Wisconsin: Radical ‘Racial Equity’ Activists Fuel David Crowley’s BIPOC Obsession
Democrat gubernatorial candidate lets activist nonprofit train staff and lace racial ideology into laws and policies.
The $26 million national nonprofit Race Forward teaches Milwaukee County employees that every decision, in every government department, must be measured by how it relates to “racial equity.” Citizens might think Democrat gubernatorial candidate and County Executive David Crowley is running the county. However, his actions largely stem from Race Forward, the unelected nonprofit that has trained employees, guided policy changes, and caused department heads to waste hours writing meaningless racial equity reports.
Race Forward aims to advance "racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture." Milwaukee County pays to participate in its GARE program. That is, the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, a network of local and regional government jurisdictions that use Race Forward to shape policies. GARE’s mission is essentially the same as Race Forward’s: namely, to organize and advocate across local, state, and regional government "for policy changes centered around racial justice."
The group works in numerous jurisdictions around the United States. As of 2023, GARE had infiltrated more than 394 local governments in 36 states and the District of Columbia.
America First Legal asked the U.S. Department of Justice last year to investigate Race Forward for getting local governments to implement racial quotas or “equity mandates” in hiring practices in three Virginia jurisdictions.
Let's take a look at how Race Forward leaves its anti-white fingerprints all over Milwaukee County—something Crowley will likely attempt statewide.
But first, some money matters.
Mini Reparations Machine
While Milwaukee County faces a $47.7 million budget deficit and expects to cut public bus routes next year to help trim expenses, it fritters away funding for racial issues, paying $25,000 to Race Forward in 2026 for more racial equity training, plus its annual membership, ranging from $30,000 to $45,000 paid to GARE.
Milwaukee has been paying Race Forward since 2018, but in all those years, "systematic racism" is apparently no better. The county keeps paying them.
Like a mini reparations machine, a lot of people profit from the sale of historical racism and anti-white rhetoric. Race Forward’s business plan is dependent on perpetuating perceived racism.
Teaching governments how to shape policies around skin color is not cheap. Race Forward had at least seven employees earning more than $175,000 in 2024, according to its most recent tax-exempt 990 report. That year it had 112 employees and spent 56 percent of its income on personnel.
In annual reports, Race Forward lists partners and donors, including the Public Health Institute, a pro-abortion public health nonprofit; the pro-abortion Women’s March; the far-left National Education Association; the Transgender Law Center; the SEIU, or Service Employees International Union; and the Othering and Belonging Institute that works to transform “structural marginalization and inequality.”
Of course, the Soros-backed Open Society Foundations has helped fund its annual Facing Race conference, and, in 2024, the American Medical Association was a major sponsor and gave a national health equity presentation at the conference.
Milwaukee Takes on Racism
Just before Crowley took office in 2020, he and former Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele jointly declared racism a public health crisis. GARE took credit for that move, saying it had provided “technical assistance” for the plan.
“According to 2019 statistics, a white person lives, on average, nearly 14 years longer than a black person and the infant mortality rate is nearly three times higher for black infants compared to white infants,” noted a 2020 county ordinance announcing the public health crisis. The solution? “Identifying and eliminating any racism in [Milwaukee County’s] institutional policies, procedures, practices, and power structures for black and brown individuals and communities.”
Apparently, racism kills babies in Milwaukee County. It’s worth noting that 32 percent of Wisconsin’s induced abortions in 2023 (most recent data available) were by black mothers, while blacks make up only seven percent of the population. If you want to save black babies, stop making abortion "more accessible." Develop birth-affirming policies. Crowley won’t save black babies because he is endorsed by Planned Parenthood and Reproductive Freedom for All.
Moreover, racism, ostensibly, kills black adults. What, you thought it was homicide? Pay no attention to the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service report that between January 1, 2023 and September 5, 2024, in Milwaukee County, 313 people were murdered and eighty percent were black. Crowley’s abysmal record on crime is not going to improve when the county "achieves racial equity."
Beyond paying fees to the Race Forward, each Milwaukee County department spends money addressing racism through training and hiring practices.
Racial Equity Reports
Each county department has its own diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) committee that meets to plan staff equity-centered education. For example, in the Office of the Corporation Counsel—the county lawyers—the DEI committee has held book club discussions on DEI topics and organized group outings including to Milwaukee’s Black Holocaust Museum, according to its 19-page annual racial equity report. That report reveals the office is trying to hire more non-white employees by working with the National Black Lawyers Association, Wisconsin African American Lawyers Association, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and the Hispanic National Bar Association. Check your skin tone before you apply.
Milwaukee’s Office of the Comptroller makes its entire staff take yearly DEI trainings on "unconscious bias and cultural competency." The office spends an average of $5,000 a year on conferences and meetings according to its 17-page annual racial equity report. The Comptroller actively seeks BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color)—that is, non-white job applicants, and its procurement process prefers to do business with minority-owned businesses. Sorry, cracker, these jobs aren’t for you.
The report notes that any budget trim could cause delays in processing payments to vendors, which could disproportionately affect smaller, presumably BIPOC-led firms. You see, a budget cut could be racist and somehow, hiring more BIPOCs will reduce the mortality rate of black infants.
If the Comptroller's office could get an additional $125,000, it would launch the "Milwaukee County Community Financial Transparency and Engagement Initiative," a multilingual public workshop series explaining the county’s "financial processes, budget decisions, and how residents can access county programs and services" for "underserved communities, delivered in partnership with trusted local organizations." Why fill more potholes when you can develop a workshop teaching Arabic-speaking people how to get SNAP, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, benefits and how the county writes budgets.
Milwaukee County's Department of Administrative Services (DAS) has a 25-page racial equity report showing it "invested in equity, bridged the gap, and created intentional inclusion" in 2026 by spending $220,000 to expand public Spanish closed captioning to county board committee rooms. No need to assimilate to American culture by learning the language; the county will provide hearing-impaired, non-English speakers meeting access. It is unclear how this will improve public health.
The county airport spends around $160,000 a year advertising job postings in "diversity-focused associations like the Airports Minority Advisory Council." Every department must account for how it is trying to hire non-whites, including the county zoo and the "Community Reintegration Center," formerly known as the county prison. It has expanded access to low-dose prescription opioids to treat addiction. Restoration News has previously reported on how prisons are getting inmates hooked on prescription opioid remedies. Turns out it cures racism.
Wisconsin is Next
Crowley, a tender 33-year-old when elevated to Milwaukee Executive, has never run a business, so perhaps he doesn’t know that in the workplace, time is money. Paying staff to spend hours training, meeting, expressing, and writing reports about equity is wasted time and money. It is also terribly unfair to the majority of his constituents, who are white.
When Crowley said beer gardens are racist, he meant it. The parks department has spent hours researching and writing the Milwaukee County Parks Equity Index, grading each park for racial disparities. For example, if a park’s tree canopy in a white neighborhood is lusher than the tree canopy in a black neighborhood park, that is racist.
Presumably, plant more trees in the right parks and more black babies will live? That is, if the reasons for this public health crisis still hold.
If elected governor, Crowley will likely allow Race Forward and GARE to run the show across the state. Crowley will ask white Wisconsinites to pay for every discomfort BIPOCs experience. Don’t talk about that out loud. You’ll be called a racist.
Super Woke, Super Activists
Race Forward wants participating governments to adopt a "co-governance tool for a multiracial democracy," but Race Forward is not on the ballot. It wants more nonprofits (like Race Forward) at the table when policies are written, but voters don’t even know their candidate intends to submit to Race Forward’s influence.
The concept is similar to the Democrat Socialists of America (DSA) intention to dismantle the successful American government and let the people rule themselves. At least the DSA has the good manners to say what they intend to do. Race Forward does it covertly with the help of politicians like Crowley.
Race Forward and GARE have produced volumes of online writings that lack specifics on what they do, but their 2024 990 form offers insight, listing some accomplishments under the Race Forward umbrella, such as training 2,250 staff at the U.S. Forest Service’s Equity Summit.
Its Housing, Land and Development networking group grew to 330 members, published a series of briefs on the "root causes of housing and land injustice," and partnered with Habitat for Humanity's Advancing Black Homeownership Initiative.
HEAL (Honest Education Action and Leadership) Together launched Public School Strong, a national campaign "to push back against privatization, censorship, and disinvestment in our schools." No wonder the teachers’ union funds them
Housing, health, education and beyond—it's all racist and unfair—there is not a corner of government that can’t "benefit" from racial equity. Why, it may take decades to right all those historical wrongs. Sounds like job security, Southern Poverty Law Center style.
In 2024, Race Forward reported that its Policy Innovation Lab finished a three-year collaboration of 30 grassroots organizers and community leaders across the country to test a method for communities to shape and implement policy agendas.
Race Forward and its cohorts are training activists to seize your local government, and they're making you pay for it.
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