NEA Given $207 Million Grant for Projects That Highlight the History of Systemic Racism

As Twitchy reported Monday, SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, gave an $850,000 grant to a private organization called Cornerstone to "provide outreach/engagement, non-traditional/holistic supports, and LGBTQI+ affirming interventions for 230 youth and their families."

Wokal Distance is reporting that the National Endowment for the Humanities had given the National Endowment for the Arts a $207 million grant last year "to advance racial equity through the arts and humanities."

1/
Congress gave The National Endowment for the Arts *207,000,000*, and then told the NEA to fund projects focused on "the history of Systemic Racism"

Let's look at what the NEA did with your money.

A thread🧵 pic.twitter.com/QEies8I9FK
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

"The Committee encourages additional focus on arts and humanities projects that highlight the history of systemic racism and the current work to overcome its impact."

2/
Congress has the power to fund agencies and tell them how to spend their funding, and Congress told the NEA to "Continue prioritizing diversity" and to prioritize increasing diversity among "NEA staff, the National Council of the Arts, Discipline Directors, and Peer Panelists" pic.twitter.com/cfv3QXLn1k
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

3/
In 2021 the NEA said they were "centering equity and justice along the lines of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, gender identity and sexual orientation, geography, poverty, and the infinite ways these intersect in everything we do"

So this isn't something new. pic.twitter.com/pXCsVYarIL
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

4/
The NEA funds wokeness several ways, one of which is the artsHERE program.

artsHERE provides support and grants to "organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to equity within their practices and programming."

So this is funding for explicitly woke organizations. pic.twitter.com/C70RHgRDjE
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

5/
artsHERE handed out 112 grant totaling*12.3 Million Dollars* to organizations who "demonstrated commitment to equity within their practices and programming."

This means the NEA handed out grants to organizations that adhered to the Social Justice politics of the left. pic.twitter.com/6YTWYpPkxI
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

6/
So, why is this happening?

In 2021 the NEA created a new strategic plan which stated that the NEA was going to "model diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the arts through all its activities and operations."

So DEI is quite literally part of the plan. pic.twitter.com/79DL0IwjSV
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

7/
According to this plan, one of the goals is to "Invest in the Capacity of Arts Organizations and Artists to Serve a Broader Public through Digital or Emergent Technology."

The reason for this is because tech artists engage with "climate change and racial justice." pic.twitter.com/C8jQBTqPiU
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

8/
To be clear, I don't oppose artists who make political art, I'm in favor of free speech. But this is different. The NEA is only funding art that agrees with leftist Social Justice politics. So in effect they are advancing their politics using taxpayer money.
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

9/
The NEA also says that it is going to implement racial quotas in selecting panelists.

This is basically intersectional bean counting. IT is to hire people are select them for roles because of their race or ethnicity, rather then their qualifications.

This is tokenism. pic.twitter.com/EIWCZxjNJZ
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

10/
The current NEA strategic plan states that the NEA is going to use it's grant money and ability to fund projects in the service of its cross-cutting objective to "Model Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Arts through All of Its Activities and Operations." pic.twitter.com/vIkNHRPLWL
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

11/
Finally, the NEA intends to collaborate with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) "Equity Learning Community," and also submitted a DEI action plan to the OMB in January of 2022.

It looks like OMB is a major hub for spreading DEI and Woke ideology through government. pic.twitter.com/gKKUfK82Jy
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

12/
Again, I have no problem with ensuring people are treated equally, that they are given a fair hearing, and that government agencies do not discriminate based on race.

What I abhor is the use of civil rights discourse to launder leftist politics through government...
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

13/
It's been shown again and again that DEI doesn't work, and it is time to eliminate these programs.

/fin
— Wokal Distance (@wokal_distance) December 17, 2024

The Department of Government Efficiency can't get up and running fast enough.