Waste of the Day: Oklahoma Colleges Spent $83 Million On DEI

Public universities in Oklahoma have spent at least $83.4 million on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and personnel in the last decade, according to estimates released by state higher-education entities.

Proponents of DEI programs tout them as a way for people from divergent backgrounds to get along, but in practice some have been associated with discriminatory concepts and practices that have prompted civil rights complaints and lawsuits, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs found.

In his recent State of the State address, Gov. Kevin Stitt urged higher education institutions in Oklahoma to refocus their efforts on valid educational activities.

“When we send our kids to college, we expect our tuition to pay for their education, not their indoctrination,” Stitt said. “I want our universities to have less DEI officers and more career placement counselors.”

The Stitt administration first made the amount of DEI spending at colleges become public, with Education Secretary Ryan Walters sending a letter to the chancellor for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, Allison Garrett, that requested “a full outline and review of every dollar that has been spent over the last ten years on diversity, equity, inclusion.”

The letter also asked for the number of staff employed by colleges for DEI programs.

While in many instances, the DEI expenditures are described in very broad terms such as “programming celebrating diversity,” “program supports,” and “workshops,” some showed DEI expenditures at Oklahoma colleges including funding for drag-queen performances, a program on fostering “Trans and Non‐Binary Resilience,” so-called “antiracist” training, and a presentation on “Black Jesus.”

Western Oklahoma State College’s report included “Antiracist Teaching.” Major leaders of the “anti-racist” movement have acknowledged it involves deliberate discrimination based on skin color, The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs reported.

Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to Be an Antiracist,” has written that “if racial discrimination is defined as treating, considering, or making a distinction in favor or against an individual based on that person’s race, then racial discrimination is not inherently racist.”

“The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination,” Kendi wrote. “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

If that’s what’s being taught at public universities, it’s no wonder the governor is urging them to get back to basics

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This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.