Sunday, April 16, 2023

Bill Crawford: White plays DeSantis, goes after university DEI programs

Gov. Tate Reeves and the Legislature having successfully stamped out the non-existent Critical Race Theory (CRT) programs in Mississippi schools, colleges, and universities, State Auditor Shad White has chosen another fake issue to tackle – our universities’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.

Conservative Republicans have begun slamming DEI programs as part of their anti-woke agenda. Gov. Ron DeSantis has moved to defund DEI programs at Florida universities. Gov. Greg Abbott has moved to stamp out DEI policies in hiring at Texas universities. 

“After seeing Florida’s review of DEI spending, we have decided to use the same model to review DEI spending at universities in Mississippi,” Fletcher Freeman, a spokesperson for the auditor’s office, told Mississippi Today. 

Unlike CRT programs, DEI programs are alive and well in Mississippi universities. IHL has a board policy promoting diversity that includes a goal “To enhance the overall educational experience through infusion of curricular content and co-curricular programming that enhances multicultural awareness and understanding.”

All eight public universities have DEI programs and policies. Most have websites promoting them. For example, the University of Mississippi “Pathways to Equity” page sets forth the universities’ commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion:

“We demonstrate the following commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion:

…We commit to openly increasing, embracing and recognizing the full spectrum of diversity at all levels of our institution.

…We commit to be both proactive and responsive in mitigating barriers so that all members of our institution are able to reach their full potential.

…We commit to fostering a campus environment that fully supports, values and engages the intersectional identities of every member of our community.”

Nasty stuff that, right? Some appear to think so.

Emphasis on DEI programs increased in Mississippi during the 1990s as universities faced court scrutiny as part of the Ayers case. Both historically white and historically black universities were under pressure to increase diversity and eliminate vestiges of segregation. That led to uniform admission standards and an Ayers settlement provision that encouraged historically black universities to undertake “activities addressing other-race recruitment and retention.”

Auditor White’s Government Accountability Division required universities to research and submit comprehensive data on DEI programs. Yet, as with CRT, there has been no cause in Mississippi to spur such a request. 

Given his following of Gov. DeSantis’s anti-woke crusade, one can only wonder what Auditor White is up to. It looks to be a political fishing expedition, or in the current vernacular, a witch hunt. 

One Republican operative said this was just another overreach by White to build his conservative resume for a planned run for governor in years to come.

Whatever, DEI programs have a place and positive role in Mississippi universities. White might better focus his efforts on accurate accounting and financial fraud in government as his office was established to do.

“And behold, I have smitten mine hand at thine overreaching which thou has done” – Ezekiel 22: 13.


 

47 comments:

Anonymous said...

I’m all in favor of the “witch hunt”—-once these programs take root it’s VERY difficult if not impossible to stop them

Anonymous said...

Still waiting for Shad White to arrest Phil Bryant. He COULD win election for Governor if he only did that.

Anonymous said...

Bill Crawford is a cancer on society.

Anonymous said...

If it gets rid of "No Whites Allowed" safe spaces on public university campuses, then I'm all for it.

Anonymous said...

Ole Ms.has already issued a Pronoun Guide named LGBTQIA+ Programming & Initiatives. Pretty soon conservative speakers will not be allowed to present a different point of view other than than the Democrat liberal/socialist/communist/marxists dribble on any college campus without being protested and attacked. May already be to late in Oxford.

Anonymous said...

Crawford's warming up for his columns that endorse Democrats Brandon Presley and Dudley Do-Right Delbert Hosemann.

Anonymous said...

Nobody tilts at windmills like the likes of Tate, Desantis, and their states’ legislatures.

Anonymous said...

DEI should be spelled DIE.

Anonymous said...

It’s really fascinating that there is such widespread concern about DEI programs, yet no one can articulate exactly what terrible harm they are proven to cause. After all, most successful large companies have just such programs. Walk into the entrance of the Amazon Madison County site-one of the first things you see is the DEI desk right up front. I guess all of these successful companies are doomed as well because they include DEI programs. Right?

Anonymous said...

I know that before you know it, Ole Miss will be San Francisco State at Oxford, so we've got to fight this...but let's not go too far, we do have a football program to run and even the damn Florida Gators know that! So a little "diversity" in the locker room might be all right. Hotty Toddy!.

Anonymous said...

Call DEI what it is, institutionalized racist indoctrination. Plantation owners and Soviet Marxist would have been all for it. If we weeded out those infections then, we should not hesitate to weed it out now.

Anonymous said...

Who the hell is Bill Crawford and why should I pay any attention to what he has to say ?

Anonymous said...

Opens with a run-on sentence. Who is this clown?

Anonymous said...

Why don't schools just do what they are supposed to do, educate the kids? We now have schools that have taken over the raising of our children completely. It is easy to see just by what is happening in our own country that the schools are failing horribly. We have kids who graduate from school who cannot write their own name and couldn't read it if someone else wrote in down.

People should remember that when you are not able to do anything else you can always teach. We need more teachers that can do something else besides teaching. Our world Joe is already in a bad place because we use some of the worst examples of mankind as our breeding stock. Using the same people as teachers will soon make the citizens much like Joe Biden is already.

Anonymous said...

its the Long term affects of telling children they should feel guilty because they were born white. On the other hand blacks are made to feel the game of life is rigged against them, that no matter what they do they cant prosper. All you can give people is hope. Hoep they can do better hope for a better world tomorrow. But must of all this is wasted energy, time over history that cant be changed. Show each person respect and treat them as you want to be treated.

Anonymous said...

It's called "Tilting at Windmills". The only difference is that the able politician creates the windmill in the minds of his suckers, not his own. The problem is, there are plenty of REAL problems being ignored.

Anonymous said...

I hope he shows what percentage of the funds spent on DEI programming goes towards salaries. Every school that receives federal funding has a DEI clause in every grant, but these grifters have gotten rich on the taxpayers dime. The focus has become equality of outcome well and above equality of opportunity….

Anonymous said...

So if DEI or CRT scares you all, send your kids/grandkids to Belhaven, William Carey, Blue Mountain, or Mississippi College. MC has free tuition for MS residents--so it doesnt cost more than Ole Miss or State or USM anymore. There's no DEI or CRT at any of those four campuses, nor do faculty/staff use 'preferred pronouns.'

Go to any community college too--same thing.

It's not going to change..but there are still places that don't have this in Mississippi--instead of spending 46k a year to send your kids to Hillsdale in Michigan or 30k at Liberty.

Anonymous said...

12:27:

Never heard that term before. Looked it up and its an apt description for the modern GOP. They don't give a damn about actually governing. They'd rather focus on culture wars and fearmongering....the right-wingers and rubes eat it right up.

Anonymous said...

@12:56 PM also doesn't want the fire department to show up until the building is fully engulfed in flame.

Anonymous said...

Is it too hard to see that CRT, and DEI is nothing more or less than indoctrination. The education system has been an indoctrination regimen for years now. It's simply more in your face.

Anonymous said...

Reading, writing, and arithmetic- A proven curriculum. No woke psychobabble allowed.

Anonymous said...

Bill is a left winger.

Anonymous said...

1:25,

Me writing “Nobody ‘tilting’ at windmills” would have made no sense. “Tilts” was the appropriate word for how I was using it. I do know what “tilting at windmills” is, that’s what made me write “Nobody tilts at windmills like…”

Anonymous said...

Mississippi State has both an Office of Institutional Diversity & Inclusion and the Holmes Cultural Diversity Center in the student union. There are also plenty of faculty pushing critical race theory.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Bill! Your idiotic non-points have been considered and rejected.

1:43 - My taxes pay for all of those public universities. DEI was never approved by the taxpayers of MS, but implemented by misguided university bureaucrats. You can send your kids to schools that practice DEI. Public MS schools are going to be DEI-free. Thanks.

The bottom line is DEI is another way of saying affirmative action and SCOTUS has recently signaled is coming to an end soon. This is a blatant attempt to save it. DEI is a 21st century version of Jim Crow. That Democrats are pushing it should surprise no-one. That party has always centered itself around making race the determining factor as to whether constitutional rights apply to a person.

Anonymous said...

And these nonexistent CRT programs will stay that way, nonexistent, thanks to the Leg and Tater. So go cry me a river now, Crawford.

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with finding out how the money is spent, and what's being accomplished?
Thats what auditors do.

Anonymous said...

The end of affirmative action is coming to an end? It should have never started in the first place. Look at all of the damage it has done. If there is a job opening it shouldn't be a matter of skin color who gets the job. It should be the best qualified person. Why should anyone lower their standards just because another person has a different color skin?

Anonymous said...

Just a point to consider, the state of Mississippi funds less than 15% of the overall budget at MS State and i believe same for U Miss……

Anonymous said...

Mr. Auditor - you just keep on a fishin' and huntin' those witches. I'll vote for you, and often.

Anonymous said...

If this Crawford clown is unaware of CRT (by various other names and often by no name at all) being indoctrinated in our secondary, post secondary and university level venues Yesterday, today and tomorrow...I just don't know what to say.

Surely he's not that unaware - and I'm trying to be kind to the octogenarian.

To exist, CRT need not be labeled as such in student handbooks, job descriptions and state department curricula.

There is not a black teacher in this state who does not openly blame white people for lack of black student progress, failure and lack of interest. That, my friends is the definition of CRT...and it's also The Bottom Line.

Anonymous said...

12:56 - The subliminal cancer caused by such indoctrination isn't obvious at the onset.

You need look no further than your own children, those of your neighbors and those of your friends.

The intended outcome of DEI and CRT is cultivating democrat voters through mind control. It's been going on in our colleges for at least forty years. Now it's going to be bumped down to fourth through 12th grades.
Keep that head buried but don't let the sand get in your crack.

Anonymous said...

Did Auditor White win his case against the Ole Miss professor? I thinking not because Auditor White hasn’t issued a press release. And said professor turned tables and sued the learned Auditor.

Anonymous said...

@ 7:03 - So what? I fail to see your point. Shad did his job. Are you advocating for state employees to knock off work and draw full wages while dicking around on unapproved leave? If so, just say so. You seem to be advocating for sloth, system abuse and giving us all the finger.

Anonymous said...

A friend recently related he was at an advisory meeting at a public university here in Mississippi. The meeting started with attendees being instructed to introduce themselves and to share their preferred pronouns. It’s better to address these issue before they take root rather than later.

Anonymous said...

Bill--when is the last time you immersed yourself in the campus culture? It ain't your father's walk of life, my boy.

Anonymous said...

@6:00 that's BS. You only have to read this thread to know why DEI offices were created and sadly still needed. Presenting ideas and concepts is not indoctrination. Reading and discussing Mein Kempf doesn't make you a Nazi. Reading the Bhagavad Gita doesn't make you a Hindu. It might make you a more well rounded person and lead to an educated populace.

Anonymous said...

Shad better hope he keeps getting elected.

This position guarantees he will never work in a large organization again.

Anonymous said...

This crap needs to be rooted out. I had a kid start at one of the large public universities, who subsequently transferred to a private college that does not practice the DEI religion. I have never heard such claptrap in all my life. Talk of pronouns, everything is “problematic”, equity vs equality, gender fluidity, etc ad nauseum.

Don’t send your kids to these places. They are infested with cultural Marxism.

Oh and the commenter who says “the large corporations have DEI departments” - yes, and this crap needs to die too.

Anonymous said...

Bill Crawford = non-existent journalist.

Anonymous said...

April 16, 2023 at 10:09 PM, why don't you be more in-depth as to why this thread is indicative of as to why DEI departments are needed? Don't be shy, lay it on the line. Inquiring minds want to know.

Anonymous said...

My daughter dropped a political science class at MSU after the first day. Her statement to me was "I dropped *class* because the professor was a communist, all the girls had danger hair and all the boys weren't".

Anyone that states CRT doesn't exist is lying or willfully ignorant. It's not that difficult to find examples of kids being taught to hate white people, including themselves. It's not teaching about slavery, it's not teaching how the US and Britain did so much to stop the slave trade. It's not teaching how many white people died stopping it. It's not teaching that slavery has existed worldwide in nearly every culture until the white people forced them to stop.

Don Drane said...

"Reading and discussing Mein Kempf doesn't make you a Nazi. Reading the Bhagavad Gita doesn't make you a Hindu."

It does if you're a third, fourth, fifth or sixth grader. By seventh, you're fully indoctrinated and able to execute the appropriate salute and snap-together of the heels.

Let me ask you advocates and deniers a simple question. Here goes:

During a several week period devoted to the discussion of slavery, would you support a weeklong exposure of school children to the racist quotes, opinions and beliefs of Abraham Lincoln? Yes or no?

Anonymous said...

Shad is just inquiring about how much money is being spent. That's important, but a PEER review may tell us even more.

Anonymous said...

At least Bill Crawford gives Sid some co petition for biggest waste of words online….

Anonymous said...

I invite Bill Crawford to examine the growth of the DEI staff at MS' IHL institutions. Like mosquitos after a bad rain spell.

Do Brandon Presley and the Democrats pay Crawford for his PR services or are they considered an in-kind donation?


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