The Ford Foundation investments director published an opinion piece Wednesday in Fortune Magazine claiming attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs are “anti-capitalist.”
Roy Swan is the director of Mission Investments at The Ford Foundation, a left-leaning non-profit that is one of the largest donors for left-leaning causes in the United States. Swan wrote the opinion piece in response to what he sees as “ruinous rhetorical civil war” caused by DEI.
“DEI is a capitalist tool to increase income and wealth through fairness. Increased fairness results in increased employee engagement. Increased employee engagement leads to greater innovation, productivity, and profitability,” Swan said in the article. “Sadly, for America, DEI attackers have fallen prey to the paradoxically seductive and anxiety-provoking power of oppression psychology—tactics designed to protect superiority by erecting and maintaining race-based barriers to opportunity under the flawed assumption of a zero-sum world.” (RELATED: Major Liberal Charities Funneling Millions Into Arms Of Chinese Government, Documents Show)
The Ford Foundation has a long history of funding left-leaning causes in America. The foundation has given millions of dollars to left-leaning organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Tides Center, according to the Foundation’s grant database.
“The idea that Black people might benefit from DEI programs has caused anxiety, controversy, conflict, fear, and resentment,” Swan said. “When one is accustomed to and feels deserving of the whole pie, even a crumb going to the hungry can conjure the pain of loss.”
(L-R) President at Demos Heather McGhee, America Divided executive producer and correspondent Norman Lear and founding member of the Crown Heights Tenant Union Donna Mossman, speak at the America Divided EPIX & Ford Foundation Event With Norman Lear & Peter Sarsgaard at Ford Foundation on September 13, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for EPIX)
More than 30 states have laws that ban or limit DEI practices, often on the grounds of their perceived unconstitutionality. Swan claims that DEI programs will bring productivity through better employing practices.
“DEI is a framework intended to help advance toward the too-often elusive concept of fairness, which will improve business engagement, productivity, profitability, and American economic prosperity,” he wrote. “Improving employee engagement unleashes innovation and productivity that can generate corporate profits of $550 billion annually.”
The Ford Foundation did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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