Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is pressing a taxpayer-funded television service over the existence of a “diversity” fund that appears to discriminate against white filmmakers and violate the Civil Rights Act, according to a letter obtained by The Daily Wire.
On Thursday, Cruz questioned the Independent Television Service (ITVS), a congressionally chartered production service funded by taxpayers, over its Diversity Development Fund, a research and development scholarship of up to $35,000 that is available exclusively for “directors of color.” In a letter to ITVS CEO Carrie Lozano, Cruz said that the organization should make the fund available to applicants of all races and said that the organization appears to be biased toward liberal filmmakers.
“Because white filmmakers are facially ineligible for this seed money, the fund runs afoul of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866,” Cruz wrote. “I therefore urge you to remove race as an eligibility criterion for the Diversity Development Fund. ITVS can surely pursue its mandate to ‘expand the diversity and innovativeness’ of public programming without violating the law.”
ITVS gets about $17 million per year in taxpayer funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. According to ITVS, the diversity fund has been used to make 156 films and is only eligible for filmmakers who “identify as a person of color.”
Cruz, the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, said that the diversity fund was “actively flouting” federal law because Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits federal dollars from going toward programs or activities that discriminate on the basis of race. The Texas Republican asked ITVS to provide full details on how much money had been allocated to the Diversity Development Fund and details on the recipients of the fund and their projects.
Cruz said that the fund is not only discriminatory, but also appears to be pushing partisan politics with government money.
“As if this blatant violation of the law were not concerning enough, ITVS appears to almost exclusively fund documentaries from a liberal viewpoint, and may be discriminating against certain filmmakers based on political ideology,” Cruz told The Daily Wire. “I have no doubt this organization could expand the ‘diversity and innovativeness’ of public programming without violating the law, and I am hopeful ITVS will commit to removing race as an eligibility criterion for the Diversity Development Fund.”
Cruz highlighted how ITVS brags on its website about encouraging political activism. “The ITVS website features an ‘Impact’ page demonstrating how its documentaries ‘inspir[e] audiences to take action’ on politically charged issues like criminal justice reform. These documentaries overwhelmingly reflect a liberal worldview,” Cruz wrote in the letter.
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One documentary funded by ITVS is “Racist Trees,” which was about the removal of trees from an area in Palm Beach, California, because the trees were “an enduring symbol of racism.” Another documentary, “Everything Wrong and Nowhere to Go,” examines one woman’s “search of a cure for her crippling climate anxiety in a deeply personal documentary about therapy and existential threat.” Another documentary takes aim at the “anti-immigration agenda” in Washington, D.C. while one called “Breaking the Blue Wall” challenges Maryland protections for police officers.
“Yet ITVS funds hardly any documentaries from a conservative perspective. A public organization that costs American taxpayers $17 million a year should not be a vehicle for left-wing agitprop,” Cruz wrote.
ITVS did not immediately return a request for comment on the diversity fund.