The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and two other nonprofit organizations have come under fire for allegedly implementing scholarship and career advancement programs that discriminate against white Americans, potentially violating federal law and jeopardizing their tax-exempt status.
The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) reported three organizations, the Gates Foundation, the Lagrant Foundation, and the Creative Capital Foundation, in letters to the IRS, claiming the nonprofits have “intentionally” discriminated against white people.
These cases of discrimination, AAER says, constitute “sufficient grounds” for the IRS to revoke the tax-exempt statuses of these three organizations.
Edward Blum, the president of the AAER, blasted the groups for engaging in race-based discrimination while enjoying public subsidies on account of their tax-exempt status. “Organizations that discriminate based on race—whether their intentions are benevolent or not—are not eligible for public subsidies through the tax code,” Blum asserted. “The IRS must act to uphold the law.”
The Gates Foundation, AAER says, is “intentionally discriminating against white students by excluding them from the tuition assistance and specialized support that it provides to students of every other race or ethnicity.” The foundation’s Gates Scholarship states that the program is a “highly selective, last dollar scholarship for outstanding, minority high school students” before listing acceptable racial and ethnic backgrounds in its eligibility requirements.
A 2022 video advertising the Gates Scholarship reaffirms that only “low-income, minority students” are eligible. The program is only open to students who are “African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, or Native American.”
AAER also blasted the Lagrant Foundation, which it similarly accuses of engaging in race-based discrimination against whites.
The Lagrant Foundation partners with large corporations like Walmart, Microsoft, and Charles Schwab and seeks to “increase the number of ethnic minorities in the fields of advertising, marketing and public relations.” It lists the approved racial and ethnic backgrounds eligible for the program, which is limited to African Americans, Alaska Natives, Asian Americans, and Hispanics.
Another organization, called Creative Capital, teamed up with the leftist Skoll Foundation to similarly engage in discrimination, AAER claimed in its letter.
Skoll and Creative Capital, which provides funding to artists, worked alongside Kickstarter “to launch a $500,000 Creative Capital x Skoll Foundation Fund that backs projects by Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx creators on the crowdfunding platform.”
Artists selected for the program were also given “access to Creative Capital’s vast educational resources and workshops at no-charge” and “strategic guidance” from “Kickstarter’s category experts.”
“These organizations are free to operate as they wish—but not with the public subsidy that tax-exempt status provides,” Blum charged. “Racial discrimination—whether in scholarships, professional development, or artistic grants—violates public policy and must not be underwritten by American taxpayers.”
The three nonprofits are far from the only organizations accused of openly engaging in blatant race-based discrimination in the name of DEI, however. One Massachusetts music nonprofit ran a “BIPOC internship” that similarly excluded white people, informing applicants that “we welcome Black, Indigenous, and other persons of color to apply.”
A wide range of corporations have also discriminated against white applicants, a series of Daily Wire investigations revealed. NASCAR, McKinsey and Company, Oracle, Apple, and various other corporations appear to have engaged in openly discriminatory practices in the name of DEI.