NPR's Keith Woods Fervidly Defends DEI At First Amendment Awards

NPR's Chief Diversity Officer Keith Woods used his acceptance speech at the 2023 RTDNA Foundation First Amendment Awards to articulate the need for diversity, equity and inclusion to fulfill the sacred trust given to journalists in the First Amendment. 

"Evident in this furious assault on the Boogeyman that is critical race theory, lurking behind the semantic smokescreen that would turn woke into a slur and standing brazenly in the bold print of signed appending legislation is an attempt, not just to suppress or discourage free speech around social justice issues, but to make discussing the matter of diversity itself illegal," Woods said. "This drive to silence conversations around historical fact seeks to erase the facts themselves. And that is journalism’s sacred ground: facts."

Woods was honored with the RTDNA Foundation First Amendment Service Award on March 2 at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C.

In his speech, Woods referenced Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' attacks on diversity, speech and journalism and underscored how threats to any of them could undermine the First Amendment. 

"If those of us who care about the future of this profession and its democratic role in America, if we are wise, we will grasp the urgency of standing up for diversity on our air, in our pages, on our websites and on our staffs," Woods said. "We will see that this withering attack on the principles and people behind diversity, equity and inclusion is a means to a greater end: the weakening of free speech and of a free press."

Watch Woods' full speech and read his full transcript below. 

KEITH WOODS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

2023 First Amendment Awards, March 2, 2023

Good evening.

Thank you to the RTDNA Foundation for recognizing my work with this award. Thank you to my boss, John Lansing, my long-time friend who has been clearing a path like none before him for diversity at NPR. And thank you to my wife, Denise, and our five children, and the four grandchildren they’ve gifted us. My love for you is all the inspiration I’ll ever need to do this work.

Long before I met John, or Edith Chapin, or any of the wonderful people in that video, I sat with my friend and mentor, Bob Steele at the Poynter Institute to craft the argument for why diversity was central to journalism ethics. Not everyone saw the connection more than 30 years ago, and some were even skeptical of the notion that there is no excellence in journalism without ethics and no ethical journalism without the accuracy, fairness and completeness that journalism diversity yields.

I imagine there are people today looking at the 2023 RTDNA awards list and wondering what being a Chief Diversity Officer has to do with the First Amendment. I wish they’d ask me because these days you can hardly talk about one without talking about the other. And if those of us who care about the future of this profession and its democratic role in America, if we are wise, we will grasp the urgency of standing up for diversity on our air, in our pages, on our websites and on our staffs. We will see that this withering attack on the principles and people behind diversity, equity and inclusion is a means to a greater end: the weakening of free speech and of a free press.

I could go all conspiracy theory on you here, but I don’t have to. I just have to look at the news in the state where our family lives, where a governor, with bigger ambitions, muses about making it easier to prove libel; threatens protesters decrying police brutality with arrest; declares that an advanced placement course on African American studies talks too much about systemic racism; signed a bill that frightens teachers away from so much as saying the word “transgender” to young schoolchildren; and if state leaders have their way, they will prohibit state colleges and universities from spending state money on anything called “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.”

Now that little jaunt across my diversity landscape just covered three of the five protections enshrined in the First Amendment: Freedom of Assembly. Freedom of Speech. And Freedom of the Press. They are connected, these things.

What I’m saying is that evident in this furious assault on the Boogeyman that is critical race theory, lurking behind the semantic smokescreen that would turn woke into a slur and standing brazenly in the bold print of signed appending legislation is an attempt, not just to suppress or discourage free speech around social justice issues, but to make discussing the matter of diversity itself illegal. This drive to silence conversations around historical fact seeks to erase the facts themselves. And that is journalism’s sacred ground: facts.

It is a fact, not a theory, that racism, sexism and xenophobia are woven into the DNA of our country. That systemic institutional bigotry was written into the founding documents of America, to be battled and amended away by courageous people since the ratification of the First Amendment. Systemic racism is no more theory than the existence of a radio frequency.

Now this isn’t a call to political activism but an alarm bell urging you to do your work. Remain vigilant or get serious about hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. Equip your staff with tools to overpower the biases that seep into coverage decisions into stories and headlines. Shine a critical light on any attempt to keep the next generation of journalists from learning the context and truth and history that they will one day be called upon to report. Demand of your journalism a rigor and sophistication that answers this aggressive obfuscation, disinformation and malevolent double-speak with fact.

You do that, and I’ll go back to my home office in the Sunshine State grateful for this award. Because even as I come closer every day to breaking a law just by doing my job, I stand resolute with the confidence that beneath my feet is the immutable foundation of the First Amendment.

Thank you.

(Photo: BP Miller / Chorus Photography)