Taxpayer-funded National Public Radio (NPR) has done a deep investigation on why President Donald Trump’s administration is simplifying contracts by leaving out a clause telling people not to be racist.
“The federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.” NPR reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin wrote this week.
No, not true. The1964 Civil Rights Act absolutely prohibits “discrimination or segregation” based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
It’s just that federal contracts won’t include a segregation clause anymore. That is contract mumbo jumbo spelling out that anyone wishing to do business with the feds may not segregate workers the way people were separated in the Jim Crow Era, before the Civil Rights Act was signed. Back then — 60 years ago — black and white people were sorted by skin color in Jim Crow regions, with separate barber shops, phone booths, textbooks, and libraries, to name just a few.
It is a hideous truth from American history. Thankfully, Jim Crow laws are neither legal nor culturally acceptable in the United States anymore. Let anyone try a “Blacks only” section in a restaurant today, and they would be cancelled faster than you can say Bud Light.
The change in contract language is in response to Trump’s Executive Order “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The General Services Administration (GSA), circulated a memo last month instructing government agencies to stop including the segregation clause and similar clauses. in contracts and solicitations.
It makes sense. After all, government contracts don’t need a puppy clause warning, “The contractor will not murder puppies during the course of this contract.” Likewise, a segregation clause is not needed because it can be assumed the contractor has basic human decency and won’t act like a racist. And if they do, there are laws to address it.
Take note NPR: even if you really want to keep it alive, segregation is over in America.
In 2022, NPR dedicated $1 million of that sweet taxpayer money to keep its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs funded. Programs like “affinity groups,” where employees are segregated by “race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, faith and other life experiences. NPR provides a stipend for the volunteer leaders of the groups,” NPR’s website explains.
This is a case where you hope your boss is the same “affinity” as you, so you can be in the same group and get some extra face time. Whitney Maddox, NPR Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, leads the “Women of Color affinity group.” White girls can probably sit in, but the name is not too inviting. This is segregation. Doesn’t NPR have a contract with a good old fashioned segregation clause to prevent such activities?
NPR is hyper focused on race. In five years, it has gone from a staff that was 65 percent white and 35 percent people of color in 2020, to 58 percent white and 42 percent people of color in 2024, according to its website. That’s great news for everyone except white folks.
This month Maddox and NPR Chief Diversity Officer Keith Woods will lead a two-day “identity and difference,” training (March 27-28) for NPR station leaders. Taxpayers will fund travel expenses to St. Louis for leaders from participating stations. Woods recently announced his retirement effective May 2, according to an Inside Radio article suggesting his departure could be related to DEI programs falling out of political favor.
The paradox of DEI programs is, while they speak of a kinder way to relate to people, their existence expects the worst of people, as if to say, “Everybody is a racist homophobe, and we need to teach you better values.” Like the segregation clause, DEI is not needed. It’s offensive, actually.
Instead of trying to generate fake controversy about Trump, NPR should put more faith in humanity, its listeners, and its workers.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
