Legal Group Urges Morgan Stanley To End ‘Discriminatory’ Minority-Only Internship Program

Morgan Stanley, a multinational investment bank and financial services company, has come under fire for its internship program that is only available for some minorities and openly gay students.

On Tuesday, The Project on Fair Representation — a legal defense group — sent a letter to the company saying that Morgan Stanley’s Freshman Enhancement Program is discriminatory. The letter was also addressed to Princeton University, who the group says is calling on its students to participate.

According to Morgan Stanley, the 2022 internship is solely available to “Black, Hispanic, Native American, and/or LGBTQ+ freshman undergraduate student[s].” It is characterized as a “Diversity internship,” which indicates asians, whites, and heterosexual applicants would be denied.

“Morgan Stanley and Princeton are leading institutions in our culture,” the legal group wrote in the letter. “What you do matters not only because it affects the individuals involved, but also because you set an influential example for others. Pandering to activists with ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ initiatives like this internship program is actively harming and racializing our already divided country.”

A senior associate employee at Morgan Stanley, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, told The Daily Wire he was taken aback when learning about the diversity initiative.

“I don’t understand how arbitrarily excluding a large chunk of our potential talent base is serving the interests of our company, clients and stakeholders,” said the employee. “Looks like senior management is attempting to make a woke mob happy at the expense of our clients. Reverse racism at its finest.”

The legal group, addressing Morgan Stanley’s chief legal officer and general counsel at Princeton, harped on how the internship violates federal nondiscrimination laws and is indicative of the “broader dysfunction” at both the financial company and Princeton. “It is difficult to understand how these programs passed internal legal review in light of the clear statutory prohibitions discussed above,” the lawyers also wrote in the letter.

Morgan Stanley’s internship program is four weeks and places interns in several divisions. As The Washington Free Beacon highlighted, other competitive universities in addition to Princeton are calling on students to look into the program. This includes Harvard University, The University of Michigan, and Denison University in Ohio.

The Project on Fair Representation also described in its letter how schools that get federal dollars ought to adhere to nondiscrimination laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The section bars discrimination based on “race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives federal funds.”

Morgan Stanley has been moving toward diversity initiatives for years.

The company released a 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Report in which chairman and CEO James P. Gorman said “This summer, recent events highlighted the unresolved racial injustice that has existed in our society for a very long time,” referring to the Black Lives Matter riots. As The Daily Wire reported last March, the company requested employees fulfill a “diversity” quota when fielding applicants.

Morgan Stanley did not immediately respond to a Daily Wire request for comment.

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