A former New York-based IBM employee accused the company of favoring South Asian workers at the expense of African Americans, and blamed the Trump administration's anti-diversity, equity and inclusion policies as the impetus for the alleged wrongful treatment, according to a racial discrimination lawsuit filed in federal court in White Plains.
The plaintiff, Annette Brooks, worked at IBM for 26 years, according to the lawsuit, most recently as vice president, IBM Z Data and AI, but was laid off last year, amid what she alleges was "consistent preferential treatment of South Asian employees over Black employees within IBM."
The lawsuit, which seeks $1.1 million in damages and other costs, also claimed that IBM removed several qualified Black employees "in order to appease the Trump administration, and to remain favored by the Defense Department and other government agencies with large IBM contracts.”
A spokesperson for IBM, a global technology company with headquarters in Armonk, said in a statement that the allegations were “baseless” and that race had played no role in the plaintiff’s job termination, adding that the company does not tolerate discrimination of any sort.
The lawsuit comes at a time when many major institutions and employers, especially those contracting with the federal government, have pivoted away from highly visible hiring and promotion programs that explicitly mention race or otherwise tout diversity, equity, and inclusion as company values.
The pivot comes as the Trump administration has disavowed DEI initiatives and encouraged white workers to bring discrimination claims alleging anti-white bias.
According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff’s workplace troubles began in 2024, when she began to report to Dinesh Nirmal, a South Asian executive. Of Nirmal's 10 direct reports, the lawsuit claims, eight were also South Asian, and the two who were not struggled to form strong professional relationships with him.
“In contrast, Mr. Nirmal invited and convened with South Asian IBM employees outside of work,” the lawsuit stated, “allowing these colleagues critical networking and relationship-building opportunities that were not extended or otherwise made available to non-South Asian employees such as Plaintiff.”
President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order attacked DEI policies as an “identity-based spoils system” that undermines traditional American values such as hard work and merit. Soon after, the lawsuit alleges, IBM's Indian-born CEO Arvind Krishna said “of course we will comply” with the Trump administration’s directives during a call.
According to the lawsuit, Brooks holds a bachelor's degree in computer science as well as a master's degree in business administration, and began working at IBM in 1998 until her termination in February 2025. At the time, the lawsuit stated, she was one of seven Black executives in a division of 20,000 employees. Of those, the lawsuit contends, five Black executives were laid off in January 2025.
The lawsuit emerges during a fraught period for companies trying to manage diverse workforces. The federal government has actively encouraged white men to pursue both racial and gender-based discrimination claims.
Andrea Lucas, the chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, wrote on X in December that her office “is committed to identifying, attacking and eliminating ALL race and sex discrimination — including against white male employees and applicants.”
David Glasgow, the executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at NYU School of Law, said that those complaints notwithstanding, the majority of discrimination complaints “are from members of those traditional cohorts rather than by disgruntled white men.”
Without commenting on the particulars of the IBM lawsuit, Glasgow said the claim that South Asian employees may benefit from policies at the expense of Black employees was plausible because Indian-born workers are disproportionately represented in the nation’s tech industry.
“In certain industries, if there are particular cohorts that happen to be dominant in that environment, they might be the kind of beneficiaries of favorable treatment, even if out in the wider world they are not – they are themselves marginalized in certain ways,” Glasgow said.
Brooks said in a statement provided by her lawyer, Pamela Keith, at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Employment Justice, that the assertions in the lawsuit “speak for themselves.”
“This has been a difficult step, but necessary to address the pattern of discrimination towards me and Black executives at IBM,” Brooks said. “I remain confident in the legal process and have no additional comment at this time.”
Glasgow said the continuing prevalence of discrimination lawsuits by employees of color and women required that companies not bow to political pressures.
“The solution here is to find strategic and lawful ways of continuing your work on promoting inclusion and diversity rather than thinking that you can get rid of those programs and be legally safe,” he said.
