Campus DEI Fuels Anti-Semitism and Reinforces Racial Stereotypes

This article originally appeared in Minding The Campus on December 12, 2023. 

I’m here today because campus DEI programs are anathema to the core purposes of public colleges and universities, which include fostering deliberation in pursuit of truth and preparing young people for citizenship. Policymakers have struggled to restrain or dismantle DEI apparatuses on public campuses in part because “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” all sound like admirable goals. And they are, generally speaking.

Unfortunately, DEI offices and programs are really doing the opposite: They sew division and hate in society (including anti-Semitism), they promote race-exclusion and race-essentialist perspectives, and they indoctrinate students into a radical ideology. I will begin by sketching DEI’s profoundly pernicious effect on campus life. And I will close by explaining that there are much better ways to help underprepared students succeed and ensure compliance with civil rights statutes.

The legislation under consideration today is responsibly calibrated to turn back DEI’s worst excesses on Ohio’s public campuses. Prohibiting mandatory DEI training, compelled political speech, and the use of diversity screens in hiring and admissions decisions—alongside common-sense protections for intellectual diversity—should not be controversial.

Read full op-ed in Minding The Campus.