Former Marvel Exec Accuses Disney Of Denying Him Promotion Because He's White

A new lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company says that a former Marvel executive was denied a promotion because he is white.

Robert Steffens, who was CFO and eventually Co-President of Marvel from 2015-2023, alleges in the lawsuit that the previous CEO of Marvel, Ike Perlmutter, said in February 2022 that then Disney head Bob Chapek would not promote him within the Disney corporate hierarchy. 

Steffens was up for the role of president of consumer products at Disney, one of the most important roles for a company that sells a tremendous amount of merchandise. But per the suit, Perlmutter informed him that he would not get the promotion because he was "another old white guy."

The job then went to a woman, described as being of "ambiguous ethnicity" instead, fulfilling the company's desire to avoid another "old white guy" in a high ranking position.

(Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Disney's Alleged Discrimination Fits The Company Pattern

The lawsuit also describes Disney as a "woke" company, determined to use an "official effort to promote vice presidents based on their race and a memorandum that would have referred to employees with the racial signifier ‘BIPOC’ [black, indigenous and people of color]."

It also alleges that the entertainment giant engaged in "willful, wanton, malicious, intentional, oppressive and despicable [actions] and were done in willful and conscious disregard of the rights, welfare and safety of [Steffens]."

These are all allegations, not yet proven in court. But they do fit the pattern of left-wing companies during the Great Woke Panic of 2020-2024. That era has thankfully come to an end, with the re-election of President Donald Trump and his administration's actions to root out DEI.

Disney, however, exemplified it. It's obvious in its content, park management practices, hiring practices, casting practices, and directing choices, that its top priority was enforcing a particular political ideology. And it cost Disney billions. 

Chapek, who at one point tried to steer the company back towards sanity by announcing it would stay out of political debates it had no part in, was clearly overwhelmed by the weight of progressive politics at Disney. He got the company embroiled in the Parental Rights in Education Act in Florida, costing the company control over its Walt Disney World property for nothing. 

Obviously, "woke" film release after film release bombed at the box office, while irreparably damaging the company's reputation. And now there's yet another costly lawsuit over alleged discrimination because of Hollywood's obsession with race. This type of behavior, if true, is part and parcel for how woke ideology destroys every institution.