On Wednesday, the Republican-dominated Mississippi House of Representatives voted strictly along party lines on legislation that will end all Diversity, Equality, Inclusion programs in our schools and prohibit the use of diversity statements in hiring, training or other materials.

Every House Republican who voted (74 of them) voted in favor of House Bill 1193, including Andy Boyd and Dana McLean of Columbus and Rob Roberson of Starkville. 

My first reaction? Wow, do I feel silly.

Here I was thinking the capital R that follows a politician’s name stood for Republican. It’s like suddenly realizing that Elton John wasn’t singing “Hold me closer, Tony Danza.” Embarrassing.

In context, I realize now that the other R word makes more sense.

I will not go so far as to call those legislators who vote for this bill racists (although you can bet some, perhaps many of them, are), but I won’t hesitate in saying that those people have supported a racist policy. So it’s a distinction without a difference. 

To be clear, HB1193 is racist legislation and it bothers me to know that Boyd, McLean and Roberson would vote with Ross Barnett, Theodore Bilbo, James Vardaman and every other two-bit disgrace to humanity who defiled and shamed our Capitol, making Mississippi a ugly byword in the process.

Yet here we are. So, way to go, guys. You Rs really stuck it to the Ns this time!

In Bilbo-Vardaman-Barnett eras, you could come right out with racist policies. Now, for the time being at least, it requires a little deception. That’s why the racist foundation of anti-Diversity, Equity, Inclusion legislation is cleverly cloaked with genteel arguments. It’s the practice of finding a non-racist way to do something racist and hope nobody notices. 

So they argue that Diversity, Equity, Inclusion programs are a waste of resources or that they discourage merit-based promotions or that they simply go too far. 

Well, who doesn’t want to reduce waste in spending, especially when it involves taxpayer money? Who among us doesn’t believe that good performance should be rewarded? Who doesn’t believe folks can get carried away in their zeal for an idea or cause?

The excuses are a mile wide and an inch deep.

If there was a sincere belief that the problem with Diversity, Equity, Inclusion programs is that they are too expensive, logic follows that the focus would be on efficiency and eliminating waste, After all, no one who might believe we spend too much on, say, the Farm Bill would argue that the Farm Bill should be eliminated. That would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. Yet that is one argument behind anti-Diversity, Equity, Inclusion legislation. 

Moving on, to suggest that Diversity, Equity, Inclusion is somehow at odds with merit is an interesting argument. What it says is that able-bodied white males are inherently superior. They have something to lose where Diversity, Equity, Inclusion programs exist since they cater to less qualified, less deserving people. That belief comes very close to the poisoned heart of the matter. They say more than they realize.

1. So maybe the better argument is that Diversity, Equity, Inclusion goes too far. Did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 go too far? How about the Voting Rights Act of 1965? It’s obvious that a federal anti-lynching law went too far. It wasn’t enacted until 2022 after all.

So what’s left of their argument? The only thing remaining, the only thing solid and impenetrable about anti-Diversity, Equity, Inclusion legislation, is its racist core.

You will note I have not used the DEI acronym. Why? Because sometimes acronyms do not carry the weight of the actual words. 

I wonder what Andy Boyd finds so offensive about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. I wonder which of those words Dana McLean despises most. I’m interested in how much satisfaction Rob Roberson, chairman of the House Education Committee, derives from voting for anti-Diversity, Equity, Inclusion legislation that, among other things, banishes Black History Month programs from our schools.

Now if we can just get whatever remaining white kids there are out of the public school system, which Roberson is currently working on, we will have taken an important step in turning back the clock to Dixie Saving Time.

And the South will rise again.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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