Marybeth Gasman (left)
Penn Professor, Mother, Fighter for Justice, lover of John Legend, giver, HBCU expert, and all around happy person
Posted on 06/18/2014 11:26:37 AM PDT by reaganaut1
On June 6, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) announced the receipt of the fifth largest donation in its history — $25 million from Charles and David Koch.
Had the money come from any other source, we would have smiley faces all around. But because the Koch brothers have been so relentlessly demonized by defenders of the mega-state (Harry Reid denounces them as “un-American” on the Senate floor; others use language much worse than that), the gift has led to spasms of outrage.
As we read in the Inside Higher Education story about the Koch gift, Koch haters let fly at UNCF. One person fumed that UNCF had “literally sold its soul to the Devil.” (How about a grant to UNCF or some other group to combat the misuse of the word “literally”?) Another declared that by accepting the funds, UNCF “tells children that money comes first and integrity is unnecessary.”
University of Pennsylvania professor Marybeth Gasman argued that UNCF should reject the money because it is tainted with the Koch brothers’ political advocacy, which she says works “to undermine the interests of African Americans and the institutions that support them.” The Kochs want to shrink the federal government, but Gasman objects, saying that federal programs “built the black middle class.”
The notion that government programs have been essential for the upward mobility of African Americans (and other groups) is received wisdom among many academicians like Professor Gasman, but it is mistaken. They look only at the winners from government policies and declare them successful, never seeing the greater number of losers. (This is yet another illustration of Bastiat’s famous point about seen and unseen consequences of government interventions.)
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Is the Fund going to return the money?
Now THAT, I’d like to see....
The UNCF should give the money back if they don’t want it, then the Koch brothers can donate it to the United White People’s Children’s Fund.
What? You say, there is no such fund? Why not?
I would think African Americans are Americans also and would like a strong private sector.
What is so evil about balanced budgets and going out to become taxpayers themselves?
What is so bad about reducing government so the tax burden on the economy is reduced?
I kind of wonder if the African American community at large have any idea of the actual history of the party they depend on and stick to like glue?
Give back the cash! Such smarmy lefty hypocrites.
Well the professor is right - the government DID build the Black Middle Class.
It built it very carefully, to be as absolutely small as possible.
Did Koch actually write the word Negro? That proves he’s racist!
...federal programs “built the black middle class...
The black middle class that was strong and growing up to the 1960s was destroyed by the Johnson’s federal programs that the democrats embraced as their new slave-master relationship.
UNCF should return the money and let more of their potential students go begging.
In actual practice, their students won’t have to worry for a scholarship. Their campaigning for coin has long been overcome by affirmative action laws and policies to the point that if you are black and can’t get funded for a higher education then you just aren’t trying and aren’t serious.
I applaud the Kochs for raising this issue that portrays how ignorant, racist, and intolerant the left and blacks in this country are.
Take back the money and build a scholarship fund for single white males who are at the bottom of the pile when it comes to scholarship consideration.
348 Cadillac Escalades.
How many groups associated with that piece of filth & convicted criminal, George Soros, have given money the the UNCF without a peep?
I hope they DO give the money back, making a REAL statement... About what booger eating moronic race hustlers are running or supporting the UNCF.
Mark
The government destroyed the black middle class in the mid ‘60s.
.
With brain thumper sound systems included?
.
If I was one of them, I’d change my name to Galt.
Gasman is correct.
In January 2008, just as the Great Recession started, 24% of Black Americans who had a job worked for a government agency or worked for a government contractor.
So the “black middle class” must mean welfare recipients. With SNAP and Section 8, black people can eat and live like they’re middle class.
Thanks, Gubment!
I’d like to see the professor and others who are griping just raise funds to replace the Koch donation if they don’t want UNCF to accept it.
Marybeth Gasman (left)
Penn Professor, Mother, Fighter for Justice, lover of John Legend, giver, HBCU expert, and all around happy person
the Kochs should have established their own scholarship fund for the deserving
giving it to the UNCF smacks of pandering to a rasist inept organization and throwing millions down a rathole
#notimpressed
The only thing missing is her “ready for Hillary” button....
You must admit it’s fun to watch the progressives get their knickers in a knot.
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