As some states work to ban DEI programs, Cary makes one permanent
As many government diversity, equity and inclusion programs get cut nationwide, Cary is making one a permanent town advisory board.
Thursday night, the Cary Town Council approved a plan to make the Human Relations, Inclusion and Diversity Task Force an official board that continues advising the town’s leaders.
The task force was created in 2020 by Councilwoman Lori Bush and former council member Ya Liu in response to the Black Lives Matter protests that summer against racism, discrimination, and police brutality.
“In the town of Cary, we have more than 65 nationalities represented, a wide variety of folks from different age groups and genders and gender identities, and alignments to various religions, and we celebrate that quite openly,” Bush said.
The eight-member advisory board will work to improve the Cary community by: making data-informed recommendations, creating broader access, encouraging fair treatment, and promoting mutual understanding and respect among all people.
With the new board, Cary now has eight boards and one commission, all made up of Cary residents.
The background
The advisory board’s goals are similar to other diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs’, which encourage the representation and inclusion of people of color, LGBTQ people, and other underrepresented groups in public spaces and workplaces.
DEI became a buzzword during the Black Lives Matter movement protests as companies and corporations made efforts to hire more Black people and people of color, removing branding that was perceived to be racist and investing in historically Black colleges and universities.
Since then, DEI programs in public and higher education have come under attack by those who believe they exclude other people and unfairly disadvantage white people. Republican lawmakers have introduced dozens of anti-DEI bills targeting higher education since 2022, and some lawmakers in North Carolina might take up the issue when the General Assembly is back in session next month.
“It was right after the Black Lives Matter movement, right after the death of George Floyd, that I thought we need to be more open with how we embrace our diversity and ensure that folks in Cary feel heard,” Bush said. “We care about each other and making sure that the rest of our citizens know how much that was important.”
Since its first meeting in 2022, the task force has provided feedback on the town’s 2023 Pride Month proclamation and celebrations on ADA compliance, outreach and communication.
“We’ve even had feedback on the way some of our events are laid out to make them more available to people with varying abilities,” Bush said. “That is just the beginning of what they’ve given us and has made a huge difference.”
In the summer of 2020, Cary signed on to the Obama Foundation pledge, calling on cities to change how police and residents interact. The pledge included a series of actions to re-imagine policing.
“One of those actions was to create an advisory board,” Weinbrecht said. “(We) interviewed all the candidates for this task force and, I have to tell you, I’ve never interviewed a group of people that were so talented. ... I think they will do fantastic as a permanent advisory board; they are providing a wealth of information.”
The board meets at 6 p.m. every first Tuesday of the month in Cary Town Hall. Rashonda Harris is the board’s manager.
