For centuries, American Christian charities have helped the poor and done much to lift people out of poverty. The Salvation Army is no slouch either, having spent $3.5 billion in fiscal year 2021 to meet the needs of the poor, hungry and homeless.
But a new ideology emerging within the Salvation Army threatens to undermine its core mission: DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion.
The DEI framework states that organizations need to become more “inclusive” and “diverse,” usually based on race and gender. At the Salvation Army, DEI outfits and officers abound. They pretend diversity within the organization “has been an issue, dating back to the days of British colonization”. And they create the narrative that The Salvation Army and its donors and employees port “complicity with racism and discrimination”. They also control what agents can say and think. At the prestigious Salvation Army Officer Training School, DEI directors “review each class curriculum to ensure it has a DEI component; it is not approved until it is.
It’s all so unnecessary. The reality is that the history of the Salvation Army is the exact opposite of what a genuinely racist organization is. The Corps was incorporated in 1898, long before the Civil Rights Act. The statutory orders for social workers made it clear that “no person shall be deprived of any of his benefits…because he is of a particular nationality, race or color”.
There have never been so many racial minorities involved in the Salvation Army, which has appointed a black national commissioner to Israel Gaither, and the organization has remained committed to serving marginalized people, regardless of skin color . Race lessons should never ask Salvation Army officers or supporters to apologize for their history.
In fact, US Salvation Army donors contribute nearly 80% to the Salvation Army’s international mission without knowing the color or nationality of the people they are supporting. These incredibly kind and generous people do not deserve to be insulted by peddlers of racism.
Yet if the Salvation Army does not commit to expelling DEI obsessives from its ranks, they will continue to be beset with false accusations of “racism”. DEI is based on Harvard Law School’s philosophies of “critical legal studies,” which assume that even when people don’t outwardly engage in racist behavior, they are still “complicit” in racism because of their thoughts, unconscious biases, and their participation in the market economy. DCI advocates find racism in mathin to be on timeand even in Milk. They can certainly conjure up other ways to attack the Salvation Army.
It’s not personal; it’s just DEI’s business to loudly complain about non-existent racism within organizations until they are heard. The DEI movement in corporations was born out of blaming CEOs that their companies were “racist” because they weren’t hiring enough blacks and Hispanics. It is a direct emanation from positive action in universities; as the Reagan administration deregulated corporations from having to hire according to racial quotas, DEI agents transformed themselves into “consultants” whose best-selling products were the narrative of racism. These consultants have succeeded in their business: Today, the DEI industry is worth more than $8 billion and holds influence all over American business.
During all this time, DCI does not help a single person in poverty. Teaching young children or young officers that America is racist and that vague “systemic racism” limits their opportunities only serves to depress them and reduce their confidence to take on the world. This assertion is confirmed by the data. Eric Kaufmann, professor of politics at Birkbeck College in London, surveyed black adults to find out if they would say yes to the following statement: “When I make plans, I am almost certain that I can make them work”. Ordinarily, 83% said they would say yes, but when a subset of them read a passage from “Between the World and Me” by black writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. who says, “in America, it is traditional to destroy the black body,” that percentage dropped to 68.
There is no business or moral case for pursuing DEI philosophies in The Salvation Army. It does not help anyone succeed and is based on a false premise of “systemic racism”. My organization Color Us United asks National Commissioner Kenneth Hodder to state the obvious fact – that “DCI does not help anyone in poverty.” He should do this because his organization is a living refutation of DCI: The Salvation Army shows ordinary Americans coming together and helping the poor of all skin colors without needing to be driven by guilt over their racism. .
It’s time for the Salvation Army to be proud of its history and take the lead. If this leading Christian service organization can say that, it can empower countless other organizations to get racing hustlers back on the streets before they further undermine the missions of America’s biggest charities. And it will really be a good thing for the poor.
