Recently, Gov. Greg Abbott warned state agencies about using DEI for hiring purposes, as it is deemed discriminatory against certain groups of people. This comes after many months of parental protests against the practice of critical race theory in independent school districts.

Although the governor is taking the right step in making DEI unthinkable in state agencies, it must go further. Suppose we are truly going to stop the radical left’s takeover of America’s future. In that case, Austin needs to outlaw DEI altogether in every taxpayer-funded institution and penalize any institution that refuses to follow the law by withholding state funds.

DEI promotes progressive ideology in every area it touches by seeing society through a lens of critical race theory and, in turn, trying to dismantle systemic racism and “inequities.” If one group is behind another group, then it must be because of “racism.” In a nutshell, everything is rooted in racism.

And as a result of this progressive movement, we now see the effects of DEI at a societal level. Disney made its employees do a “white checklist” to pivot away from a “white dominant culture.”

Harvard even made a black-only graduation back in 2017 as means to celebrate black achievement while excluding Hispanics, whites, and Asians.

We don’t have to go far, as we have seen the ideological poison DEI can create. Fort Worth ISD continues to spend more than $2.2 million per year for an equity department that has a handbook detailing an introduction to critical race theory. The school district also invites controversial speakers to equity summits that say, “We internally believe that White is supreme, and it requires a constant process of ridding ourselves of this colonized mentality.” The department has segregated people based on color for one of its summits and still has its equity committee closed to the public since it got criticism and backlash for what they were doing.

Texas Tech made faculty candidates submit their commitment towards DEI, and if their responses were deemed insufficient, the university would send a negative response to that candidate.

Texas is the largest conservative state in the country, and if we are to keep this state red, we need to go on the offense in our public universities and public schools. The left has a strategy, and that is to control the youth population as much as possible so they can then control the future. After all, Gen Z and millennials will be the CEOs, members of Congress, and lawyers running this nation in the next 20 years. And if they overwhelmingly believe that America is a racist nation, that white privilege exists, and that social justice is the way forward, then we will be in trouble.

The 18 through 29-year-old age group voted 63 percent for House Democrats this past November, a number that should scare the GOP into making changes and investing heavily in taking over our education system in America.

Republicans in Austin in this session need to make DEI illegal in every taxpayer-funded institution. It is a movement disguised to look like it’s helping students and society, but in reality it is just another political operation by the left to create millions of new progressive voters for future elections. It promotes social justice left-wing environments and creates division and unnecessary controversy.

Public schools and universities should not be indoctrinating our students with left-wing political activism. As someone who was part of a DEI committee, I saw how they were implementing this framework. I can tell you that if we don’t stop this madness right now, it may be too late later.

This is a commentary published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to Texas Scorecard, please submit to submission@texasscorecard.com.

Carlos Turcios

Carlos Turcios is currently the Turning Point USA UTA chapter President and a Republican Precinct Chair.