When a hostile media outlet writes that your organization is “leading America’s anti-DEI movement,” is “effective,” “experiencing enormous success,” and even counts as one of the “dominant powers in the U.S.,” the only proper response is gratitude. For years, the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) has worked to challenge a toxic ideology that insists identity trumps merit. If journalists now admit that our shareholder proposals have moved some of the largest corporations in America away from divisive policies, we’ll take the compliment.
We’ll also accept the acknowledgment that even when our proposals don’t win majority votes, they still shape corporate behavior. At Goldman Sachs, for example, while our request for a racial discrimination audit failed to win majority support, the company still scaled back its DEI programming. The lesson? Courageous minority voices can change powerful institutions even in the face of large and arguably conflicted asset managers and proxy advisors. Our work has proven—again—that a small group armed with truth can alter the course of giants.
Who Is Peddling Disinformation?
The author of the original op-ed accuses us of spreading “disinformation” about transgender issues. What’s striking is that not a shred of evidence accompanies the charge. We are told it is “disinformation” to say that activist-driven rating systems like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index pressure companies into promoting radical gender ideology. Yet anyone can read the CEI scoring criteria, which reward corporations for funding sex-change procedures, mandating pronoun compliance, and lobbying for policies that erase sex-based protections in sports and privacy. If repeating what the HRC itself advertises is “disinformation,” then words have lost all meaning.
We are also told that calling so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors a form of mutilation is dishonest. But if a healthy adolescent girl undergoes double mastectomy, if a teenage boy is sterilized by puberty blockers, if irreversible surgeries are performed on confused children—what word would our critics prefer? Euphemisms like “care” cannot disguise the brutality of permanently altering young bodies. If honesty is now “phobia,” then the real disinformation is being spread by those who deny biological reality and medical harm.
The same pattern emerges with wage-gap rhetoric. The op-ed parrots talking points that women make 85 cents on the dollar, or that Black and Latino workers earn dramatically less. But these “gaps” collapse once you account for hours worked, education, job choices, and family decisions. If corporate America really could pay women less for the same work, why wouldn’t every greedy capitalist hire only women? The myth persists because it justifies DEI quotas and preferences—illegal, immoral, and ultimately harmful to those they claim to help. The truth is not oppression. Pretending otherwise is the very definition of disinformation.
The Iron Law of Woke Projection
If the accusations against us sound familiar, it’s because they are projections. Over and over, the loudest DEI defenders reveal the iron law of woke projection: accuse your opponents of what you yourself are doing.
We are told that anti-DEI proposals rely on “racist and white supremacist narratives.” Yet it is DEI ideology that insists Black Americans are helpless victims who cannot compete without preferences and quotas. That’s not empowerment; that’s neo-racism masquerading as progress.
We are accused of echoing segregationists. Yet it is DEI advocates who now champion “Black-only” graduations, racially exclusive training sessions, and employee resource groups that sort workers by skin color. When we defend a colorblind standard, we are branded segregationists by people who literally re-segregate.
We are charged with “controlling the cultural conversation.” Yet it is DEI orthodoxy that punishes dissenters, compels speech with preferred pronouns, and threatens livelihoods for holding unfashionable beliefs. Our opponents label themselves liberators even as they police language and thought.
We are smeared as “Christian supremacists” simply for defending the family and advocating for children. Think about that. To argue that kids deserve protection from irreversible medical experiments is reframed as theocratic oppression. If being pro-child and pro-family makes one a “supremacist,” then words again have lost all meaning.
We are accused of wanting to “sow division” and “turn back the clock on civil rights.” But who is actually dividing? Who constantly sorts humanity into ever-expanding categories of race, sex, gender identity, and intersectional status? Not us. It is DEI itself that enshrines permanent division. And who is turning back civil rights? Not those of us who insist on equal treatment under the law. It is DEI advocates who explicitly reject colorblind equality and demand racial discrimination as policy.
At the end of the day, our opponents cannot win on substance. That is why they resort to projection, disinformation, and smears. They call us “phobic” to silence debate. They call us “supremacists” for defending families. They call us “racist” for rejecting race-based preferences. In doing so, they reveal their own bigotry.
The National Center does not seek to exclude anyone from society. We want a world where people are judged not by skin color, sex, or pronoun preferences, but by merit, character, and contribution. If that vision frightens DEI advocates, it is because their power depends on permanent grievance.
To them we say: we see your projections. We reject your disinformation. And we thank you for the backhanded accolades. Because every time you admit that our proposals are effective, that our influence is growing, and that corporations are moving away from DEI, you prove our point. The tide is turning—not because of hate, but because truth has a way of breaking through.
