State Sen. Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road) appeared on Alabama Public Television's Capitol Journal to ban state-funded diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives passed by the Senate last week. The proposal was discussed.

“DEI is an issue across the country, especially in Alabama,” Barfoot said.

“DEI offices at institutions of higher education and public universities have really worked to divide us rather than unite us. DEI sounds fascinating and something we should all support. But in reality, DEI offices across the state have been used to silo people by race, color, religion, ethnicity, and national origin.”

“So what this bill does is effectively eliminate a huge DEI office that is dividing rather than uniting,” Barfoot explained.

Barfoot agreed that racism and sexism remain problems, but the bill aims to eliminate them.

“Some of my colleagues' comments are exactly right, but unfortunately we have racism, we have sexism, we categorize people based on external factors that shouldn't be considered, We try to value the work they do. This bill eliminates that. You can't change the human heart or the human spirit by law, but we can say we're not going to pay to continue doing this.” Barfoot said. he said.

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He also cited the bill's “splitting concepts” section, which aims to end the formal teaching of concepts such as critical race theory in schools.

“This has been raised over the past two years but has not yet passed. We have determined that these two concepts mirror each other. In this bill, the word cathode ray tube is not used at all. We don't use it, it's an opposing concept. And they don't tell someone that one race is superior to another, or that someone's moral character is based on their skin color or background. It means you can't make people agree or disagree, and these are the types of concepts that we don't allow. Freedom of expression, freedom of belief, whatever you believe, no matter how wrong it is. , we are not going to pay that price,” Barfoot said.

“We need to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. We have a lot to say, but unless we talk about it all, including the bad and the ugly, we will never benefit.” You don’t get to know how you got to where you are.”

Michael Brauner is a senior sports analyst and contributing writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP