“A time comes when silence is betrayal.” – Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967
Dr. Shaun Harper released an insightful article in Forbes titled, “ Why a ‘lay low’ DEI strategy is especially bad right now ” on Martin Luther King’s birthday earlier this year. He opened with a powerful passage, “Politicized attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion have frightened many educational, military, and corporate leaders. Executives don’t want their organizations to be targets of unnecessarily polarizing, headline-grabbing schemes to mislead the public about DEI. Some are therefore running scared, renaming, and not calling attention to their DEI initiatives. This strategy isn’t what our democracy needs right now.”
Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, many Diversity, Equity and Inclusion professionals and their employers down in good old Kentucky didn’t listen.
As in other backwards states with modern Confederate sensibilities, Kentucky’s super right-wing legislature continues its relentless attacks on Black people and other non-majority groups . This time they’re seeking to all but outlaw diversity initiatives in education with Senate Bill 6 and Senate Bill 93 . Sadly, there has been no serious pushback from so-called DEI leaders or the organizations that employ them.