Anti-DEI Policies Demand a Boycott Response

The NAACP has recommended that Black student athletes boycott Florida because of its persistent attacks on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) policies.

The NAACP is correct in calling for a boycott, and now they will likely add Alabama to the list of offending states.

Florida, led by failed presidential candidate Governor DeSantis, continues to attack DEI policies.

State Bill 266, passed last year, prevents Florida schools, colleges, and universities from spending state or federal funds to promote, support, or maintain programs that "advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or engage in political or social activism."

This kind of unvarnished racism is the type of blatantly systemic bigotry that DEI is trying to combat, along with the usual, more banal, casual racism that continues to exist in this post Civil Rights era.

Just a few days ago, the Republican governor of Alabama signed bill outlawing DEI and the teaching of “divisive concepts.”

Divisive concepts are defined as “fault, blame or bias” to any race, religion, gender, or nationality or teaching that a person is “inherently responsible for actions committed in the past.”

In other words, teaching about slavery, Jim Crow, and racial discrimination is teaching “divisive concepts.”

Utah, Texas, and Tennessee have also enacted anti-DEI bills.

Other states, including my home state of Georgia, have introduced anti-DEI bills in their current legislative sessions.

The only problem with the NAACP boycott call is that it is way too narrow.

Why stop at student athletes?

Why would any self-respecting Black person, or any Person of Color want to visit, much less live in a state where the Governor spends all his waking moments devising new means to disenfranchise them?

Florida, Alabama, Utah, Texas, and Tennessee should be bypassed.

Any state that passes or introduces anti-DEI legislation deserves to be boycotted.

There are many things that People of Color have to do, but we do not have to live and travel where we are not treated equally.

DEI is an attempt to level a ridiculously unbalanced playing field.

We don’t need to live or travel in states that don’t respect us enough to pursue equality and justice.