the basis of race and sex, but companies are still doing it and hiding it.
The anti-woke executive says people with investments, even those who use one of Mastercard's competitors, should be concerned about this.
"Vigilance continues to be called for," he concludes.
AFN is seeking comment from Mastercard.
