Before even one more high school athlete considers throwing a pass, swinging a bat or dunking a basketball at any college or university in Alabama, he or she should consider what legislators and the governor there are doing to diversity programs, and consider going to school somewhere else.
In fact, it would be nice if the athletes already there, like the players suiting up for the University of Alabama in the NCAA’s college basketball tournament, would sit out a game in protest.
That would really be March Madness.
I admit I found myself rooting against the Crimson Tide during their first-round tournament game the other day for no other reason than that the people making laws in their state want to take them back 60 years.
Alabama won by 13 points.
So much for retribution.
But that should be the last victory any program associated with the state enjoys until Alabama rights the wrongs of its governor and state lawmakers who seem like they won’t be happy until Black people are riding on the back of the bus again.
At issue is a new law that will prohibit the use of state funds for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and offices at state agencies, higher education institutions and other public entities.
The law, scheduled to go in effect in October, would also “authorize certain public entities to discipline or terminate employees or contractors who violate this act.”
Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill into law on Wednesday.
“My administration has and will continue to value Alabama’s rich diversity,” Ivey said in a statement.
“However, I refuse to allow a few bad actors on college campuses – or wherever else for that matter – to go under the acronym of DEI, using taxpayer funds, to push their liberal political movement counter to what the majority of Alabamians believe.”
The shortsighted statute is much like Florida’s racist war on “woke,” which includes bigoted legislation that restricts lessons and training on race and diversity in schools and in the workplace, particularly anything that discusses privilege or oppression based on race.
Florida’s “Stop WOKE Act,” signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis nearly a year ago, even features a clever acronym: “Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees.”
Alabama’s legislation doesn’t include anything quite so catchy, but it is every bit as damaging.
“Today, the Alabama government has failed our children,” said NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson. “The ongoing assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion is part of an anti-Black agenda that seeks to revert our nation back to a time where Black students and teachers were denied adequate access to the classroom. We refuse to go back.”
One fight back tactic Johnson suggests is to encourage Black athletes to go to schools in other states.
He said they should “choose wisely.”
Alabama, Florida and Texas schools have racked up trophies — and billions of dollars — on the backs of Black student athletes, and this is the thanks they get.
“The value Black and other college athletes bring to large universities is unmatched,” Johnson said in a statement. “If these institutions are unable to completely invest in those athletes, it’s time they take their talents elsewhere.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed a law last year ordering DEI offices at all state-funded colleges and universities to shut down. In the current legislative session, Republican lawmakers in more than 30 states have introduced or passed more than 100 bills to either restrict or regulate DEI efforts, according to an NBC News analysis.
Make no mistake, the war is on, and it is every bit as vicious as it was 60 years ago when southern police chiefs sicced snarling dogs on protesters, and Alabama’s then governor, George Wallace, uttered his famous battle cry — “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever” — several months before he stood in a schoolhouse door at the University of Alabama and tried to keep Black students out.