Fellows at the Heritage Foundation said donors can reverse the destructive path the country has taken in embracing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) by supporting organizations like Minnesota-based TakeCharge and other pro-America groups.
DEI has radicalized philanthropy, and organizations like TakeCharge counter the narrative and fight back against anti-American philosophies.
Fellows at the Heritage Foundation understand that well-intentioned people are misled into thinking DEI will address disparities, according to Kendall Qualls, president and founder of TakeCharge, a nonprofit that promotes the idea that the promise of America is available to everyone, regardless of race.
The Heritage Foundation is a preeminent conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that promotes the founding principles of our country and restoring self-governance to the American people.
“DEI’s practices violate the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act,” write Katharine Gorka and Michael Gonzalez in the special report “Radicalization of Race: Philanthropy and DEI.” “Numerical quotas, government race-conscious policies, and speech codes do nothing to close the real disparities of achievement, because they do not address the root causes.”
According to the report, DEI now permeates organizations that fund charitable activities. DEI has become “the guiding principle and dominant focus of many foundations, corporations, and the federal government.”
“The more progressive, woke, and anti-American they are, the more money they receive. These policies are being shoved down the throats of Americans, and we’re being told to sit down, shut up and comply,” Qualls said.
“DEI now infuses the grantmaking of the majority of America’s largest private foundations,” according to the report. “As a result, hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in organizations and programs shaped by the assumptions that underlie DEI.”
Because philanthropic dollars provide “early-stage research and development for solving societal issues, whatever philanthropies are supporting today has the potential for widespread implementation in the future,” according the the report.
“People give billions of dollars to advance an anti-American, anti-white, anti-Christian agenda. Organizations like TakeCharge and others mentioned by the Heritage Foundation fight against that narrative and promote what unites us as Americans,” Qualls said.
“Proponents of DEI have infiltrated education, state and federal governments and corporations with the objective of picking winners and losers,” Qualls continued. “DEI will never fix those problems.”
DEI does not address the root causes of disparities, such as the destruction of the two-parent family or black culture’s rejection of its roots of faith, family, and education, he explained.
“It pushes a Marxist ideology that wants to transform the country and undermine the founding principles,” Qualls said. “These organizations believe quotas and discrimination in the form of Critical Race Theory will address the disparities in educational, economic and academic achievements.”
Philanthropists donate billions of dollars to support foundations that subscribe to the beliefs that “America is systemically racist; white America harbors unconscious racism; and equal rights, meritocracy, and the law itself reinforce a regime of white supremacy,” according to the report.
“DEI suppresses rights of some while elevating the rights of others,” the report says.
The authors suggest funders and policy institutes support organizations that challenge the assumptions of DEI and provide an opposing perspective and solutions.
Economist John Sibley Butler, Devon Westhill, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, and political scientist Carol Swain, among others, are also on the Heritage Foundation’s list of organizations to support.
“We are on the frontline of the cultural wars, and we need support to win the battle. We reject the notion of ‘white privilege’ and systemic racism,” Qualls said.
“DEI eradicates the best aspects of the American experiment, which have brought prosperity and opportunity to so many — the rule of law, respect for individual rights, and equal treatment under the law,” the fellows write in their report.
“Can funders and policy institutes help these voices to be heard in time to reverse the destructive path that the country is on?”
