Texas to Shutter Public University Diversity Offices

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Facts

  • Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law bill SB 17 that will ban diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and initiatives across public colleges in the state beginning January 2024. It will also ban activities that seek to promote certain groups of people over others based on race, ethnicity, or gender.1
  • It will further mandate officials to conduct biennial studies through 2029 on the impact of the law on students broken down by race, including examining rates of application, acceptance, matriculation, retention, graduation, and grade point averages.2
  • The bill — which does not restrict academic instruction related to race and diversity and makes an exception for equity measures required by a court order or federal law — also bans requiring students and employees to disclose their "race, color, ethnicity, or national origin" unless the disclosure is needed for demographic data purposes.3
  • Gov. Abbott on Tuesday also signed into law a bill regarding professor tenures, which will make it easier for universities to "dismiss underperforming professors" and will increase the frequency and rigor of tenure review.1
  • This comes as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last month signed legislation to defund diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at public colleges, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed a ban on mandatory training for students and employees on "divisive" concepts, including race.3

Sources: 1Guardian, 2NBC, and 3CNN.

Narratives

  • Right narrative, as provided by Archive. Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs aren't aimed at teaching inclusivity but rather sowing division by putting non-Whites in the "victim" category and Whites in the "victimizer" box. As a growing number of Whites begin to push back, proponents of these programs claim it's proof of their racist White identitarianism. Until the US decides to rid its educational and corporate institutions of this toxic ideology, the racial division will only worsen; it's time to return to a colorblind society.
  • Left narrative, as provided by Huffington Post. There was never a color-blind America for Republicans to bring the country back to. People of color have only recently been granted access to these institutions, and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are a way to ensure the still overwhelmingly White majority population doesn't forget what it took to achieve the gains in civil rights we currently enjoy. These laws are attempts at "whitewashing" history so they can free themselves from culpability, at the very least, and further hold down historically marginalized communities at worst.