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.
Iowa’s 3 public universities are closing their DEI offices
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 26, 2024
Iowa State’s president said they’ve established learning communities so that ‘a young man, young white man, from rural Iowa, could find the place where they could belong’https://t.co/QMdcQovw60pic.twitter.com/yngRuikUgk
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.
