IBM's Red Hat SUED over culling 21 white men employees as CEO vowed to punish managers who missed DEI targets

A former sales chief is suing IBM's Red Hat for being sacked alongside 20 other white men during the software subsidiary's aggressive diversity push to hire more women and African Americans.

Allan Kingsley Wood, a white man, says he faced race and gender discrimination because of the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) scheme, which set hiring targets for women and minorities.

The case was filed by America First Legal (AFL), which is headed by former Trump administration official Stephen Miller, as part of a broader assault against DEI in businesses, colleges, and the military.

Miller's conservative action group highlights a leaked video recording from 2021 in which IBM CEO Arvind Krishna vowed to punish executives who failed to meet diversity-hiring quotas.

Allan Kingsley Wood says he was kicked out of Red Hat for being a white man who spoke out against DEI

Red Hat is an open-source software subsidiary of IBM that's headquartered in North Carolina

Miller says 'Americans were shocked and horrified' to learn about 'illegal race-based discrimination' at IBM when Krishna's video was leaked and made public in December.

'We are taking action on behalf of a courageous plaintiff against his former employer, filing a lawsuit in federal court to get justice for our client and to stop this flagrantly lawless and bigoted conduct,' Miller added.

Wood, who worked at Red Hat from 2015-2023, seeks financial damages and for an end to the firm's DEI program.

The North Carolina-headquartered company, which has some 19,000 employees across more than 35 countries, did not answer DailyMail.com's request for comment.

The 37-page lawsuit was filed at the US District Court in Idaho this week.

It says Red Hat hired a DEI tsar in 2021, when Black Lives Matter activists led protests over the police killing of George Floyd, and embarked on an aggressive diversity hiring push.

It introduced 'quotas' aiming 'to remake its workforce demographic, seeking to reach 30 percent women globally and 30 percent associates of color in the United States by 2028,' papers show.

Wood made it clear that he opposed the firm's DEI policies due to his religious and political views.

He 'advocated for hiring based on merit and skill rather than other immutable characteristics,' the complaint says.

Two weeks later, Wood was told his job was being axed along with 21 other staffers.

A controversial video emerged last year in which IBM CEO Arvind Krishna vowed to punish executives who failed to meet diversity-hiring quotas

Former Trump administration official Stephen Miller says he's fighting 'illegal race-based discrimination' at IBM

All but one of the employees being culled were white men, says the suit.

The complaint says Wood was retaliated against for expressing his beliefs, by cutting short his approved paid family leave.

AFL has already taken action against IBM, complaining about the firm to the federal government's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in December.

The group cited video footage of CEO Krishna and Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier discussing diversity.

Krishna says in the video that corporate executives' bonuses can be affected if they don't meet DEI goals.

A whistleblower leaked the video to 'guerilla journalist' James O'Keefe.

Tech boss Elon Musk at the time posted that the quotas were: 'Extremely concerning and obviously illegal.'

The complaints against Red Hat are part of growing number of suits and filings against DEI practices since the US Supreme Court's landmark June 2023 ruling to end affirmative action in college admissions.

AFL has filed more than 30 complaints to the EEOC, a top US civil rights agency.

Lawsuits have claimed that hiring and recruitment decisions made around both jobs and fellowships at large companies are biased against white workers.

Advocates of DEI schemes say they bring more black, brown, female, and queer talent into offices and colleges and raise morale across the board.

But critics say they're a 'woke' virtue-signaling exercise that fosters backlash discrimination against straight, white men.