Opinion: Debating Grant Making to Minority Groups

Efforts to push foundations to give more to minorities is justifiable, writes Al Piña, chairman of the Florida Minority Community Reinvestment Coalition in a letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Piña’s letter to the editor comes in response to a recent editorial that criticized Mr. Piña and his colleagues for their “call for the redistribution of charity to minority-led organizations as a “shakedown,” describing it as the “latest trend in racial extortion.”

“We focus on communities of color because we realize that our communities are this country’s future,” writes Mr. Piña. “Florida and our country are in dire need of leaders with an inclusive vision and the courage to see it through.”

For more on this issue, see The Chronicle’s latest article on the response by California foundations to a challenge similar to the one in Florida.