U of L is a coward for removing 'diversity' positions. Black students should make them pay.

Florida may be the Sunshine State for some, but it is now clearly a Sundown State for Black people as Gov. Ron DeSantis is successfully rolling back the racial clock. His latest victory came when the University of Florida fired all of its diversity employees in a recent late Friday afternoon purge. The school’s justification? They were simply complying with state law. Florida alum and NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith said he was “utterly disgusted” by the firings. The Sith Lord DeSantis applauded them.

DeSantis’ Black persecution path has been made smoother by many of the state’s politicians, business leaders and university presidents largely remaining silent as he and his confederates have levied myriad attacks. Disturbingly, states like Kentucky and schools like the University of Louisville provide sad examples of places following the trail blazed by DeSantis and the Sundown State.

Anti-diversity Republican legislators attack DEI

Kentucky’s anti-diversity Republican legislators want to cast themselves as heroes who are fighting against the divisiveness and "reverse racism" of Diversity Equity and Inclusion. Like DeSantis, they aren’t the heroes in this story; they are the villains. And this isn’t really about DEI; it’s about anti-Black racism. But also like Florida, Kentucky’s political, business and educational leaders are failing us and democracy by not calling them out for what they really are and fighting back.

Do you think DEI is a problem? Submit your letter to the editor here.

Instead of strongly standing against racial tyranny, U of L’s leaders are doing things like stripping the word “diversity” out of position titles including one created by the school’s first African American Dean of Arts & Sciences, Dr. J. Blaine Hudson. They seem to believe Kentucky’s klannish legislators will be thrown off their racist scent if U of L isn’t “loud” and deploys such misguided maneuvers. That’s either foolish, cowardly or both.

Sitting at the helm of it all is Louisville’s President Kim Schatzel. As many fawned over U of L for hiring a Black basketball coach two years ago who is now seemingly on the brink of termination, a precious few of us argued it was time the University finally chose a Black president for the first time in its 224-year history. It was not to be. The school’s decision makers chose Schatzel instead and, ironically, bragged about how she was a bona fide diversity champion. The message seemed to be that any Black people with complaints or concerns should be happy to have yet another white savior who would fight for them. It was beyond paternalistic and insulting.

It's harder to champion diversity in Louisville

To be sure, being a so-called diversity champion was an easier lift for Schatzel at her previous post, Towson University. That’s a school within 15 miles of Baltimore which is over 61% Black. It sits in Maryland which is now led by Wes Moore, one of only three elected Black governors in U.S. history. Louisville isn’t Baltimore and Kentucky damn sure isn’t Maryland. They’re different beasts.

As the Bluegrass State’s racists have launched relentless frontal assaults, Schatzel has been mostly absent from the battlefield. She seems afraid of them or disconnected. She’s speaking in hushed tones and edited missives, or not speaking at all. She and her leadership team, including her chief diversity officer, even failed to sign a recent letter penned by The Path Forward, a coalition of Louisville citizens and organizations that are defending diversity, even though more than 1,100 others have signed. All the while, Schatzel’s surrogates make excuses and say things like, “she cares and is working hard behind the scenes.”

We need more than that from our general and her lieutenants.

Kentucky legislators and believe everything will turn out all right

It’s unreasonable to ask Black folks to place their fates in the hands of cautious white people and a small band of well-chosen, non-threatening Black people with whom they’ve surrounded themselves to negotiate with racially hostile Kentucky legislators and believe everything will turn out all right. That strategy has never worked in the long history of American and global socio-political movements, and there’s a word for any Black person who believes it will yield positive results now. Fool.

DEI officers are part of the problem. If you're not fighting GOP's right-wing SB 6, quit.

Silent or unconcerned white political, business and educational leaders in Louisville and Kentucky should be aware that there is a burgeoning Black movement to make schools and states that don’t stand up to racism pay. More and more Black people like Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin are urging Black student-athletes to not attend predominantly white schools like Florida, Alabama, Auburn or Louisville that sit in states that pass or push racist anti-diversity legislation.

It could be argued that boycott shouldn’t be limited to Black student-athletes. Let the silent, scared or acquiescent political, business and educational leaders reap what they are sowing. No Black students should attend these schools, period. No Black people should move to or visit these states. Black people who live in them should start planning to make their exits. Let us not continue to spend our time or treasure in these hellholes. Let us not continue to frustrate ourselves and send our children where they aren’t wanted. If these vile racists want these schools and states so badly, let them have them. There are better places to attend school, live, work and watch our children grow.

Dr. Ricky L. Jones is the Baldwin-King Scholar-in-Residence at the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute and Professor of Pan-African Studies, University of Louisville. His column appears bi-weekly in the Courier-Journal. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, and X.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: U of L rolls over for anti-DEI movement. Black students should boycott