The College Fix

Students will find ‘a way, in time, to rip down the hateful new sign at their schoolhouse door’

Alabama lawmakers’ decision to defund diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at public universities is like putting up “straight, white only” signs at schools, a newspaper columnist wrote this week.

In his commentary, AL.com columnist Roy Johnson criticized Gov. Kay Ivey and the Republican-led state legislature for creating a “stench” in higher education as a result of the anti-DEI law.

“Stench of a sign they’ve hung at the front door of our public colleges and entities. A sign reading: ‘White Only,’” Johnson wrote. “Better yet: ‘Straight, white only.’ Might as well.”

He wrote:

I must clarify: White, not whites. Because Alabama’s new unjust law, weakly couched as banning “divisive concepts,” does not bar people based on the color of their skin, their gender, or whom they may love. Yet, renders illegal any hue of thought or behavior not aligned with those who crafted and signed it.

So, let’s call it what it is – the straight, white-only law –since nary a Republican can define a “divisive concept” with a straight face or identify one espoused at a public college or university.

The law, which goes into effect Oct. 1, prohibits public schools and universities from funding DEI programs. While the law allows DEI concepts to be discussed in the classroom, it states these “divisive” topics cannot be compelled.

Additionally, nothing in the law prevents students or faculty organizations “from hosting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs or discussions that may involve divisive concepts, provided that no state funds are used to sponsor these programs,” it states.

Over the summer, universities all across the state began shutting down their DEI offices to comply with the law, including Auburn and the University of Alabama system, The College Fix reported.

Johnson (pictured) said the changes have “deflated students who want to live, learn, and maybe even work and lead here someday.

“Students we’ve now told: If your journey is different from our straight, white journey; if you intend to elevate our state’s growing diversity, promote equitable opportunity for all, and ensure our classrooms are inclusive of all – welcoming to all – then, nah, we’re not down for all that,” he wrote.

Johnson quoted Sean Atchison, a former president of the UA Queer Student Association, as saying, “From what I can tell, our community has been eliminated entirely.”

But Johnson said he has faith that young Alabamans will not be deterred by the DEI ban.

It “[w]on’t stop them from finding a way. A way to uplift, empower, and celebrate each other. A way to honor their journey,” the columnist wrote. “A way, in time, to rip down the hateful new sign at their schoolhouse door.”

As The Fix previously reported, the law had sparked petitions and protests by some students and Democrats in the state. Some even encouraged student athletes to avoid Alabama schools.

The law passed after a 2023 report by the Claremont Institute found Alabama universities were embracing DEI concepts.

These include ideas that “America harbors unconscious racism (implicit racism) against blacks” and “Equal rights, free speech, meritocracy, and the law itself reinforce a regime of white supremacy as old as the United States itself.”

MORE: Report details rampant DEI at Auburn, University of Alabama

IMAGE: Jamie_Lamor_Thompson/Shutterstock, The USFL Podcast/YouTube

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