Just when you feel comfortable that we no longer have to hear about the long-gone reprobates of the Obama era, former AG and bad penny Eric Holder shows up.

Starbucks Hired Eric Holder To Conduct a ‘Civil Rights Audit.’ The Policies He Blessed Got the Coffee Maker Sued.

Now you might be thinking “Starbucks? That leftwing, preachy, style-over-bad-coffee corporation? Why should I care?” If nothing more than the entertainment value of “live by the virtue signal, die by the virtue signal” that allowed smarmy grifter like Eric Holder to fleeced ’em, it is also a window into how everyone of the chest-beating demands for diversity are nothing but industrial-sized rent-seeking.

All.Of.Them.

Holder—who has charged as much as $2,295 an hour for such work—issued a final report in 2021 that outlined the steps Starbucks had taken to promote “equity.” They included tying executive pay to diversity targets, setting spending goals for “diverse suppliers,” and launching a mentorship program for “BIPOC” employees, which Holder pressed the company to expand. Each initiative, he wrote, demonstrated the coffee maker’s “commitment to civil rights and equal treatment.”

But one year later, Starbucks was fending off a civil rights lawsuit over precisely the programs Holder had blessed. The lawsuit, which is still ongoing and was filed last August by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative nonprofit that is also a Starbucks shareholder, argued that the programs violate non-discrimination laws as well as the company’s fiduciary duties. Such claims may have come as a surprise to Starbucks executives: At no point did Holder’s report address the legality of the policies at issue.

Wait, what? You mean racial and sex discrimination is still racial and sexual discrimination, even if done for GoodReasons?

Say, it ain’t so!

Ibram X. ‘The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.’ Kendi most hurt.

Let’s recall that Eric Holder’s behavior as Obama’s consigliere was pretty unprecedented in his five-year mission to help Barry fundamentally change America. What was clear upon his exit from the White House was that his contempt of American principles was undimmed. And staying in DC he’s continued the race-baiting grift to great profit and screw any ethical obligations to his clients.

When a law firm’s “civil rights” advice gets its client sued for race discrimination, one might expect the firm to dispense less of that advice, or at least to warn other clients about the risk of taking it. But Covington, which represents some of the largest companies in the world, did neither.

Through its “racial equity audit” practice, the firm continued rubber stamping race-based initiatives for its clients, including BlackRock, Citigroup, and Verizon. Such practices have become common in recent years as c-suites, often under shareholder pressure, seek third-party validation of their diversity efforts, something top law firms have been more than happy to provide. (snip)

These programs “are lawsuits waiting to happen,” said Noah Peters, the former solicitor of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, who has represented numerous government employees in discrimination lawsuits.

I say, bring on the lawsuits. Not just to spank the corporate entities engaged in the ESG protection racket, but to keep applying the brakes to the run-away racial spoils system that does little more than foment resentment and distrust while the players like Eric Holder rake in the big bucks.

Time to bankrupt firms like Holder’s. Maybe he can find a job as a barista.

featured image, original graphic by Darleen Click