TORPY: Georgia’s DEI bill is this year’s GOP swig from the ‘woke’ trough

DEI is the new boogeyman of the right, replacing “woke,” which replaced “politically correct,” which, I think, replaced “bed-wetting liberal.”

DEI means a couple things to the warriors of the right. First, it means worthy white folks are getting pushed aside in place of less qualified “people of color.” Also, there’s a whole forest of annoying new terminology to keep up with: Unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, gender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neopronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, racial privilege and sexual privilege.

I must thank Sen. Marty Harbin, a veteran culture warrior, for that list. I cribbed it from his anti-DEI bill. Those are all ideas he doesn’t want Georgia schools to implement as programs. And if they do, then the state will take away money from those institutions.

Now, the genesis of his bill is not hard to fathom. It pretty much apes the antics of President Donald Trump, to whom all members of the once Grand Old Party must genuflect. There’s fierce competition to be the Trumpiest Trumper.

DEI initiatives have became “ideological filters that stifle free speech, enforce group identity over individual merit and promote a culture of division over unity,” Harbin told his colleagues at a committee meeting this week. They passed the bill and it’s headed to the full Senate.

“Defunding these programs does not mean we do not support diversity. It means we support and promote true diversity of thought where students and faculty are engaging in an open dialogue without fear of reprisals,” said Harbin. “It means every student in Georgia has a fair shot on their abilities, not on arbitrary quotas and identity politics.”

Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Let me pause here to mull over a couple points. First, quotas are so 20th century. The University of Georgia did away with affirmative action in 2001 after a court battle. Black enrollment at UGA is 7.5% in a state whose population is 32%. White enrollment, 62.7%, largely mirrors the state’s population of 59%. And Asian students are killing it, with 12.4% of the school’s population, although being 5% of the state’s as a whole.

(I noticed UGA boasted on its website last fall that it received the Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award for the 11th straight year. I doubt they’ll crow about it next year.)

The legislation will put administrators and teachers in a defensive posture, which will no doubt lead to a strategy of when in doubt, leave it out.

Perhaps a professor says: “Boy, Black people have had it rough.” Is that enough of a trigger for a white student to feel microaggressed and run to the University Thought Police?

In a hearing, Sen. Nan Orrock, a veteran Dem, tried to pin Harbin down, asking, “Have you not heard of academic freedom without political interference?”

“There’s academic freedom, but there’s also fear of retaliation, a fear of speaking what they believe, especially when we have a teacher leading that class or area of study,” Harbin responded.

In a note, Harbin told me the bill should not impact what’s taught in schools.

“Before the introduction of any DEI initiatives,” he wrote, “children were taught and learned about history, including Black history, and in biology, they were informed that there are just two sexes: male and female. Regarding retaliation, students have expressed concerns about receiving lower grades due to disagreements with their teachers. One student recounted feeling belittled by a teacher because of his viewpoint on a moral issue.”

Last year, state School Superintendent Richard Wood said parts of the AP African American Studies course violated the 2022 state law against teaching “divisive concepts.” He later decided to keep it.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

This DEI initiative would be the cherry on top of that.

In fact, Georgia Tech has announced it is considering “restructuring” some student support programs — like the Women’s Resource Center, the LGBTQIA Resource Center and the Black Culture, Innovation, and Technology initiative — that might not gel with Trump’s anti-DEI mandate, the one that inspired Sen. Harbin.

The hearings on Harbin’s bill brought forth all sorts of folks to express their worry and consternation. The ACLU testified, as did “social justice” groups (to use a term before it’s banned), teachers and students.

Nichola Hines, head of Georgia’s League of Women Voters, said the legislation tells Black students “their history doesn’t matter.”

Monica Wills Brown simply said the bill “does not come from a place of love.”

How did it all come about? Nobody has testified on its behalf. It turns out a freshman from his district was pledging a sorority at Georgia College in Milledgeville when she was told to “pick a pronoun to describe her.”

She was offended, the senator said, but felt she’d be the victim of retaliation if she squawked.

So, Harbin sprang into action. “I said this needs to be addressed.”

He could have written a more narrow bill forbidding pronouns as a form of hazing.

But why not go for the whole DEI kahuna?