BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- North Carolina lawmakers have overridden Governor Josh Stein's vetoes on three bills banning diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in public schools and state government.
- The bills, particularly Senate Bill 558, prohibit public colleges from engaging in discriminatory practices, compelling belief in divisive concepts, and maintaining DEI offices.
- Critics, including Gov. Stein and Democrat Rep. Amos Quick, argue the laws are divisive and anti-American, while supporters claim they prevent the labeling of individuals based on race or sex as inherently oppressive.
North Carolina lawmakers overrode Gov. Josh Stein’s vetoes on three bills outlawing diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in public schools and state government this week.
“Each of the bills—House Bill 171, Senate Bill 227, and Senate Bill 558—contains provisions … intended to end DEI initiatives, offices, and mandatory coursework in government and higher education,” the Goldwater Institute reported. Senate Bill 227 and Senate Bill 558 have now become law.
Senate Bill 558 bans public colleges from engaging in discriminatory practices, mandating DEI coursework, compelling anyone to affirm or profess belief in divisive concepts, or maintaining DEI offices and positions.
The bill defines “divisive concepts” as any of the following ideas: “that one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex”; “that an individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive”; or “that the United States was created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race or sex,” among others.
It also prohibits public colleges from reporting or investigating speech protected by the First Amendment, “including satire and speech labeled as a microaggression.”
Senate Bill 227 bans these practices in K-12 education.
In response to the vetoes, Gov. Stein said Republican lawmakers are “stoking the culture wars that divide us rather than fulfilling their long-overdue responsibility of passing a budget,” according to Citizen Times.
Democrat Rep. Amos Quick also criticized the bills, calling them “anti-American.”
“How can one be anti-diversity in a proudly diverse society, a society made up of people who are diverse in their ability, ethnicity, gender, age, race?” he said.
House majority leader Rep. Brenden Jones said, “No child should be told that they’re inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, guilty, or morally defined because of their race or sex.”
“That is not censorship, that’s common sense,” he said.
The Goldwater Institute also applauded the passage of these bills.
“DEI cloaks its radical and discriminatory aims with feel-good buzzwords. The ideology behind DEI divides American society into ‘oppressors’ and ‘oppressed’—with both groups defined by identity categories such as race, ethnicity, and sex,” Director of Higher Education Tim Minella wrote.
Several other states have passed similar DEI bans following President Donald Trump’s federal ban on the ideology.
Last week, a policy to limit and define diversity, equity, and inclusion and critical race theory in Kansas universities passed the Board of Regents, The College Fix reported.
Earlier this year, however, a Manhattan Institute report found that diversity requirements persist at universities in nearly a dozen states with anti-DEI laws.
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