ANGELO: The NAACP Has Undermined Its Mission. Here’s How To Make It Right

ANGELO: The NAACP Has Undermined Its Mission. Here’s How To Make It Right

Gregory T. Angelo on January 20, 2023

Earlier this month Calley Means, a former consultant to the Coca-Cola Company, pulled back the curtain on past shadowy deals the beverage behemoth cut with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to further their corporate priorities.

What he revealed wasn’t pretty: the NAACP put money over mission, betraying their principles in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

Means recounted his priorities while working on behalf of Coca-Cola from 2011–2013: pushing to kill vice taxes on sugar and ensuring that food stamps could be used to purchase soda pop. The playbook, Means said, was simple: “paying the NAACP [and] other civil rights groups to call opponents racist.”

The interactions between Coca-Cola, the NAACP, and other nonprofits ostensibly fighting for racial equity were “depressingly transactional,” Means recalled. “We (Coke) will give you money. You need to paint opponents of us as racist.”

This isn’t the first time the NAACP has been accused of undermining its mission with pay-to-play schemes — their history of espousing support for “climate justice” while running defense for major polluters is long and sordid. A 2020 New York Times investigation exposed NAACP chapters across the country putting their weight behind initiatives to “build fossil-fuel plants, defeat energy-efficiency proposals, or slow the growth of rooftop solar power” in exchange for energy industry funding.

Such actions are at stark odds with the NAACP mission of “advancing policies and practices that…accelerate the well-being, education, and economic security of Black people and all persons of color.” A 2021 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health showed non-Hispanic black adults had the highest prevalence of obesity (49.9%); a 2022 Harvard study concluded that ethnic minorities are at greater risk of pollution-related health complications.

The conclusion is as clear as it is heartbreaking: the NAACP put money over mission, betraying their principles in pursuit of the almighty dollar.

But the most concerning part of Calley Means’ divulgation about the NAACP’s back-room dealings with Coke wasn’t the horse-trading; it was the willingness with which the NAACP agreed to use their century-old, respected brand to deem opponents of their corporate funders “racist” — one of the most damning descriptors with which an individual or organization can be labeled.

By casually weaponizing racism to advance the pet causes of donors, the NAACP undercut its reputation. Honest policy disagreements are one thing, but as an organization established to fight discrimination, cavalier accusations of racism from the NAACP diminish the way the public responds when genuine race-based hatred rears its ugly head.

The New Tolerance Campaign, the organization for which I have the honor of serving as President, was founded “to hold accountable self-proclaimed arbiters of tolerance when they betray their own stated values.” In the case of the NAACP’s interactions with the Coca-Cola Company, the betrayal of mission is clear — and so is the opportunity this moment provides.

The storied civil rights organization can emerge from the other side of this crisis as a leader in lessons learned, renew the trust of the public and their constituents, and serve as an example to other institutions that have departed from their purported goals.

First, the NAACP needs to be transparent. The Coca-Cola controversy calls into question the entire portfolio of NAACP big-business donors. A look at the list of their featured corporate supporters includes some eyebrow-raising names: Big Tech titan Google, liquor giant Bacardi, and Airbnb — the latter a short-term homestay rental company whose market disruption has led to housing crises, gentrification, and skyrocketing rents. All three are large companies generating billions of dollars in revenue each year, staffed with lobbyists pushing a legislative agenda involving contentious policy issues. Did the NAACP cut a deal with any of them, too?

To be sure, nonprofits can and should welcome financial contributions from entities that support their mission and work, but following recent revelations, the NAACP owes it to their supporters to disclose any other quid-pro-quo relationships they’ve had with corporate donors.

Second, the NAACP should apologize for any donor interactions that undermined its mission. Public contrition can be difficult, but for a civil rights organization with the noble goal of advancing racial equality, it’s an essential part of restoring credibility.

Finally, the NAACP must recommit to its mission — with an emphasis on commitment. None of the scandals plaguing the organization would have occurred had the NAACP viewed all requests for political favors through the lens of its founding purpose.

The NAACP isn’t the first nonprofit to face allegations of graft, but by recentering their ideals, the organization can serve as an example that encourages other groups to be true to their stated values. Our country’s institutions could use more of that.

Gregory T. Angelo is the President of the New Tolerance Campaign. Visit newtolerance.org for more info.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.