A former sales chief is suing IBM's Red Hat for being sacked alongside 20 other white men during the software subsidiary's aggressive diversity push to hire more women and African Americans.

Allan Kingsley Wood, a white man, says he faced race and gender discrimination because of the company's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) scheme, which set hiring targets for women and minorities.

The case was filed by America First Legal (AFL), which is headed by former Trump administration official Stephen Miller, as part of a broader assault against DEI in businesses, colleges, and the military.

Miller's conservative action group highlights a leaked video recording from 2021 in which IBM CEO Arvind Krishna vowed to punish executives who failed to meet diversity-hiring quotas.

Miller says 'Americans were shocked and horrified' to learn about 'illegal race-based discrimination' at IBM when Krishna's video was leaked and made public in December.

'We are taking action on behalf of a courageous plaintiff against his former employer, filing a lawsuit in federal court to get justice for our client and to stop this flagrantly lawless and bigoted conduct,' Miller added.

Wood, who worked at Red Hat from 2015-2023, seeks financial damages and for an end to the firm's DEI program.

The North Carolina-headquartered company, which has some 19,000 employees across more than 35 countries, did not answer DailyMail.com's request for comment.

The 37-page lawsuit was filed at the US District Court in Idaho this week.

It says Red Hat hired a DEI tsar in 2021, when Black Lives Matter activists led protests over the police killing of George Floyd, and embarked on an aggressive diversity hiring push.

It introduced 'quotas' aiming 'to remake its workforce demographic, seeking to reach 30 percent women globally and 30 percent associates of color in the United States by 2028,' papers show.

Wood made it clear that he opposed the firm's DEI policies due to his religious and political views.