Photo: Michael P. King/UW–Madison CALS
UW-Madison Agriculture Hall
UW-Madison
Republican legislators use an incomprehensible jumble of letters—DEI—when talking about abolishing equal access to higher education at the University of Wisconsin and other college campuses throughout the state.
That’s because if Republicans said right out loud what those letters stand for—diversity, equity and inclusion—most voters would realize those words are a perfect description of the ideals of American democracy. Abolishing DEI literally means supporting white supremacy, inequality and exclusion.
It’s no secret MAGA Republicans are out to destroy all the progress the 1960s civil rights movement created toward assuring equal rights for all Americans regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation.
Most Americans have taken pride in strengthening equal rights under the law for women, racial and religious minorities and LGBTQ Americans. Hard-core rightwing Republicans never have. We’re still living with the racist Republican backlash against the election of America’s first African American President Barack Obama. His presidency was immediately followed by the protest election of openly racist, corrupt and now criminally indicted President Donald Trump.
MAGA on a Mission
The most voters in history threw Trump out of office after a single term, but that hasn’t stopped Republicans from continuing his mission to roll back every American civil rights achievement everywhere all the time.
Their most in-your-face victory was the rightwing supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court wiping out a half-century of constitutional rights for women to make their own decisions about their own bodies and lives regarding abortion.
That radical decision destroyed religious freedom in America by allowing politicians to impose their own religious beliefs about abortion on everyone else by law. The immediate political backlash began the battles decent people continue to fight all over America to stop Republicans not only from banning all abortions, but from abolishing other constitutional rights as well.
That’s when Republicans started speaking in code again to hide their never-ending attempts to destroy American democracy. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos speaks fluent political alphabet when he raves about the evils of DEI at the University of Wisconsin creating racial divisions, demonizing conservatives and indoctrinating college students in radical left-wing liberalism.
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That unintelligible string of letters doesn’t describe anything that’s actually happening. It’s simply another ugly Republican excuse to block a long-overdue effort by university officials to increase access to higher education for first-generation students of all races and to help them succeed.
For most of America’s history colleges were white male institutions. When women finally were admitted, for decades it was primarily to attend teachers’ colleges or nursing and secretarial training. The only people of color did manual labor or cleaned classrooms.
We Need Skilled Workers
It’s especially important for state universities to educate community leaders and the skilled workforce needed to drive their state economies. Those people are no longer all white.
Unfortunately, that puts UW Madison, the flagship of the state system, at a distinct disadvantage. It has long been cited as a prime example of the failure of many major universities to create racially diverse educational institutions. Republicans want it to stay that way.
A Black student strike in 1969 protested the small number of students of color on the Madison campus. UW didn’t even track the race of students until 1974 when African Americans were found to constitute 2.2% of the student body. Fifty years later in 2022, that had barely improved to 2.9%. Continuing racist incidents on campus haven’t helped either.
The good news is UW recently hired a new vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion defying threats from Vos and Republicans to destroy such programs in the state budget. UW System President Jay Rothman says it benefits both the university and the citizens of the state to reach out to underserved communities in a time of declining enrollments.
Universities are judged on whether they adequately prepare students to live and work in a racially diverse nation. Republican legislators live in a whole different world. They need only reach out to voters in districts that are already politically gerrymandered to support politicians who attack racial diversity, equal rights and inclusion of all races in America.
Republican hostility to university efforts to increase racial diversity on predominantly white college campuses has a long history. We’ve watched affirmative action die in agonizing slow motion before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attacking DEI is just the latest Republican babble to justify defunding education. It’s this year’s version of that godless CRT, whatever that was.
Republicans have to invent reasons to oppose funding higher education, but as Trump often does, he once gave the game away right out loud. In 2016, after winning the most delegates in Nevada’s primary caucus with his strongest support coming from voters with a high school education or less, Trump publicly declared: “I love the poorly educated!”
