World Bank

Recently, the Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote a column that ran in the Chicago Sun-Times suggesting a lack of racial diversity at the World Bank Group, where I serve as its 12th president.

I am faced with a peculiar situation in writing this piece.

On June 27, 2016, Breitbart News, a conservative news outlet, broke an “Exclusive” story titled, "Hillary Clinton's Handpicked World Bank Chief Accused of Overseeing 'Systemic' Racism."

Since 1971, numerous World Bank reports have documented that racial discrimination in the World Bank Group is “systemic”.

For decades African countries have been forced by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to implement neoliberal policies, including opening their markets to foreign competition, reducing the role of the state in providing basic services and abolishing subsidies to the poor.