Blue Cross Blue Shield Backtracks After Caught Banning White CEOs from Grant

Boston, MA - December 9: Incoming CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield Sarah Iselin, at her prede
Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, bcbs.com
Breccan F. Thies

The Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation has reversed course after automatically disqualifying otherwise eligible organizations from a grant opportunity if the CEO is white.

As Breitbart News reported, eligibility for the “advancing health food equity” grant was determined entirely based on racial makeup of the company and persons served.

The Foundation’s “Advancing Healthy Food Equity” webpage listed the following three criteria:

  • The executive director or CEO is American Indian, Black, Latino, other Person of Color, or from an immigrant community.
  • The community served is primarily American Indian, Black, Latino, other People of Color, or members of immigrant communities as demonstrated by the demographics of those directly impacted by an organization’s programming.
  • The staff and board (or coalition leadership) reflect the community served.

However, after media scrutiny, the webpage has “updated” criteria that allows white persons to see the benefits of the health food grant.

The announcement that the opportunity is “expanding” includes:

  • The number of funded organizations is being extended from 10 to 14.
  • Eligibility is being expanded to include a focus on rural communities.
  • The eligibility requirement that the organization’s CEO be a member of the community served is being waived.

In other words, the racial litmus test for the grant opportunity is effectively gone, and the webinar appears to have been removed from YouTube.

“BCBS of North Carolina Foundation got caught red-handed when they tried to inject ugly racial politics into their grant-making process,” Do No Harm program manager Laura Morgan said. “Discrimination should have no place in our society, yet they were prepared to reject grant applications from non-profits led by white CEOs just because of their skin color.”

“Do No Harm, along with BCBS customers and North Carolina state policymakers, will be watching very closely how the Foundation updates the grant’s eligibility criteria,” she continued.

Previously, the grant justified its stringent racial metrics, saying, “race plays a significant role in the inequities we see in our communities, and therefore it must also have a significant place in our organization’s strategies to increase equitable access to healthy food.”

Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.

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