Abbott is talking the talk on DEI, but he needs to walk the walk too.
Louis K. Bonham writes at Minding the Campus:
An Open Letter to Texas Governor Abbott on Illegal DEI Practices: Where’s the Beef?Dear Gov. Abbott,After National Association of Scholars Senior Fellow John Sailer’s bombshell report in the Wall Street Journal documented the use of “diversity statements” as ideological hiring filters at Texas Tech University, your chief of staff hastily issued a statement reminding state employees that such practices are, in fact, illegal. This has been cited in the press as evidence that you, like Florida Governor DeSantis and officials in Oklahoma, South Carolina, and many other states, are now going to crack down on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices at Texas state universities.Forgive me if I do not share such optimism, and if I question whether your office’s recent statement was sincere. Your history consistently shows that you have either tacitly supported the exact policies that your office now acknowledges are illegal or have been unwilling to do anything about them.The explosion of DEI programs and their use of illegal racial, ethnic, sex, and ideological discrimination by Texas state universities—especially the institutionalization of the Kendian ethos that such discrimination is a moral imperative, notwithstanding that, as United States Court of Appeals Judge James Ho has noted, such a worldview directly conflicts with federal law—has occurred during your tenure as our governor. To the best of my knowledge, you have been in office long enough to have appointed every single regent at every Texas state university. Yet none of these regents—who are supposed protect Texans’ interests, and not merely enjoy luxury accommodations at sporting events and the perks of overseeing multi-billion-dollar endowments—have done anything to put a stop to these illegal activities.
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