Pfizer's "Breakthrough Fellowship" offers college students multiple internships, a fully funded master's degree, and several years of employment at the pharmaceutical giant. It also restricts applications to "Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic and Native American students, the fellowship requirements state.
The fellowship is a violation of two federal laws:
- Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans racial discrimination in employment
- The fellowship was also found to be in violation of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
- Gail Heriot, a former commissioner on civil rights, called it a "clear case of liability"
The Breakthrough Fellowship is part of a larger push within Pfizer to "embed DEI into our DNA"
- CEO Albert Bourla in 2020 made equity one of the company's four "core values" alongside excellence, courage, and joy
- Central to those actions has been the use of diversity targets-concrete, legible benchmarks the company can measure
- Pfizer did not respond to a request for comment
This metrics-based approach has produced dramatic and disproportionate results
- 72% of summer interns surveyed identified as representing an underrepresented group or disadvantaged background, far exceeding the goal of 50%
- Non-whites make up less than 40% of the U.S. population.
- The Breakthrough Fellowship appears to be contributing to that skew
No Whites Allowed: Pfizer Fellowship Flagrantly Violates the Law, Lawyers Say
- Asked about the company's claim to be an equal-opportunity employer, Berry, the Boyden Gray attorney, used the term "doublespeak."
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