National Science Foundation (NSF) had offered $1.5 million to address structural vulnerabilities in Python and the Python Package Index (PyPI), but the Foundation quickly became dispirited with the terms of the grant it would have to follow.
“These terms included affirming the statement that we ‘do not, and will not during the term of this financial assistance award, operate any programs that advance or promote DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion], or discriminatory equity ideology in violation of Federal anti-discrimination laws,’” Crary noted. “This restriction would apply not only to the security work directly funded by the grant, but to any and all activity of the PSF as a whole.”
Besides the anti-woke bullshit, it’s just a bad idea to accept. It is absolutely not normal for a grant to have stipulations that if you violate some vaguely defined criteria somewhere in your organization, it can be clawed back at a later time. That’s a huge liability for an organization to take on that they may suddenly owe a million dollars some time in the future.
I mean basically yeah, “DEI” and “Woke” are right wing buzzwords that basically can mean whatever, and the Trump admin et al know this. They could say “letting x people use this is woke” or “hiring y people is DEI”. The Anti-DEI movement is just an excuse for actual discrimination because now we have people being fired not because they are unfit for their job, but because they’re from a minority who was deemed more qualified than someone who was White, Male and Cishet.
I mean Hegseth fired the Chief of Naval Operations because she was a woman. Straight up.
What a time we live in. It really feels like a fever dream