Wednesday was my last day at NPR. And since I’m no longer under the ethics code, I want to say that I’m really fucking proud of my incredible colleagues there.

At the end of February, I was talking to a colleague about how the newsroom went through impeachment hearings and democratic debates and primaries at the same time. Work were just starting to return to a normal pace.

Then the pandemic hit and there were protests across the country. NPR reporters, producers, and the staff that support all of this work have run themselves into the ground to keep the public informed.

They’ve done this with increasing caregiver responsibilities, homeschooling their children and with pay cuts and furloughs due to rhe recession.

I have nothing but tremendous respect to the people who work at NPR and public radio stations across the country. So it’s with great pride that I make my first donation to NPR*.

*i’ve donated to my local stations before, just not to the mothership.

While I was able to work on amazing projects during my four years at NPR, doing that working under our ethics guidelines that sometimes made me feel like I had to shut off parts of who I am in order to do this work.

That’s an unfair burden to staff, especially people of color who can be easily dismissed as “advocacy journalists” or have “bias” in our industry. I touched on this in my goodbye email to staff.

So, in addition to donating to NPR, I’m
very excited to start contribute to orgs/collectives who are doing important work like:

@TransLawCenter
@fairfightaction
@PeoplesBreakOak
@carecen_la

Oh! And if you want to give to NPR and/or a member station, go to this page for multiple options: https://www.npr.org/about-npr/187533209/individual-gifts