Many organizations these days say they want to promote diversity, equity and inclusion – often abbreviated to DEI. What this means is instead of judging each of us as being an individual, we get categorized by our race, national origin or gender.
If you happen to have been born into one of the categories deemed to have been historically advantaged, you can find yourself at a disadvantage today.
Nowhere has the DEI doctrine been more widespread than on American university campuses. But things could be about to change.
The University of Florida just fired all DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) staff. The University closed the office of the Chief Diversity Officer, and terminated DEI-focused contracts.
Florida is not alone in taking decisive action against the ‘woke’ mind virus running rampant on US college campuses. In Alabama, a bill (SB 129) to ban DEI programs in all state institutions, including colleges, recently passed the state legislature. The University of Arkansas decided to eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion division.
Here in Mississippi, meanwhile, crickets…... No executive orders. No legislation. Why?
Senator Angela Hill presented a bill to eliminate DEI programs in any state-funded institution (SB2402). So, too, did Representative Becky Currie in the House (HB127). Yet both bills died in committee.
Saying the bills “died in committee” makes it sound as they were victims of some freak accident. Neither bill, of course, was struck by lightning or afflicted by some random misfortune. The bills failed to come out of committee because those chairing the relevant committees to which each bill had been referred decided not to allow the bills to proceed.
In the Senate, the two committees in question were Accountability, Efficiency & Transparency, and Universities, chaired by Sen David Parker and Sen Nicole Boyd respectively. I doubt Parker or Boyd would kill the anti-DEI bill without approval from Senate leader, Delbert Hosemann.
In the House, the committee out of which the bill failed to emerge is chaired by Rep Donnie Scoggin.
“But is an anti DEI bill actually necessary?”, I hear you ask. “Is there really that much DEI here in Mississippi in the first place?”
If any member of the legislature spent more than a couple of minutes browsing the University of Mississippi’s website, they would see that it is an institution run by people 100 percent committed to DEI. Do those lawmakers that killed the anti DEI bill approve?
DEI dogma not only influences the way Ole Miss is run. DEI seeks to shape what young people are taught. Ole Miss’s “Equity in Action” plans, for example, increasingly touch upon almost every aspect of university life.
Concealed behind innocuous jargon in the university’s “Pathways to Equity” strategic plan, Ole Miss has an active DEI program that impacts everything from teaching practices, course content and student evaluation. The way I read it, Ole Miss even seems to endorse the hiring of some faculty on the basis of race, rather than merit.
Without any action from the state Senate or the IHL, this is all being done on your tax dollar. We know this thanks to Shad White, our State Auditor.
Shad White is one of the few leaders to actually show leadership on this issue, and he has tried to calculate how much all this is costing Mississippi taxpayers.
White’s recent report showed Mississippi universities spent over $23 million on DEI from July 2019 to June 2023. Nearly $11 million of state taxpayer funds went to DEI programs, most of which was spent on salaries for DEI employees. Without any action from our state leaders, DEI spending soared almost 50 percent since 2019.
In case anyone needs reminding why DEI needs to be rooted out of our public universities, here’s a quick reminder.
The United States is founded on the revolutionary idea that all Americans are created equal. America might have produced some laws and leaders that failed to live up to that high standard. But as a principle, it has never been bettered.
DEI overturns America’s founding principle, promoting instead the idea that each of us is defined by our immutable characteristics. This is not just profoundly un-American. DEI ideology takes us back to a pre-modern, pre-Enlightenment idea that we are defined by what we are born. It is a profoundly anti-Western ideology.
It is not a coincidence that the ‘woke’ mobs that appeared on Ivy League college campuses after the Hamas terror attacks last October seemed to side with America’s enemies. DEI proponents are hostile to America and the West.
DEI demoralizes Americans. It teaches the young to believe that their country is always in the wrong. It demands that history be rewritten to press the past into a narrative of exploitation.
How regrettable that conservative leaders in this conservative state should do so little about it while leaders in states all around us take action.
Douglas Carswell is the President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. MCPP sponsored this post.
53 comments:
The Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College is hosting Voting Rights Trivia Night at 530 tonight, but, yeah, DEI totally isn't part of the indoctrination on the Oxford campus.
Total baloney. DEI is about righting wrongs, not judging everyone. It's the next bugaboo being created by the far right, along with renewable energy; just more hollow scare tactics by those whose ideas can't win elections. fascists hiding behind false patriotism. This guy should be disregarded.
Kudos to Shad on this one - this certainly is better than chasing down low level county employees. Delbert, on the other hand, seems to revel in the DEI dogma.
Alabama rocked it this year, getting rid of this. Mississippi legislators sat on their butts and whistled.
DEI is straight out racial discrimination and is just another tool the Democratic party is using to destroy this country from within by dividing us in every way they can.
Diversity, equity and inclusion. Or, how to fix a flat tire by letting the air out of the other three.
DEI is a tool meant to incite hatred and promote non merit based accomplishments.
DEI by force does nothing to improve and only stands to further erode peaceful coexistence among races.
The governor of Alabama just signed the bill banning state funding of DEI in public schools.
10:59's explanation is far superior to that offered by 10:38. One is a realist, the other lives in a dream world. You, fellow readers, decide which is which.
Ole Miss Law has a DEI dean who just flies around the country going to parties and buying fancy clothes.. and posts about it!
Diveristy and inclusion are a good thing. Geez.
@10:38 is right
@10:38
Righting wrongs ??? So what's right about race based politics, which is exactly what this is all about . This is the Dem party pandering to blacks for their votes at a huge cost to our society. Oh and please present us with even a shred of evidence that the "renewable energy" we have available at this time can even come remotely close to providing our current and future energy needs. Typical liberal in LaLa land.
10:59 is spot-on.
To me, it's all about doling out preferential treatment based on physical appearance.
dei = racist = dei = racist = dei = racist = dei = racist
DEI is just the latest buzzword that the right knows they are supposed to hate without even knowing what it means, just like "woke" etc. Pretty soon they will move on to something else they are supposed to hate.
DEIB done correctly is a threat to no one and a benefit to society as a whole. DEI done wrong is the exact opposite and creates the boogeyman scenario that conservatives fear. Yes, there are shades of grey to DEIB and it can be a tool for good or bad.
DEI is the latest sexy grift run by the far left.
Two wrongs don't make a right. DEI is racism.
Hurrah for 10:59....the best comparison I have ever heard to explain this
ridiculous cure for the lack of DEI!!!!
@12:51
What I fear is needing a service that is critical to my (or my family's) needs and having someone attempting to provide that service that is only in their position because of their skin color I.E. DEI beneficiary.
Racism is alive and well in MS and should be addressed by our institutions of higher learning. For example, I’m guessing that the six Rankin County deputies who tortured two black men for fun did not receive such training.
DEI is a graphic example of our failed judicial system. It should have been ruled illegal in the courts before it got started good. It is blatant discrimination based on skin color which is supposedly against the law.
"DEI is just the latest buzzword that the right knows they are supposed to hate"
In practice DEI is "I want a professor, teach, judge, boss, _____, who looks like me." It's all about physical appearance.
Just because you may look Asian, that does not mean you are from Asia. And just because you are black does not mean that you were ever a slave.
Accusing me of hating you does not make you right.
DEI has nothing to do with righting past wrongs, it is all about giving special people special treatment because of their skin color!
DEI done correctly????? ROFLMAO
10:38, I would agree with you that DEI started out as a noble cause to right past wrongs and to promote diversity and inclusion. But it has evolved into something else. It's now an ideology of.... all whites are evil, whiteness is evil, ALL whites are racist, let's divide the races even more and turn them against one another, segregation is good, it's ok to discriminate against whites, etc. I'm afraid that what once was a noble cause has turned into a racist cause.
Not surprising. Tate seems to wait until several other states do something before he speaks publicly in support of something controversial.
Just like with Covid and Mask and Vaccine Mandates... he leads from the back on touchy national issues and that is not a leader at all.
He should contact South Dakotas governor and see if she will let him borrow her balls.
10:38 should get their head out of their ass.
It's so rich to me that the DEI proponents don't see the irony in what they're seeking these days. They are seeking the the EXACT same thing they fought So hard in the 50's and 60's to do away with! Are they THAT blind or are they just adopting the policies of the gaslighting (democrat) party?
10:59 that's the best description I've ever heard of assurance of opportunity vs. assurance of outcome! That's America's policy now: strive for mediocrity at every level....and DEI is the quickest way to achieve that goal.
You can’t force DEI on a society because individual members of that society make different decisions due to individual differences. As Jordan Peterson pointed out, prison populations are overwhelmingly male. To achieve equity, we need to reach a point where half of the incarcerated population is female, but that’s not going to happen because males (I’m using that in the old-school sense, based on biology) are more aggressive by nature and thus more likely to commit the type crimes punished by prison. We could apply DEI principles in order to achieve the desired 50:50 ratio and put women in prison for lesser offenses such as traffic tickets. Obviously that’s pretty stupid but it’s DEI logic.
Since racism / anti-racism is the foundation of this post, I have a question that I've not heard anyone else ask: Since the whole premise is that systemic racism exists and all whites are racist from birth (in a nutshell, whites have always been racist, they always will be racist, they can't NOT be racist.....basically, they are inherently racist), then why should whites try to NOT be racist? If they can't be anything else (a leopard can't change his spots), then why try? Why give a crap and not just be as racist as they want and treat everyone like they want, not giving a damn if they're racist or not?
Isn't that logical, based on the whole premise of DEI? (Now, to be sure, I'm not suggesting whites should do this, I'm just positing this question, based entirely on following the "logic" of the whole DEI phenomenon)
What say you? Make sense?
@1:40 PM
I didn't accuse anyone of hating anyone else. I was referring to hating the DEI ideology, which is just another buzzword that the Republicans came up with. None of you have a clue what DEI actually is or does but know you are supposed to be against it because that's what your favored politicians tell you.
The problem here in MS (probably all states as well), it that MSU and UM are in direct competition with each other. Competition for students and dollars. What one does, the other tries to emulate. If one has a multi-million dollar DEI program, the other has one that costs that much and more.
The study of political strategy is certainly lost on most people. To ultimately defeat a concept rooted in redress of past wrongs and oppression the oppressor should only accept, even promote a concept of redress which is overdone, even unreasonable if possible. Opposition to such redress will then profess to be, and even appear to be "only fair and reasonable" even turning the tables on the oppressed who sought redress in the first place. It's an old strategy but it still works whether its CRT, DEI, affirmative action, environmental justice, Hamas, etc. etc. etc. It's hard for those historic victims not to accept the overkill when it is offered. (Ole Miss?) All the oppressor needs is patience and liberal leaders who do not recognize the trap.
3:52 PM Pretty presumptuous of you, dont you think? I don't support DEI, which means I have a different opinion than you. So automatically, I'm just too stupid to "understand" DEI. Thanks so much for clearing that up.
3:52, I've voted mostly for Democratic candidates for the last 24 years. Your assumptions about me are wrong.
-1:40
"Racism is alive and well in MS and should be addressed by our institutions of higher learning. For example, I’m guessing that the six Rankin County deputies who tortured two black men for fun did not receive such training."
You may be right in your narrow assumption. Would it alter your larger assumptions to learn the the Goon Squad has more white victims than black?
@4:31 Please stop wasting your time. This is Mississippi and we still don't know what a "red herring" is much less strategic thinking. We just don't like dem librals.
Good news! Ole Miss has just started a new program in the liberal arts department which is dedicated to teaching American history and policy through the lens of American Greatness. This program is going to be a game changer--challenging wokeness.
So, 5:49, we're all just right-wing, knee-jerking, unthinking dumbasses. Except you, of course. How could I have been so blind?
At its core, DEI means Didn’t Earn It. It the equity part that proponents like to overlook. Equity and equality are not the same. As others have noted, equality of opportunity is a bedrock principle of this nation. It’s what the civil rights movement sought and achieved. DEI proponents decided that wasn’t good enough because meritocracy is inherently racist. Thus was born equity, i.e. equality of outcome. As mentioned by another wise commenter, this too shall pass, imploding from its own excessiveness because victimhood knows no limits.
5:49, what we do know here in Mississippi is a straw man argument when we see one. What we don't like about liberals is their ability to double down when proven wrong. You cannot correct a wrong, with another wrong. Is that too complicated for you? You know, like two wrongs don't make a right?
DEI might exist on Mississippi college campuses, but its a tiny fringe group. This is not California or New York. Visit any Mississippi campus and you will see that our students are doing traditional college things....mainly drinking and lounging around. The authors of this bill along with MCPP need to get out of their bubble and acting like Trump wanna bees. This is not an issue in Mississippi.
Or maybe DEI just isn’t that big of a deal.
Some of you seem threatened by the idea that everyone should be judged on their behavior rather than their race or religion or place of birth.
That is ALL diversity education is. It helps the ignorant to learn that human differences are accidents of birth and the cultural dogma of the place you are born.
Only an idiot would think that it is indoctrination. And, frankly, it's pretty offensive to think that college students are old enough to go to war and to vote, but too clueless to begin to make decisions about their life choices.
We humans are at our best when we are open to learning from others. I'm glad we learned the food of other countries and embraced medical knowledge and should have learned what NOT to do as well.
In college, I got to know the girl whose father was an ambassador from then Iran. In graduate school, I got to know a woman from Egypt. In Atlanta, my next-door neighbor was from Haiti. They were very aware of the problems in their countries at the time. I learned that we were first of all women who shared challenges in our environment. We worried about our freedom to achieve. We hoped to find a good husband who loved us and be good mothers. And, we wanted any daughters to have more choices in life, not fewer.
What I learned is there are good decent people everywhere and some are simply powerless when an idiotic man and his "boys" are running their country. And, the good men ( yes my friends married well) do what they can to make life better or find a new place to survive.
The worst outcomes always for all of us is when we are at the mercy of men and women those who spew venom without knowing a damn thing about the subject.
8:22 So called DEI proponents never decided that "meritocracy is inherently
racist" That's your bullshit and what you prefer to believe. Makes you feel superior. What the DEI proponents like the NAACP have asserted, rightly or wrongly, is that mere equal opportunity is inherently slow to correct the gaps in financial attainment created by decades of past discrimination. Something should be done immediately to expedite the process. Equity gains their favor. Whether they are right or wrong you decide but stop attributing your racist motives to them.
I agree with 6:14.
I also agree with everything 9:58 said, except that I think her understanding of "diversity education" is drastically-different from many of those who are pushing DEI education and programs.
This is an example of DEI in real life. Is this what you are defending 9:28?
https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1770563520804896994
And all this time I thought Dale Earnhardt incorporated had gotten out of racing and into the corporate world.
@12:02 pm - I wonder what lawyer crafted the physical demands listed in your example. The world has literally gone absolutely crazy/stupid/nuts - take your pick.
DEI a "fringe element"?
Every single damned University, college, corporation, organization, etc has a DEI department and it's prominently advertised in their websites and literature and corporate communication. Go to a doctor's office it they're controlled by corporate administration and you'll see DEI screen savers every minute or two. That is not a fringe element. It's like in the early USSR when everybody woke up one day and Lenin and Stalin were all over everything in the country. It's a revolution and we lost.
OLE MISS LAW had a whole Diversity Recruitment Day. MC LAW recruits everyone equally.
@8:39, Ole Miss Law became a joke when Duncan started her DEI mess. Paying an administrator to do exactly what the main university already has a Vice Chancellor to do is laughable.
And there's this d-bag, teaching a 400-level course on "race and ethnicity":
https://socanth.olemiss.edu/james-thomas/
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