Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announces ban on diversity programs

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday announced an executive order that effectively bans diversity, equity and inclusion policies at state agencies and public colleges.

The executive order prohibits the use of state funds, facilities or resources for the development of any DEI activities (such as trainings and school events). It also blocks state agencies and higher education institutes from granting DEI positions, requiring anyone to disclose their pronouns, and taking other actions related to supporting DEI efforts.

Oklahoma Democrats immediately denounced the order.

“The governor’s ban is a threat to every economic development strategy in Oklahoma and undermines the employability of business majors throughout Oklahoma,” state Sen. Mary Boren said in a statement.

Stitt dubiously framed his order as a step away from liberal “indoctrination,” claiming Oklahoma will benefit from “shifting focus away from exclusivity and discrimination, and toward opportunity and merit.”

There’s an intellectual recession taking place in states like Oklahoma, where conservatives are succeeding in suppressing access to inclusive education. DEI programs aren’t merely designed to help marginalized students or employees succeed. Having participated in several during my college years, I can attest to the fact they also help people who are typically given cultural favor (like white men, for example) better understand — and in some cases, relate to — the plight of their less privileged peers. 

Oklahoma, much like Florida and Wisconsin, is openly spurning this knowledge for blatantly political purposes. Stitt’s order underscores the unique fervor with which Oklahoma officials have attacked equitable access to education. 

The state’s superintendent, Ryan Walters, is a right-wing conspiracy theorist who faced backlash earlier this year when he suggested the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, in which white terrorists killed hundreds of Black people, wasn’t about race. (He later tried to walk back those remarks.)

Walters also announced in September that the state’s education department had entered a partnership with the right-wing propaganda outfit PragerU.

And in May, Stitt sought to strip funding from the state’s PBS affiliate because some of its programming referred to LGBTQ people. Stitt’s attack on DEI programs is just the latest of several recent acts of right-wing censorship to occur in Oklahoma.