Press Release:
January 13, 2025
Contact:
Edward Blum
edwardjayblum@gmail.com
703-505-1922
American Alliance for Equal Rights Files Lawsuit Challenging McDonald’s HACER Hispanic-Only Scholarship Program
Despite its recent civil-rights audit, McDonald’s has decided to continue a program that blatantly discriminates against high-schoolers based on their ethnicity. Its HACER program awards college scholarships worth up to $100,000 to 30 winners. But per McDonald’s, applicants must “have at least one parent of Hispanic/Latino heritage.”
(Austin, Texas) – Today, the American Alliance for Equal Rights filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of McDonald’s HACER scholarship program. International Scholarship and Tuition Services., the company that administers the program, was sued as well.
The complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, is attached.
On January 6, 2025, McDonald’s announced the results of a “comprehensive” civil-rights audit conducted by the law firm WilmerHale which resulted in a “modification” of “all” of the company’s DEI efforts.
Because of the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, McDonald’s claimed it would now follow a “new” overarching concept: “trea[t] everyone with dignity, fairness and respect, always.”
As highlighted in the complaint, when McDonald’s expressed this new commitment to treat “everyone” fairly, it didn’t really mean it: Despite its civil-rights audit, McDonald’s has decided to continue a program that blatantly discriminates against most high-schoolers based on their ethnicity. Its HACER program awards college scholarships worth up to $100,000 to thirty winners—but only to students who “have at least one parent of Hispanic/Latino heritage.” So non-Hispanics—including non-Hispanics with severe financial need and racial minorities like blacks, Arabs, and Native Americans—are flatly barred based on their ethnic heritage. AAER asserts this is a violation of 42 U.S.C. §1981.
Edward Blum, president of the American Alliance for Equal Rights said, “When corporations say they will replace controversial and polarizing programs with more neutral ones, it does not always mean the company has undergone any meaningful changes. A corporate press release heralding changes in policies is often little more than a public relations exercise.”
Blum added, “It is astonishing that after what McDonald’s describes as a comprehensive civil-rights audit of its programs and policies, the Hispanic-only HACER scholarship was not flagged for likely being a violation of our nation’s civil rights laws.”
Blum concluded, “It is our hope that McDonald’s immediately pauses this scholarship program so it can be opened to all under-resourced high school students regardless of their ethnic heritage.”