Union Cuts Ties With United Negro College Fund Over Kochs

[DEAD7]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/07/10/union-cuts-ties-with-united-negro-college-fund-over-kochs/

One of the largest U.S. labor unions cut ties with the United Negro College Fund this week, accusing the organization of “betrayal” after it accepted a $25 million grant from the billionaire Koch brothers, the union said Thursday.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, said President Lee Saunders wrote to UNCF President Michael Lomax Tuesday, saying in the letter that he was “deeply troubled” by the grant and then “stunned” when Mr. Lomax later spoke at a Koch brothers summit in California.

“We are doing this as a result of actions you have taken as president of the UNCF that are not only deeply hostile to the rights and dignity of public employees, but also a profound betrayal of the ideals of the civil rights movement,” Mr. Saunders said in his letter. The brothers and the organizations they fund “have devoted themselves for more than a decade to attacking the voting rights of African Americans,” Mr. Saunders said, citing the brothers’ support of voter identification laws and of organizations that advocated for the Supreme Court’s rolling back of the Voting Rights Act.

UNCF spokesman Anthony Owens wasn’t immediately available for comment Thursday. In a comment emailed to The Wall Street Journal on Friday, Mr. Owens said Mr. Lomax has participated in “numerous” public policy discussions sponsored by UNCF donors and his role on a panel at the Koch brothers summit “was simply to discuss the new Koch Scholars Program and the importance of a diverse and divided Nation coming together in pursuit of equity in education for all.”

 

[DEAD7]

I hope conservatives take note of what just happened, and proceed accordingly.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

is this the end of the UNCF?

 

[theworldismine13]

“Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.”

 

[Starman]

I hope conservatives take note of what just happened, and proceed accordingly.

 

[ORDER_66]

uncf/ naacp days are coming to an end if they keep up with this bullshyt corrupt a$$holes...

 

[theworldismine13]

uncf/ naacp days are coming to an end if they keep up with this bullshyt corrupt a$$holes...

you mean the unions?

 

[ORDER_66]

you mean the unions?

 

[Box Cutta]

Unfortunate, the Koch brothers now get a lot more out of this than even they intended.

Before, it seemed like they were simply buying a bit of pr, possibly looking for a future "pass" when something racist comes up....or maybe even just taking satisfaction in the fact that they can troll the hell out of civil rights organizations. The UNCF probably looked at the books and felt that, even though these are some evil ass people, you simply can't turn down 25 million dollars over an individuals or group of individuals political activity.

But now they not only broke up a bond between the UNCF and an ally...but they (And I mean conservatives) will also get to (If they choose to do so) run with a phony "See, it's the unions and liberal institutions that are racist! Not us!" narrative.

I personally was iffy on whether or not the UNCF should accept the donation....looking at what the return on the Koch Brothers investment....next time, I'd hope that they either demand the donation to be private, or turn it down.

 

[wheywhey]

Charles Koch donated $1.5 million to Florida State in exchange for the right to approve some of the economics professors. Eventually the Koch brothers will be controlling the curriculum at HBCUs, pretty much the same way Bill Gates implemented the Common Core into public schools. This sort of power is inevitable in an oligarchy.

For all of those who have said, ""They need to teach us our history" and "They need to teach personal finance in schools", well the oligarchs listened and your requests are being answered.

 

[mrken12]

uncf/ naacp days are coming to an end if they keep up with this bullshyt corrupt a$$holes...

It's been like that for a while now. Especially the NAACP. The Sterling debacle just further proved that to those who weren't aware.

 

[Big Boss]

 

[Marvel]

uncf/ naacp days are coming to an end if they keep up with this bullshyt corrupt a$$holes...

Both of those organizations are in the Bilderberg Group. Both of them are front organizations to keep our people asleep.

 

[theworldismine13]

If AFSCME Breaks With Black Colleges Over Koch Money, It’s Not Being Principled, It’s Grandstanding
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2014/07/afscme_s_wrong_about_uncf_s_koch_money.html

et’s say, hypothetically, that a charity that serves veterans, based in my home state of Texas—where 23 percent of folks polled believe that President Barack Obama is Muslim—accepts a sizable donation from the Obama family. But after the Obamas’ donation becomes public, the charity winds up losing significant financial support from some of its conservative donors in Texas.
What would we say? We’d probably call that pretty unreasonable. We’d probably say that those who genuinely care about veterans should be able to put aside their political differences in the interest of what’s best for that charity and the people it serves. Right?

That hasn’t really happened—yet—but a very similar real-life situation has been unfolding. The Charles Koch Foundation and Koch Industries made a $25 million donation to the United Negro College Fund. Yes, those Kochs.

And the UNCF—one of the best-known educational organizations in the black community—accepted, prompting criticism from a number of progressives for doing so. Most recently, the organization’s perceived coziness with the Koch brothers is costing it the longtime support of one of the country’s most influential unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

But why?

In a letter to UNCF President Michael Lomax, Lee Saunders, AFSCME’s president, announced that his union is withdrawing its annual financial support from the UNCF as a result of actions that AFSCME considers “deeply hostile to the rights and dignity of public employees” and “a profound betrayal of the ideals of the civil rights movement.” Saunders cited not only the decision to take Koch money but also Lomax’s decision to speak at a summit hosted by the Koch brothers, writing, “Your appearance at the summit can only be interpreted as a sign of your personal support and the UNCF’s organizational support of the Koch brothers’ ideological program."

Saunders doesn’t mention what Lomax said at the Koch summit, or even what the topic of discussion was. If you take Saunders’ letter at face value, he took the position that if you don’t agree with someone politically, you shouldn’t attend their events or speak to them. Which is ridiculous—but shows just how intolerant those on the left are becoming, at the same time that they accuse the right of intolerance.

In recent years the Koch brothers have become Public Enemy No. 1 for unions. They’re credited with bankrolling many of the initiatives that have weakened organized labor, like their support for Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who pushed to weaken the collective bargaining power of public-sector unions in Wisconsin, which subsequently became, in 2011, the site of some of the biggest union-related demonstrations in recent history.

But that has nothing to do with educating African-American students.

It seems to me that government and society would be better served if more people who disagreed spent more time together, not less.
If we start using politics as a litmus test in cases like this one, does that mean progressives should no longer stay in hospitals that Koch money helped fund? Ask MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, a frequent critic of the Koch brothers, who expressed gratitude for treatment he received in a medical facility they funded, saying, “You can be outraged by what the Koch brothers do with their money in politics and you can appreciate what they contribute to hospitals and medical research, and you can do that at the same time and still retain an ability to function.”

What’s particularly disappointing about Saunders’ position is that this is precisely the type of approach that many progressives have accused conservatives of using to ostracize the Obamas and ultimately paralyze Washington. It seems to me that government and society would be better served if more people who disagreed spent more time together, not less.

I may disagree with the Koch brothers on a number of issues, but one issue on which we seem to agree is the importance of educating communities of color. Graduation rates at HBCUs are lower than at other institutions of higher learning, with cost being cited as the primary barrier to completing a degree.

So why wouldn’t someone want the Kochs to devote more of their resources to this issue than to another issue on which they don’t agree with that person? Saunders might call this standing on principle, but it looks more like grandstanding. It should make all of us feel better about the UNCF to know that more kids will have a shot at an education because the organization chose to put the needs of college students ahead of the egos of a few activists.

 

[ADevilYouKhow]

Lol, as they should