Phil Williams Commentary: What's next after reform of diversity, equity and inclusion?

Diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI represents quite a combination of buzzwords. In modern society, no grouping of words has done more to claim good while doing harm. In the wake of the George Floyd/BLM/Antifa Summer of Love every organization, corporation, department or university pointed toward their DEI office to show just how virtuous they were.

Too often the medicine was worse than the problem it was designed to cure.

Ostensibly, DEI is about leveling the playing field to ensure everyone has an equal stake in the outcome, the celebrating of differences that make up our homogenous society by swinging wide those equitable doors. Over and over, DEI has proven to be more of a societal self-flagellation meting out constant punishment for every special groups' perceived grievances.

Diversity became the excuse for growing the left's agenda. Equity is now the secret ingredient for redistribution as something is taken away from those deemed privileged and handed to those deemed aggrieved. Inclusion became exclusion as traditional values and whole portions of society are told that they have had too much for too long and the “haves” must yield to the “have nots” in a collective righting of perceived wrongs.

We have reached that point in George Orwell’s "Animal Farm" where “Four legs good, two legs bad” isn’t enough and therefore “all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”

DEI has essentially taken the fight for equality, civil rights and liberty and turned it all on its head in a bloodbath of revisionist effort to rewrite culture to fit a liberal narrative. Instead of uniting society, DEI has served as a means to divide. Which perhaps, was really the point all along.

This past week, in Seattle, Washington, an area of the country that has become the Petri dish for progressive experimentation, the Seattle Public School System decided to dismantle it’s gifted and talented program. You know, the program that arguably indicates that some students have earned special accolades due to academic achievement. Why would a school system whose job it is to take every child to their highest level of educational potential decide to shut down a program that takes bright young kids to even greater heights? Was it not working? Oh no, it was working. There were just too many white and Asian kids.

The district cited “racial inequities” and decided to make way for a new program which, in their words, will be more “inclusive, equitable, and culturally sensitive.” What level of “equity” were they trying to achieve? The demographics of the program show 52% of the students are white, 16% are Asian and 3.4% were Black, according to the Seattle Times. But a quick review of census data shows that the Seattle metro area is roughly 60% white, 15% Asian, and 6% Black.

So, let’s be honest. The DEI bloodbath just claimed another victim in a massive virtue signal at the expense of good kids who have otherwise proven that they are able to excel in equal parts to their societal makeup. We should expect no less from a state that just did away with the Bar exam for new lawyers because it is, you know, replete with “racism and classism” and “historical inequities.”

But here in Alabama, the Legislature has taken steps to tamp down the madness. The DEI slaughter just got a major pushback with passage of Senate Bill 129. Suddenly, the woke institutions of learning and public governance are having to check their agendas at the door and figure out how to send their liberal virtue signals by other means.

During a recent appearance on Alabama Public Television's "Capitol Journal," state Sen. Will Barfoot (R–Pike Road) made note that Alabama is choosing to take a stand against the DEI bloodbath. Barfoot said, “DEI offices at higher institutions of education and public universities have really worked to divide us rather than unite us. DEI sounds inviting … but in fact those DEI offices around the state have been used to silo people by race, by color, by religion, ethnicity or national origin.”

He was absolutely right. Alabama law now ends DEI programs, including critical race theory, by any state agency or educational institution. But wokeness never sleeps.

The University of Alabama System issued a statement signed by its chancellor and the presidents of the three main campuses, claiming that they will now have to consult with legal counsel, and trying to assure the outside world that they will remain “dedicated to our mission of providing exceptional educational, research and patient care experiences to all people, of all backgrounds, in welcoming and supportive environments that foster open thought, academic freedom and free expression.”

Those are code words to the outside world that they will do everything they can to maintain divisive policies camouflaged under the ridiculous banner of DEI, and remain as woke as possible under the new restraints assigned to them by the duly elected lawmakers of the state.

DEI has been a bloodbath on our society, and yes, I’m using that word intentionally. DEI has been the clarion call to the left to dismantle what so many have fought to instill in the freest nation on the face of the earth.

DEI still needs to DIE, and while it remains a battle in other places, I am nonetheless pleased that we have taken the high ground here in the Yellowhammer State. Perhaps now we are more able to move forward without concern that our kids will be taught that they are just wrong because of the way God made them.

Phil Williams is a former state senator from District 10 (which includes Etowah County), retired Army colonel and combat veteran, and a practicing attorney. He previously served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute in Birmingham. He currently hosts the conservative news/talk show Rightside Radio on multiple channels throughout north Alabama. The opinions expressed are his own.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Phil Williams on ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs