(First and Pen)

The ridiculous anti-DEI movement that is spreading rapidly across the country continued last week when Iowa legislators passed a ban on DEI programs at universities.

In response, the presidents of the state’s three public universities, the University of Iowa, Iowa State and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) announced they were closing their DEI offices.

The most interesting statement came from Iowa State’s president, who said that they’ve established learning communities so that “a young man, a young white man from rural Iowa could find the place where they could belong.”

That tells you all you need to know about what the anti-DEI movement is about.

The attacks on DEI in educational institutions are a calculated and cruel strategy that involves ignorance, racism, and a level of stupidity that has only grown since the rise of the former president.

The Iowa legislation, Senate file 2435, defines DEI offices and the scope of its work, leaving essentially no room for interpretation. 

Inside Higher Ed states:

“DEI offices are any university unit responsible for “promoting … activities or procedures related to” DEI, and DEI encompasses any “activities designed or implemented with reference to race, color, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation.” Unlike in some other states’ anti-DEI laws, these broad definitions would restrict programming beyond the university’s central DEI office, and would restrict programming that only references identities such as race and gender.”

Notice religion is not listed, which is important to note given the rise of Christian Nationalism, the increased attempts by legislators to ignore the separation of church and state and the current focus on anti-semitism on college campuses after the eruption of the war in Gaza.

States like Florida, Texas, Utah and now Iowa are forcing public colleges and universities to eliminate DEI offices under the false guise of the harm they cause.

In states like Texas, this has led to the elimination of over 60 immediate positions and the bright promise of what DEI can actually bring.

DEI addresses the need for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in spaces that lack it.
 

“DEI is not an empty phrase. It is not a single belief or ideology,” wrote Tabbye Chavous, Vice Provost for Equity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer and Professor of Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan, in a LinkedIn post. “DEI efforts include all communities. DEI requires a diversity of perspectives and supports free speech. DEI is integral to academic excellence.”

DEI is not an ideology, unlike the ridiculous thoughts that anti-woke leader, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis,and his faux anti-woke crusaders have forced down the throats of all in the Sunshine State.

It is an effort to, as Professor Chavous wrote, “include all communities.”

Proponents work tirelessly to ensure perspectives, trains of thought and qualified candidates aren’t left out simply because they don’t look, or sound like the majority.
 

But to its opponents, it really means “more Black people” and/or “less white people” which scares them into targeting it as a weapon of mass divisiveness.

These scare tactics and blatant lies have led Florida’s current authoritarian regime to ban students from taking sociology to fulfill core requirements and replace it with “factual history” courses.

Limiting access to critical thinking is another method of conservatives who have plottingly and methodically targeted the legal system, voting rights and now education as ways to combat progress and turn back the clock as the face of the country changes.

And sports could very well be the next target.

Anti-DEI in Sports?

During this past weekend’s NFL Draft, author/podcaster Ross Patterson quoted and commented on a post by Awful Announcing in which the Atlanta Falcons’ Black GM and head coach duo, Terry Fontenot and Raheem Morris, respectively, discussed drafting Michael Pennix Jr.
 

“Two DEI hires trying to “um and ah” their way out why they destroyed a franchise tonight,” he wrote. “Arthur Blank feels guilty about being a rich white man in Atlanta and he’s willing to tank the Falcons over it. Nothing more. In the end, he’ll sell for triple his investment. F**k the fans.”

While most don’t know or care about Patterson, his words are a warning to every single moral, intelligent sports fan across the country that anti-DEI crusaders are poised to infiltrate sports.

Racism and ignorance have always existed in sports, but the anti-DEI audience is a new type of enemy that hides behind racism by camouflaging it as DEI and then labeling it as a divisive ideology that favors one side while persecuting another.

Yet that is exactly what racism, not DEI, does.

“DEI” has become a favored code word for “Black” and, in many cases, a more “acceptable” way of saying “ni**er,” and that’s why the anti-DEI movement is another way of whitewashing Black people and history.

Individuals like Patterson enable others to more seamlessly and comfortably latch on to these ignorant sentiments, which allows more to rally to the idea that Black executives and leaders in sports are simply unqualified, DEI hires.

Look at what’s transpiring in Higher Education for proof.

High Ed and Sports Must Unite

MAGA-supporting congressmen and women are calling presidents at top universities to testify about anti-semitism on campus, something they never did when it came to racism, sexism or homophobia.

Afterward, UPenn President Liz Magill and Harvard President Claudine Gay, who was Harvard’s first Black president, were pressured into resigning. And now a third, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik, was drawn before Congress last week and is currently under fire for protests occurring at the University.

By no coincidence, they’re all at Ivy League institutions, all served two years or less (in Claudine Gay’s case, six months), and they’re all women.

And in all three cases, they’re all highly successful, long-serving educators who were qualified for those positions. 

But the anti-DEI crowd would have you believe otherwise, especially when it came to Gay, who was attacked with an extra level of vigor.

Take this practice and apply it to sports, where the passion is much more rabid.

Imagine a situation where the Raiders, who have a Black President and a Black head coach, Sandra Douglass-Morgan and Antonio Pierce, respectively, have a poor season.

Imagine UVA or Vanderbilt athletics, headed up by athletic directors Carla Williams and Candice Storey-Lee, both Black women, have bad overall seasons across all athletics programs.

All it takes is one person with social influence to ignite the flame by criticizing them and the wildfire will quickly follow. Suddenly, regardless of mitigating circumstances, they’re all DEI experiments gone wrong.

The fields of education and sports must unite to fight back and defend their institutions. They must take a stand and retaliate against anti-DEI efforts that are harming and splintering institutions, students and communities.

Presidents, boards, professors, administrators, athletic directors, athletes (especially Black athletes), owners and media companies must come together to combat this wave of ignorance for it is the true tool of division wielded by those who desire an extreme form of homogeny across the country.

They must use their collective power and influence to keep anti-DEI politicians and politics out of education and sports.

If the two can come together in the classroom, boardroom and on the field to drive change and success, they can do the same when called to the halls of Congress.
 

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