TULSA, Okla. — Governor Kevin Stitt signed an executive order prohibiting state agencies from supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on Dec. 13.
This means state agencies and state colleges must review all DEI positions, departments, activities, and procedures. They must also "eliminate and dismiss" non-critical personnel.
Executive Order 2023-31 lists six areas in which state funds and property can't be used:
- Grant or support diversity, equity, and inclusion positions, departments, activities, procedures, or programs to the extent they grant preferential treatment based on one person’s particular race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin over another’s;
- mandate any person to participate in, listen to, or receive any education, training, activities, procedures, or programming to the extent such education, training, activity, or procedure grants preferences based on one person’s particular race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin over another’s;
- mandate any person swear, certify, or agree to any loyalty oath that favors or prefers one particular race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin over another;
- mandate any person to certify or declare agreement with, recognition of, or adherence to, any particular political, philosophical, religious, or other ideological viewpoint;
- mandate any applicant for employment provide a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement or give any applicant for employment preferential consideration based on the provision of such a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement; or
- mandate any person to disclose their pronouns.
Stitt said diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives promote exclusivity and discrimination.
“In Oklahoma, we’re going to encourage equal opportunity, rather than promising equal outcomes,” said Governor Stitt. “Encouraging our workforce, economy, and education systems to flourish means shifting focus away from exclusivity and discrimination, and toward opportunity and merit. We’re taking politics out of education and focusing on preparing students for the workforce.”
Oklahoma Senator Rob Standridge filed four bills on Dec. 13 aimed at colleges with the same gist.
“Our universities and colleges will continue to devolve as we veer further away from merit-based accomplishments and continue to follow the leftist ideology of DEI to its ultimate negative end," Standridge said. "In our colleges and universities, we should begin to follow the words of one of the greatest civil rights heroes in history, Martin Luther King, Jr., when he said “I have a dream…[people should not be judged] by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”, and we can add gender, pronouns, and every other leftist idea of dividing our nation into classes, to this ideal."
Freedom Oklahoma said Stitt's executive order further creates hostile environments at state agencies and colleges.
“The governor says his executive order is about removing politics from campuses, but diversity, equity, and inclusion is only political for those who feel attacked by being asked to confront the ways their identities have granted them privilege that allows them to uphold the status quo at the expense of historically marginalized and excluded groups," said Nicole McAfee, Executive Director of Freedom Oklahoma. "This executive order chills speech and adds to the increasingly hostile work environment for historically marginalized and excluded community members. Whether someone is working a state job, or enrolled on a college campus in Oklahoma, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs are essential to advancing our state. We all deserve honesty and the chance to focus on solutions that reckon with our past to create a better future."
The Cherokee Nation also chimed in on the decision:
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