A UNC board member shares a glimpse into his ill-informed thinking on DEI | Opinion
Woody White thinks he’s carrying Martin Luther King’s torch. But he’s just torching the icon’s legacy.
After a UNC System Board of Governors’ committee voted Wednesday to effectively eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs throughout the university system, White, who is a member of the UNC Board of Governors, wrote publicly in support of the move. The UNC System Board of Governors is expected to vote on the issue at its May meeting.
White wrote in The Carolina Journal: “Instead of the generically positive connotations these words suggest, pernicious systems were constructed that imposed extreme ideology and allowed discrimination to occur before our very eyes in hiring practices and higher-education admission policies. The acronym “DEI” has morphed into an unwieldy and un-American construct that teaches that, so long as it has an altruistic purpose, discrimination is acceptable.”
White is either arrogantly ignorant, or lying. DEI is a tool that can be used well or misused, like any other tool. Those who distort its purpose are the ones with the pernicious ideology, one built upon a profound lack of interest in truth. They don’t want to learn about actual DEI. They’d rather join other equally incurious DEI opponents who’ve done the same in a growing number of states. They attacked affirmative action, claiming it is anti-white. They demonized “wokeness” and “CRT.” Now, DEI is in their crosshairs. Each time, they’ve done it while proclaiming they cherish diversity, just not that kind.
The way White ended his piece really hit me. He recounted a trip to a Jones County Circle K where he had a pleasant interaction with a Black man. “Hey, brother; you’re looking sharp today!” the man said. They fist bumped and smiled at each other.
White wrote: “As I hopped into my car and got back on the road, I drove in silence and thought about this ordinary personal interaction and how much it defied what the Outrage Industry and the DEI establishment tells us every day about how we all feel about each other. I realized that the sooner our higher-education system and other government institutions reject the toxic structures that seek to divide us, the sooner we will achieve a society where we are judged not by our ancestry, but by the content of our character — Dr. King’s unrealized dream.”
White treats the encounter as a revelation. Does he not know similar scenes unfolded even during the height of antebellum race-based slavery, when Black people were being lynched in the public square as thousands of white people cheered on? There is no serious DEI proponent on the planet who argues such interactions don’t happen every day, or would want them to go away. But no serious DEI proponent would argue such things are sufficient to solve decades-deep racial and other disparities well documented on campus and off.
Let me be clear. DEI isn’t only about race. It isn’t designed to “divide” us. It’s about ensuring that students from all backgrounds are provided what they need to become their best selves, not to put people in superficial identity boxes.
The committee voted without much discussion, which is why White’s piece is so important. It provides a glimpse into the ill-informed-ahistorical way of thinking that is steering the direction of UNC. I know White isn’t alone in his thinking, given that the vote against DEI was unanimous and is likely to be confirmed in May.
Since White loves MLK so, I’ll let King close us out: “Sincerity and conscientiousness in themselves are not enough. Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
Issac Bailey is a McClatchy Opinion writer in North and South Carolina.
