Frustrated by college diversity initiatives he says are “fomenting radical and toxic divisions,” Texas state Rep.The freshman Republican lawmaker filed a bill to ban such offices. Three months later, he filed a new version of the legislation doing the same thing. The difference?switched the wording to align with a new model bill developed by the Manhattan Institute and Goldwater Institute, a pair of conservative think tanks based in New York and Arizona, respectively.
The bills are an outgrowth of recent Republican attempts to limit critical race theory, a viewpoint that racism is historically systemic in the nation’s institutions and continues today to maintain the dominance of white people in society. Christopher Rufo, who now is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, helped propel conservative outrage in 2020 against what he has described as critical-race-theory concepts infiltrating governments and educational institutions.
On their face, diversity, equity and inclusion may seem uncontentious. Higher education institutions, along with many businesses, have devoted resources to inclusivity for years. Provisions blocking spending on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts also have been added to budget bills in Kansas and Texas. Separate bills banning spending for DEI offices in higher education have been proposed in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia, though some of those already have failed.
Good.