NFL
By: Zachary Draves
Once again another state has decided that doing away with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education will solve their problems and somehow be a victory over discrimination.
This time Kentucky has joined the fray of red states attacking DEI through the power of the state.
Last Friday, the state House passed a bill that seeks to completely defund DEI initiatives at their public universities. They go even further by including in the bill a ban on race based scholarships and prohibiting the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, which oversees public universities, from approving courses for certain degrees that they deem to be “discriminatory concepts”.
The bill is now headed to the Senate, which like the House, is controlled by the GOP.
What makes Kentucky unique in this instance is that they are in the midst of doing a genuine disservice, which is putting it mildly, towards the legacy of arguably their most recognizable resident born in Louisville on January 17, 1942.
A man who “floated like a butterfly and sting like a bee”. A man who was at one time “young, handsome, fast, pretty, and couldn’t possibly be beat”. A man who proclaimed that he had “murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick and was so mean he made medicine sick”.
He was the Louisville Lip. He was the Greatest. He was Muhammad Ali.
(Courtesy: EPA)
Ali’s boxing pedigree speaks plenty about him in that regard, but it is his impact as an activist that makes him immortal.
By now most know that Ali famously refused induction into the armed services at the height of the Vietnam War in 1967 as a consciousness objector due to his religious beliefs. He was subsequently prohibited from fighting for three and a half years while he was the undefeated heavyweight champion and faced up to five years in federal prison.
(Courtesy: Bettmann/Getty Images)
At the time, Ali was feared and loathed by some as unpatriotic and heralded by others as a man of strong courage and conviction.
In 1971, the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision overruled his conviction.
But Ali’s activism didn’t stop there. He continued to speak out on matters of racial justice, militarism, and along the way was able to forge alliances with other historically marginalized groups in their quest for justice and equality.
During his three and a half year ordeal, Ali made it a point to call out what would now be referred to as anti-Asian sentiment in reference to the Vietnam War when there was little visibility of Asian and Asian American voices in the media landscape.
He famously said “I am not going 10,000 miles to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters over the darker people of the earth.”
In doing so, he was able to highlight the need for a mutual solidarity between Blacks and Asians.
He also became a catalyst for many other people of color to take part in the struggle for their rights such as Latino activists at the height of the Chicano movement.
In 1978, Ali stood tall with Native Americans during the Longest Walk when activists were advocating for the protection of tribal rights.
(Courtesy: David Amram via NMAI)
So given all this history, much of it probably unknown to some, the passage of an anti-DEI bill in Ali’s home state runs afoul to who he was and what he actually stood for.
In fact, the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, has put out a call on X/Twitter asking people to sign a petition created by the social justice organization A Path Forward opposing the bill.
It is highly likely that if Ali was alive today he would not only speak out against this, but he would probably support the NAACP’s recent call for black athletes to reconsider going to college in states that are putting forward similar pieces of legislation.
That would simply be in keeping with his values and anyone, including proponents of this bill, who may want to talk about how much they revere him and may have come around to him later in life, better reconsider their positions.
It is impossible to reconcile love for Ali and strongly advocate against all that is right with the world.
In the end, it will be Ali, even in death that will stand tall while ignorance and injustice will be down for the count.
