Published on August 22, 2024, 12:27 am

A consortium of 14 Republican attorneys general issued a word of caution to Apple on Wednesday, stating that its “biased” entrepreneur programs excluding white and Asian men might be against the law. Supervised by Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia’s Attorney General, the Republican officials penned a letter to Apple following the unveiling of its “Entrepreneurship Camp” applications exclusively for minorities and women. The letter aimed at Apple Senior Vice President Katherine Adams suggested that the application prerequisites may breach federal anti-discriminatory laws.

The attorneys general declared: “Apple must re-evaluate this ill-conceived and exclusionary tactic. Presently, the program demonstrates an upsetting preoccupation with race and gender — which appears to contravene anti-discrimination statutes. While supporting rising developers may be commendable, this detrimental strategy isn’t the right approach.”

They further emphasized, “Considering how you market your products in our States—along with recruiting developers, engineers, etc., from our states too—we can’t indirectly endorse your techniques. Indeed, we believe Apple is virtually exporting discrimination to our States via some these remote camps.”

Other attorneys general joining Morrisey were from states including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana among others.

Last week was riddled with criticism for Apple from conservatives post their disclosure of prerequisites for its “Apple Entrepreneur Camp” on August 13. The tech conglomerate maintains that the camp is aimed at “amplifying underrepresented founders and developers while fostering their growth in technology.”

The announcement indicated that all female,* Black Hispanic/Latinx Indigenous developers are allowed to apply. The asterisk around ‘female’ diverted to a comment stating that Apple is consonant with gender expression being a basic right thereby encouraging all women to partake in this scheme.

The Republican group asserted that Apple’s program was instigating societal rift and propagating “intentional discrimination.” They further stated: “If Apple wishes to welcome underrepresented individuals, numerous other ways can be devised for doing so without resorting to deplorable race- and sex-based classifications. It could focus on those who aren’t from higher-tier educational institutions or from lower socio-economic strata. Concentrating on persons from areas of our country yet untouched by a boom in application development could also be a way.”

In the past few months, corporations nationwide have faced backlash after pushing so-called woke policies and mandating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) prerequisites.