A woke insurgency has been implanted within the local governments of Texas. They are transforming into hostile working and learning environments that can spread bigotry to surrounding communities.
This insurgency was found in a community college, a school district, and multiple city governments, including the often considered Republican-leaning Fort Worth. Bluntly, Texas is being turned into California.
In this investigative series, Texas Scorecard has uncovered the depths to which public officials have gone to force the woke ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)—or divide, excommunicate, and indoctrinate—down the throats of employees in the city of Austin, and the Texas Department of Health and Human Services.
However, the “woke mind virus” of DEI has spread far more rapidly than many Texans know. It has taken root in multiple local governments across the Lone Star State.
This includes education.
No Bad Ideas
The culture war is a war of ideas. As Texas Scorecard previously reported, the rise of DEI policies reflect a tidal wave of hate-filled ideas that have swept across the Western world.
These are ideas which judge and divide Americans by immutable characteristics, like the color of their skin, rather than by their actions or the character traits they possess. Woke ideology refuses to recognize timeless moral values altogether. Virtues like charity, integrity, compassion, and beneficence have been traded in for intolerance, division, and so-called equity. This new order results in hurt hearts and bad outcomes.
“DEI sounds like things that we’re in favor of: diversity, equity and inclusion. But over the last 10-15 years, what has happened on [university] campuses is, with the permeation of critical race theory, those three words have been redefined,” said Sherry Sylvester, a distinguished senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. She has been examining the DEI infection within Texas Higher Education.
Sylvester explained that under the warping of words, diversity means “a population that includes the victims of white supremacy—as defined by DEI—based on the color of your skin, not on your achievements.” “Oppressors” are likewise identified by skin color, not action. Equity, on the other hand, doesn’t equal equality. “How this would work is I played basketball in high school, but I never really had a shot at the NBA. What they would say is [there was] equal access, but no equity.”
Finally there’s inclusion. “[It] means you include those who agree with this assessment— that America is a racist country, founded on slavery, built on slavery—and you exclude those who don’t,” Sylvester said. “When my attention was first drawn to this, I learned, looking at Texas universities, that in order to be interviewed for … not all, but many jobs at University of Texas, Texas A&M, and we just learned last week some at Texas Tech, and throughout the taxpayer funded colleges around the state, you have to sign what’s called a diversity statement.”
Texas Scorecard asked Sylvester how infested Texas Higher Education was with DEI. “We’re just beginning to learn the level of DEI on different campuses,” she replied.
Activist Joe Bennett in Tarrant County found DEI at Tarrant County College. At a January 12, 2023 meeting of the Tarrant County College Trustees, DEI was discussed.
Source: Tarrant County College
Source: Tarrant County College
SACSCOC, mentioned in the above slides, stands for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, “the body for the accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the Southern states.”
These slides were part of a presentation by Marlon Mote, District Director of Institutional Effectiveness Accreditation and Planning, to the Trustees that day. He was updating them on their preparation for an upcoming visit by SACSCOC, and “about changes that have been addressed with accreditation in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion in the position statement that was released by the [organization].”
“We have a certificate of compliance, and we’re under a differentiated review, which basically means that we report on less because we’ve been in good standing with accreditation over the past several years,” Mote told the trustees. “The accreditor supports and encourages leadership of its institutions to promote and sustain diversity, equity and inclusion in all arenas of Higher Ed.” He said this certificate of compliance is due March 1.
Mote said SACSCOC’s “peer evaluation teams,” coming to evaluate Tarrant County College, would be from outside Texas. “The evaluators will probably read only sections of the standards, probably not going to read the whole thing all the way through. They will be assigned probably four or five different schools or institutions to review at the same time.” He noted why this was important. “No single SACSCOC standard currently speaks to diversity, equity, and inclusion. But opportunities are available throughout the standards to showcase efforts to engage in reflection, evaluation, and planning to support diversity of all students, faculty, and staff.”
TCC is not being singled out for these reviews. “This is a requirement being made of all accrediting councils across the United States. We’re not special,” TCC Chancellor Dr. Elva Concha LeBlanc said during the meeting.
Bennett told Texas Scorecard he wasn’t pleased with this. “It’s indoctrination of these kids,” he said. “Everyday, Fort Worth ISD buses at least 10 busloads of kids down there for what they call early college. So not only do we have these 18,19, 20 year olds having to stomach the —-, we have high school kids being shoved over there by the ISDs.”
Mote gave the indication that DEI has been at TCC for sometime. When it came to preparing for SACSCOC’s evaluation, he emphasized to Trustees about “being able to thread throughout the document, being clear in our explanations, and offering where appropriate, the diversity, equity and inclusion actions and activities that we’ve done over the years.”
District 2 Trustee Shannon Wood confirmed to Texas Scorecard that DEI indoctrination is nothing new. She pointed back to a September 16, 2021 trustee meeting, during which there was a presentation about how the college should start hiring faculty members based on skin color. The argument given was because 64 percent of the faculty are white, 35 percent are Hispanic, and the claim more Hispanic faculty were needed to match the Hispanic population coming to school. Wood asked for clarity as to whether or not color was going to be the primary factor. “I said, help me understand. We’re going to hire the best qualified instructors, correct? The response back to me was that we would have minimum qualifications.” She said these minimum qualifications were not clearly defined.
Wood said faculty are living in fear. “From what I’ve heard from staff, and this is just what they tell me, they feel like it’s a very hostile work environment. They’re afraid. It’s a very fear based environment,” she said. “They feel like administration is always kind of looking over their shoulder, and if they’re not the right ethnicity, they’re afraid to even speak up or speak out.”
During the January 12 meeting, Wood asked Mote clarifying questions, zeroing on the part of the slide that notes “SACSCOC seeks to model inclusion on its Board of Trustees, on its staff, on its peer evaluation teams, and through training and professional development.”
“I have a problem with this because it says ‘Board of Trustees,’” Wood said. “Each one of us are elected. You can’t tell us who we can hire, or who you can put on this board.”
Mote clarified that statement was in reference to SACSCOC itself. “What it’s saying is the accreditor SACSCOC is seeking a model for inclusion in its staff to peer evaluation through training and professional development. It’s not saying that it’s a mandate that we must do the same.”
But SACSCOC has a history of pushing indoctrination in higher education. Dr. Andrew Gillen of the Texas Public Policy Foundation recently covered how the University of North Carolina Trustee Board instituted a new program where “the woke won’t be in control of the new school.” SACSCOC, Gillen writes, did not respond kindly to this, and recalled how the president of the Soviet-like organization immediately threatened “We’re gonna … either get them to change it, or the institution will be on warning.” That threat was later walked back, but the organization had already revealed its true intentions.
Gillen explained why SACSCOC has so much power. “College accreditors are quasi-private organizations that have been given enormous power over higher education. Without an accreditor’s approval, a college’s students cannot receive federal financial aid like Pell grants and federal student loans,” he wrote. “Since few colleges can survive without access to these programs, accreditors essentially hold the fate of their colleges in their hands.”
He noted that in 2019, during the Trump Administration, the U.S. Department of Education changed federal regulations to now allow colleges to use any accreditor. “Unfortunately, the current Texas code often still requires Texas colleges to use SACSCOC. This should be remedied in the upcoming legislative session.”
There’s more too. A September 16, 2022, presentation about the Faculty Recruitment and Retention Plan contained this slide about “Cultural Competencies.”
Source: Tarrant County College
“Cultural Competence” first showed up in Texas in July 2020, when parents of students attending the Carroll Independent School District were shocked and alarmed to learn the district was implementing a “Cultural Competence Action Plan.” Dubbed the CCAP, this plan called for the district to “create a systemic process for consistently tracking and reporting microaggressions and incidents of discrimination.” It also required the establishment of a homosexual student focus group (grades 9-12), “an equity and inclusion grievance process system, and expand the school’s tip line to collect allegations of microaggressions.”
TCC Board President Teresa Ayala did not respond to our inquiry on these matters before publication.
This DEI infection wasn’t found only at the higher education level in Texas.
The Alamo Height Independent School District (AHISD) likewise put their taxpayers’ money where their Board’s mouth is. In 2020-2021, they contracted with a consulting group called One World Consulting (OWC) to conduct a Racial Equity Audit—an endeavor that would hit taxpayers with a $43,750 price tag.
The OWC consultant named in both OWC’s “Racial Equity Participatory Audit Proposal” and in their invoices to AHISD is Dr. Kelly Brown. She is listed as a “Principal Consultant” with OWC, and an “Assistant Professor in the Center for Doctoral Studies in Educational Leadership at Lamar University.”
“Just Treat Everyone the Same Way”
AHISD, within the district of former Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus (R), has been guzzling the woke mind virus. In July 2020, their trustee board recommended the creation of an Equity Council, with the purpose of eliminating bias and prejudice. This council is made up of parents, teachers, administrators, and students—some of which are no older than the sixth grade. Apparently it is essential to draw from the wellsprings of wisdom middle school students have to offer.
This council “committed to be part of the solution to dismantle institutional racism on behalf of the students and staff we serve and the community in which we all live.”
To this end, we will be bold in our commitment to making diversity, equity and inclusivity apparent in our organizational structure, our policies, our professional development efforts and our student experience in our efforts to further promote a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture for our students and our staff.
Such statements prove that divide, ex-communicate, and indoctrinate is not merely an employment practice, but is about workplace culture, and in this case classroom culture as well. This helps spread the cultural virus into the cultural mainstream.
However, there was resistance to this indoctrination. Students in the district were asked: “What do you wish adults in your school knew about culture, equity, and belonging?” Many replies in the records obtained followed the leftist narrative and praised the new equity council, and emphasized highlighting differences. Some, on the other hand, recognized the leftist ploy for what it is: divisive and destructive.
One student said:
Being an ethnic minority, I would say that I don’t want the focus to be on my ethnicity or culture. I want school to be a place where we learn first and foremost, and that they celebrate the students because of who they are and their accomplishments, not solely because of their race or ethnicity… I feel like these methods of constantly talking about race and the past is not progressive and is just an attempt to pander to us. Yes, we should know about our history but to constantly bring up ethnicity or race only creates further division… This school doesn’t have a problem with racism, there are always a few bad apples, but it’s not systemic, nor widespread. This school does, however, need improvement on including the new kids.
Another also remarked on the cliquishness of the school, based not on color, but on being new to the district:
I believe this equity council was built to pander to minorities like me. I believe the main problem with inclusivity at our school has nothing to do with race and all about how long a student has been at the school… I believe AH has done a great effort to include me as a Latina, but as a new girl to a new district I’ve gotten nothing but closed doors… This equity board will accomplish nothing because despite diagnosing the right problem they’ve come up with the wrong (and ineffective) solution.
A different survey marked the amount of agreement or disagreement with various ideas, such as “we should not talk about equity or race.” Fifteen students agreed with the sentiment, saying: “Quit talking about it and let students be friends with who they want. Bringing it up more, just creates bigger division among the school.”
Ten other students remarked:
You should not target things specifically towards race. At least in my case, every time there’s an activity or something that is specifically targeted towards this stuff for me it just makes it feel more different. Just treat everyone the same way, don’t force race on everything. Just because it is in the news does not mean it is in AH.
Even some teachers spoke out, and pointed out colorism and bigotry present in the district being unaddressed. Ten staff members said that the district should:
provide information about ALL races, ethnicities, and cultures, not just the ones that are struggling or are in the news currently… you need to consider ALL races and cultures. There is a STRONG anti conservative, anti white dynamic at the district among admin, staff and students. [emphasis original]
Such perspectives are not taken seriously by pushers of the DEI virus. Their view of the issue is encapsulated in the response provided by three staff members who agreed with the prevailing narrative, saying: “Teachers who are not a minority need to accept that there are systematic issues of race.”
The question of systemic racism has morphed from a political, historical, or social discussion into that of a religious cult: its premise does not need to be proven, it needs to be accepted.
Neither Brian Hamilton, president of Alamo Heights ISD Trustee Board, or Dr. Kelly Brown of One World Consulting replied to Texas Scorecard’s inquiry on this matter before publication.
As covered previously, the cultural virus is not only present in education, but has also infected local governments in Texas.
Local Insurgency
The city government of Dallas has likewise been infected, while under the administration of its elected city council and mayor.
According to a “diversity” presentation by the Human Resources department for managers at the city, one of the first ground rules of learning about so-called diversity and equity is to “suspend judgment and honor all points of view. No idea is a bad idea.”
This sums up the philosophy behind this leftist ideology that seeks to divide, excommunicate, and indoctrinate: there are no such things as bad ideas.
The city of Dallas likewise claims that “race neutrality”—often referred to as color-blindness or just not defining someone by the color of their skin—“has allowed inequities to worsen.” This is from a powerpoint presentation of DEI training for the city. In fact, in order to “reduc[e] racial inequity, this presentation argues it is necessary to address and acknowledge race as a key factor to the creation of inequities.” It claims that present-day inequities “are not random or natural,” but rather were caused by historic policies.
In March of 2021, the city passed a resolution committing to “embedding equity” in everything that it does. It states that “the city of Dallas has a deep resolve to promote racial equity, inclusion, and diversity in all aspects of city government [emphasis added].” The letters are rearranged, but city council doubled down on injecting the DEI virus into the local government body.
The office of Mayor Eric Johnson did not reply to Texas Scorecard’s request for comment before publication. Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn replied that she was the only vote against the city’s racial equity plan. She also pointed us to her recent tweet about the lack of “equity” in providing good roads, a core service of government, to the areas of the city that need it most.
The city of Fort Worth is also in on the DEI delusion. It now defines “racial justice” as seeking to create “equitable opportunities and outcomes for all” and “eliminate disparities.” (emphasis added)
As Texas Scorecard previously reported, the woke redefinition of equity is misleading. As recorded in the book “Life and Speeches of Hon. Wm. Jennings Bryan,” Bryan, three-time Democrat presidential nominee, famously said:
We believe, as asserted in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal, but that does not mean that all men are or can be equal in possessions, in ability or in merit; it simply means that all shall stand equal before the law.
Today, the new standard for equity deems the mere existence of disparities to be incontrovertible proof of discrimination.
However, the expectation that all outcomes will be equal in a world where no two people have equal skills or experiences, or where even the same person is not equal to himself day by day, is unreasonable. Displaying graphs and charts that illustrate disparities does nothing to change that fact. As Thomas Sowell explains in Discrimination and Disparities, “history shows how dangerous it can be, to a whole society, to automatically and incessantly attribute statistical differences in outcomes to malevolent actions against the less successful.”
Department of Division and Indoctrination
Fort Worth has long been considered a Republican stronghold. Yet even here the woke DEI virus has been transmitted.
On October 25, 2020, the city government’s Human Relations Commission lauded their hiring that year of their new Director Diversity and Inclusion/Chief Equity Officer, Christina Brooks. Brooks has a long history of DEI work, even serving as the first “diversity and inclusion” officer under then-mayor and current Secretary of Transportation under the Biden administration, Pete Buttigieg (D).
As expected, Brooks got to work injecting the DEI cultural virus into Fort Worth city government. She conducted a DEI presentation on how such policies should be implemented.
She indoctrinated staff on several different kinds of equity. One is “distributional equity,” which she defined as “programs and policies [which] result in fair distribution of benefits and burdens across all segments of a community, prioritizing those with highest need.” The fact that distributing things fairly while prioritizing some over others can be mutually exclusive was not deemed important to address.
Brooks also introduced the term “structural equity,” defined as the mindset when “decisions are made with recognition of historical, cultural and institutional dynamics and structures that have routinely advantaged privileged groups in society and resulted in chronic, cumulative disadvantage for subordinated groups.” Who determines who qualifies as privileged and who qualifies as subordinated is not specified.
Renowned economist Thomas Sowell warned of the dangers of imprinting on the next generation the sins of past ones. “Galling as it may be to be helpless to redress the crying injustices of the past, symbolic expiation in the present can only create new injustices among the living and new problems for the future, when newborn babies enter the world with pre-packaged grievances against other babies born the same day.” Yet this is exactly what these DEI policies intend to do.
According to Brooks’ standards, even the absence of discrimination isn’t enough. Her presentation reads:
Racial justice and equity is not achieved by the mere absence of racial discrimination or the perceived absence of harmful racial bias, but rather through deliberate action to dismantle problematic and build positively transformational systems – action must be carried through with the conviction, commitment and dedication of advocates.
In lockstep with the left, this city propaganda does not even feign support for factual analysis, judicious reform, or critical thinking. Instead, their policy proposal is to put bigoted colorism on steroids, putting the once-dying cancer of colorism into supergrowth.
Logic and effectiveness are not the only casualties of this propaganda. This destructive and divisive narrative at its very core, according to Brooks’ presentation, defines power as a “zero sum game of winners and losers.” With this pithy phrase, the city workforce was being transformed into a hostile work environment.
Brooks also teaches for employees to be on guard for microaggressions: casual terms or phrases that until recently, were either perfectly acceptable colloquialisms or innocent mistakes. Is someone typing on their computer as you are speaking to them? Ordinarily, this would be considered rude, but now, it is a form of harassment. Does security ask to verify your ID before you enter the workplace? Perhaps this was a necessary security measure before, but now it is an attack on your sense of belonging. Is someone talking over you during a meeting? Some may categorize this as an ordinary mistake, but Brooks assigns more insidious intentions to this.
The real insidious action at work is dividing people against each other, putting otherwise friendly and accepting individuals on high alert for any whiff of wrongdoing, whether intentional or accidental. What is even more concerning are the positive “microaffirmations” that appear to be praised by this presentation. One of these is “attack[ing] a co-worker openly for what you perceive as discriminatory behavior.”
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definitions of “attack” include “to set upon or work against forcefully,” “to assail with unfriendly or bitter words,” or “to begin to affect or to act on injuriously.” For Brooks and Fort Worth, apparently subtle turns of phrase can be categorized as acts of aggression, while actual verbal or physical violence is not.
As noted previously, “microaggressions” is a term exposed in 2020 in the Carroll Independent School District’s proposed “Cultural Competence Action Plan,” which caused a pitched battle between citizens and the school board. Brooks’ presentation also discusses “cultural competence” for Fort Worth employees.
Just as that plan threatened to turn Carroll ISD into a hostile learning environment, Fort Worth’s mutation of the DEI virus clearly seeks to turn the city government into a hostile work environment.
Wokeism is Not Optional
In 2020 the year of government mandates and lockdowns in response to the Chinese coronavirus, Fort Worth’s Human Resources Commission made some certain “recommendations” to the city government. Among these was the suggestion that the term “citizen presentations” be replaced with “community presentations” on all city council agendas, since the former was deemed “not inclusive of all the residents in Fort Worth.”
The commission also recommended the creation of an “Independent Community Police Oversight Board.” Similar pushes were already made in Dallas back in 2019. Texas Scorecard previously covered that fight, and how “citizens” or “community” oversight boards do not deliver what is advertised. They actually help shield elected public servants—the elected mayor and city council—from accountability for police actions.
This commission also proposed DEI strategies for a large swath of city committees, from criminal justice to governance to transportation, and each area has at least one so-called “diversity” focus.
A proposed strategy was mandated “diversity training” for all employees every three years. Two stumbling blocks were listed on this proposal, the first being insufficient funding, since the proposed training would require more than $32,000 of local taxpayer monies, and the second being “resistance from employees.”
This didn’t make the city reconsider the merits of this proposal. Rather, they reassured themselves with the fact that “the City of Fort Worth faced similar resistance when it rolled out mandatory LGBTQ training, and was able to persevere by making expectations clear and non-negotiable.” Despite public perception, Fort Worth is not as conservative as advertised. Rather, like Austin, it’s helping make Texas California. Injecting the woke mind virus into your own mind as a city employee is not optional. It raises the question of when does this requirement expand from city employees to the citizens.
This commission has been outspoken about promoting its DEI agenda – and it received more than $22,000 in the form of a taxpayer-funded CARES Act grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2020 alone.
Neither Mayor Mattie Parker, nor Councilmember Alan Blaylock replied to Texas Scorecard’s request for comment before publication.
Everything is White Supremacy
In San Antonio, the cultural DEI virus affects the mentality behind hiring decisions. During a presentation on “equitable hiring,” one of the central core values the city was seeking in new hires was a “commitment to racial and gender justice.” Professionalism, integrity, selflessness, a strong work ethic—attributes which did not merit an explicit mention—were deemed less important than a wholesale belief in leftist ideology.
Not only were the latter attributes not mentioned as key core values, but supervisors were encouraged to remove similar phrases from job descriptions altogether, as they were deemed relics of “white supremacy culture.” For example, “expectations of constant urgency/perfection” or phrases like “no dropped balls” and “100% follow-through” are unacceptable. The mere suggestion that applicants should “be professional” is “loaded language.” “Serve” and “customer service” are ascribed to have a colorist or classist meaning.
Until recently, expecting efficiency and professionalism in the workplace was a normal standard. Now, thanks to the warping of the woke mind virus, it is a sign of white supremacy. It also is subtle bigotry, implying non-whites lack the capacity to be professional and have “100% follow-through.”
Harassed by Reality
San Antonio has even injected this infection into its harassment policies. Such policies were originally supposed to eliminate hostile work environments. But statists have mutated and weaponized them to further divide, excommunicate, and indoctrinate those who do not ascribe to woke values.
Instead of merely protecting people from being judged on the basis of their immutable characteristics, San Antonio has decided to include “gender identity and gender expression harassment” under its purview. These are terms associated with the abusive medical procedures of gender mutilation and hormone manipulation, which Texas Scorecard covered in a previous five part investigative series. Based on research of the San Antonio records obtained in the course of this current series, it is clear the city’s public servants are advancing an anti-science ideology.
The scope of San Antonio’s harassment policy is broad, encompassing “any behavior, regardless of intent or severity, that could be deemed inappropriate workplace behavior, but may not legally constitute employment discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment or gender harassment.”
Common sense and a basic acceptance of reality and human biology may cause employees to run afoul of this policy. Violating “a person’s internal, deeply-felt sense of being male, female, or something other or in-between, regardless of the sex they were assigned at birth” is gender identity harassment and grounds for an investigation. If someone feels something strongly, regardless of whether this feeling is rooted in reality, you are required to submit to their feelings.
Furthermore, the policy specifies that the “refusal of managers, supervisors, co-workers and/or other employees to address individuals in a manner consistent with their expressed gender preference will not be tolerated and will be considered discrimination and/or harassment.”
If a biological man identifies as a woman, you must adjust to his way of thinking. Reality ceases to exist. Two plus two may equal four, but if the woke overlords insist that two plus two make five, you must comply, or risk being called insane—or worse.
The policy further stipulates that “all City employees shall have access to use City restroom facilities corresponding to their gender identity or gender expression. The employee decides which restroom facility to use.” This policy also promotes a hostile work environment, and exposes women to risk of assault. In 2021, it was widely reported that a teen boy in Loudoun County, Virginia, raped a ninth-grade girl in the women’s restroom. He identified as female and wore a skirt at the time.
Follow the Money
The consequences of bad ideas can be monetary, and in theory could be rooted out when losses become too steep. Other times, bad ideas are pursued regardless of the cost, monetary or otherwise. Such initiatives have limited lifespan in the private sector, where businesses have to compete for revenue. But in government, which has the power to tax, cost is of very little concern for elected public servants.
Since the spread of the woke mind virus is a priority for the left, government is the perfect petri dish to ensure that divide, excommunicate, and indoctrinate infects the next generation.
In San Antonio, all city departments are instructed to explain how they’re spending taxpayer monies to further the left’s woke vision, instead of providing core services to citizens. They must show “how their budgets benefit communities of color, women, and low-income communities.” This is because budgets are no longer tools for planning how to spend taxpayers’ money, and forecasting financial results. In San Antonio, “the budget is a moral document.” An odd claim considering women employees are mandated exposed to accept risk of assault in workplace restrooms.
Texas Scorecard sent inquiries about DEI to Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Councilmember John Courage, and asked why city council was creating a hostile work environment. In response, Nirenberg’s office doubled down on their DEI agenda.
The City of San Antonio is committed to providing an equitable and inclusive environment for all applicants and employees in accordance with federal and state law. The City of San Antonio has equal employment opportunity policies and procedures in place prohibiting discrimination based on race, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, disability, and veteran status. We are a city ever striving to provide economic equity through housing options as well as equity in our services including healthcare opportunities and emergency services.
While the landscape can be challenging at times with a myriad of considerations, we are determined to support the interests of all in our San Antonio in all of its diverse beauty.
San Antonio isn’t the only city to rack up expenses for their leftist proposals and make taxpayers foot the bill. In central Texas, the city of Georgetown paid Dorinda Rolle, president of Rolle and Associates, $11,000 of taxpayers’ money in 2021 alone to facilitate so-called “diversity live trainings”.
Rolle’s company “is a management consulting and training firm.” Among its offerings are DEI workshops. Rolle’s clients for her consulting work include the U.S. Air Force Band, the City of San Antonio, and H-E-B, among other organizations.
Among the records obtained from the city was a list of “50 Potential Privileges in the Workplace.” Included in this list are:
- “You are male.”
- “You are white.”
- “You’re rarely, if ever, late to work or miss work because of a child’s illness or family emergency.”
- “English is your first language.”
- “You’ve never been arrested, incarcerated, or charged with a criminal offense.”
- “If you’re working in the United States, you were born there, or you’re a citizen.”
Texas Scorecard reached out to Dorinda Rolle for comment, and to learn more about the training she provided. “During your investigation I am sure you did not see any place where I referenced the term ‘DEI’ in writing or verbally. Because you have a copy of my training materials, you would also have noted the training I presented was focused on ‘Achieving Organizational Excellence with Diversity and Inclusion,’” she stated in an email. “I will refer you to the City of Georgetown to ask them how my work contributed to this list of ‘Potential Privileges’ as that was not the focus or objective of the training.”
She wrote that further questions about the training should be directed to city public servants.
Texas Scorecard contacted Georgetown Mayor Josh Schroeder. He denied responsibility for the training. “We had no idea that this was going on … [city] council had no idea any of this was going on, [and the] city manager really had no idea this was going on,” he said. “Our former HR director contracted with a consultant.”
Rolle said the city was well aware of her actions. “Everything presented during those virtual trainings was requested, edited by, and approved by the [City of Georgetown] prior to presentation.”
Schroeder said he first heard about the “50 Potential Privileges” list from city firefighters who contacted him. “They went through the training kind of under objection. … They actually said the training itself wasn’t nearly as bad as she kind of indicated that it was going to be, but that training has not and will not happen again.”
We’re not letting that into Georgetown, Texas, I can guarantee you.
During the interview, Schroeder revealed how the DEI virus could sneak into an organization unsuspectingly. He said the city had acquired the training to address certain personnel issues. “The whole reason that the training was occurring [was] we’ve got female firefighters, male firefighters, female police officers, male police officers, and they all need to be respectful towards each other.”
Gospel of Grievance
Some of the most influential leaders, both during and long before the civil rights era, would have taken serious issue with the modern DEI agenda and its worship of equity.
Booker T. Washington was born a slave, and was freed with his family at the age of nine. He worked at the salt mines early each morning before school. When he heard of a new school in Hampton for former slaves, he traveled on foot for 500 miles and enrolled. He was a brilliant student, and eventually started his own school for black Americans, called The Tuskegee Institute, where black Americans learned practical and industrial trades. This school, which is now known as Tuskegee University, transformed the lives of hundreds of former slaves, equipping them with the practical skills they would need in order to succeed in a free society. Despite the actual systemic oppression Washington faced throughout his life, he became the most accomplished black American of his day. In 1901, becoming the first to be invited to dine in the White House with President Theodore Roosevelt (R).
Washington’s philosophy was strikingly different from the leftist champions of “racial equity” today. Despite the truly discriminatory circumstances in which he lived, Washington was not dismayed by the lower status of black Americans living in the South after the Civil War. “No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top,” he said. “Nor should we permit our grievances to overshadow our opportunities.”
Under the watch of Texans’ public servants, Texas institutions have abandoned the ideals of freedom and opportunity—principles which have laid the groundwork for the most astonishing successes the world has ever seen—in favor of the gospel of grievance. It would be expected that in New York or California there would be proselytization of divisive doctrines to children in schools, and employees at work in the name of fighting “racism,” and these would be funded with taxpayer dollars.
But this woke insurgency is being brought to Texas by local officials who regularly bleat to the state Legislature and the voters their demands for “local control.” In the past, they hiked property taxes under this banner. In 2020, they revealed that “local control” actually means local tyranny. Now, they are abusing their power to spread colorism and oppression. This will not create a unified society. Putting the same ill-fitting shoe on the other foot will not cure gangrene.
In Part 4, Texas Scorecard will examine the woke DEI infestation within the Texas State Library.
