White Males Need Not Apply, Says Mickey Mouse

The Walt Disney Company, DEI Hiring, and the Trade-Offs of Woke Capitalism

Get Woke, Go Broke

~ The Internet

Today, I want to take a break from discussing de-dollarization, U.S. government debt, and everything else we've been covering lately... Instead, I’d like to talk about a story that's been that's been blowing up over the past two days. Though it's more about culture, it also has real investment implications.

Central to this is a video that surfaced over the weekend, showing Michael Giordano, Senior Vice President and Team Lead of Business Affairs at 20th Television, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (DIS), responding to questions from an undercover journalist. In it, he admits that Disney discriminates against white men in hiring.

“Oh, the shock” - said absolutely no one. Still, it's actually quite fascinating to watch… especially since it likely means Disney has violated the law, specifically Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Here’s a snippet from that video. It's only about 1 minute and 30 seconds long. Take a look.

If you'd rather read it, below are the key points from the exchange between Giordano and the undercover journalist:

Michael Giordano: Certainly, there have been times where, you know, there's no way we're hiring a white male for this.

Undercover Journalist: Just kind of unspoken.

Michael Giordano: There are times when its spoken, but…

Undercover Journalist: How would they say it?

Michael Giordano: There's no way we're hiring a white male for this role…

Undercover Journalist: Like straight to you?

Michael Giordano: Yeah. They'd be very careful how they message that to agents.

Giordano goes on to say:

I think I'm sort of like well prepared for it. I'm well positioned for it. But as far as Disney's concerned, I'm a white male. That's not who they're looking to promote at the moment.

He then shares an story about a “qualified half-black person” who was passed over for a promotion because they “didn't look black enough.”

Michael Giordano: They wanted somebody in meetings who would appear a certain way.

As soon as this story broke, I immediately thought about OceanGate's ill-fated Titan submersible. You may recall that it suffered an implosion on its way to the Titanic wreck, tragically killing all five passengers, about a year ago. The firm’s late CEO, who also perished in the accident, was on record about not hiring “50-year-old white guys,” opting instead for more “diverse” hiring practices.

Then you have all those air travel safety incidents that started popping up after airlines and aircraft manufacturers vowed in 2020 to make DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) a priority in their hiring practices. Like that time when the door plug of a Boeing 737 Max 9 blew off mid-flight, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the Alaska Airlines plane... or when another Boeing passenger jet’s nose wheel fell off just before the (Delta) flight took off.

Now, let me stress... there’s absolutely nothing wrong with hiring women or anyone of any color, background or creed. This is America, for goodness’ sake.

The problem only arises if you’re a company that prioritizes DEI over merit. Because in doing so, you might also be de-prioritizing something else. Just ask yourself: Would you want to fly in an airplane where they care more about the appearance of the people they hire than your safety?

The Magic Has Faded

Thankfully, Disney doesn’t fly planes, so the tradeoff they're making probably isn’t about safety (though it would be interesting to see safety stats for their parks). It’s on the quality of the content they and the companies they own produce...

And the “content” — mind you, I'm using this word deliberately — hasn't been well received lately, to say the least...

Disney’s last four big releases flopped at the box office, losing over $1 billion altogether.

Even Disney franchises that were once surefire hits have recently struggled to captivate audiences. Marvel Studios, a Disney subsidiary known for its billion-dollar superhero blockbusters, saw its worst-ever performance at the box office last year. This year isn't shaping up to be much better.

Now, in case you're wondering what could possibly be the reason for Disney’s decline, it's because they've fully embraced the woke… pushing politics over quality. The video above is just another example of this.

Management admitted as much last year in their SEC filings to investors, recognizing a growing “misalignment” between Disney’s output and “public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment.”

That’s about as close as you'll ever get to a global media giant like Disney acknowledging that their agenda-driven content just doesn't match up with what consumers want. And you don’t need to look any further than their stock price to see that both consumers and investors aren't too thrilled with how Disney has been running things.

Imagine that... producing content that your core audience actively dislikes doesn't pay.

In the immortal words of the internet: Get woke, go broke.

The bottom line is, if you’re surprised by the video above, you probably haven’t been paying attention. Disney as a media company has long sacrificed good storytelling on the altar of DEI. So, it’s only natural that as a corporate entity, they’d sacrifice good management for the same reasons too… even if it’s absolutely illegal to do so.

The (investment) takeaway? Think twice before putting your money into companies that probably don’t like you very much. You might get burned.

Regards,

Lau Vegys

P.S. Here’s the link to Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) profile if you'd like to watch the whole video with Disney's executive.