“No good deed will go unpunished.”
That saying must have run through the minds of Charles and David Koch – “the Koch brothers” – after news of their $25 million gift to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) was denounced by some progressives on Twitter as a deal with “the devil.”
Critics contend the money is tainted because the Kochs are libertarians who believe in limited government. If those beliefs are ever fully realized, left-wing critics say, they would destroy the government programs that African-Americans and other minorities rely on to get by in life.
One of those critics is University of Pennsylvania professor Marybeth Gasman. Gasman says that while many individual students will benefit from the scholarships, it is still “wrong” for UNCF leaders to take these funds.
Gasman tells InsideHigherEd.com that Koch organizations have been “deeply affiliated with the Tea Party,” which has repeatedly tried to undermine the interests and political activities of African- Americans and institutions that support them.
For evidence, Gasman and other critics point to the Kochs’ support of groups that have been involved in strengthening voter ID laws, action that leftists interpret as trying to prevent minorities from voting. The billionaire brothers contend the voter ID debate is not one of their pet issues.
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