You can keep your woke DEI initiatives. In Texas, the governor thinks people should be hired on merit, not skin color or quotas. A top aide in Governor Abbott’s office signed a memo stating that is illegal for state agencies and universities to consider “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) in employment. Any deference to “forbidden DEI initiatives” violates anti-discrimination laws by favoring “some demographic groups to the detriment of others.”

As Texans, we celebrate the diversity of our State and the presence of a workforce that represents our rich culture. In recent years, however, the innocuous-sounding notion of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has been manipulated to push policies that expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others. Indeed, rather than increasing diversity in the workplace, these DEI initiatives are having the opposite effect and are being advanced in ways that proactively encourage discrimination in the workplace. Illegally adding DEI requirements as a screening tool in hiring practices or using DEI as a condition of employment leads to the exclusion and alienation of individuals from the workplace.

In other words, just because you are discriminating against white people or men doesn’t mean it still isn’t discrimination. Identity box-checking is a form of discrimination, too. Hiring on merit is the way to get the most qualified employee, which should be the goal, not filling quotas. We already did that once. It was called Affirmative Action. It was a mixed bag, at best.

The memo was a one-page letter and it was sent to the Employees Retirement System of Texas. Other letters were sent to other agencies on Monday. DEI initiatives are also not to be used when starting a new department or office in state agencies. The memo is characterized as a little short on specific details.

Pate did not explain what demographic groups he believed receive special treatment; did not detail the exact state or federal laws being broken; nor outline what specific employment practices would be off the table. But he said it’s illegal “when a state agency spends taxpayer dollars to fund offices, departments, or employee positions dedicated to promoting forbidden DEI initiatives.”

One law school professor said the memo demonizes DEI, conflating it with illegal hiring quotas.

“He’s characterizing DEI as something it never purported to be,” said Maslanka, who specializes in employment law. “He’s using (the memo) to characterize it as something unlawful and rigid, when really it is aspirational and fluid.”

“Aspirational and fluid.” How woke. We’re talking about hiring employees for state agencies and universities. The governor’s office is reminding everyone that potential employees should be hired on the merits of their experience and education. It’s a reminder that in hiring decisions, equity quotas are illegal, according to state and federal law.

Some public universities have been sued over practices aimed at increasing diversity but discriminate against white people, Asians, and men. Two lawsuits are being handled by America First Legal, a conservative nonprofit led by former Trump administration officials. It must be a bad thing then, right? (sarcasm)

In December, a college professor sued Texas A&M University, alleging it was using “discriminatory, illegal, and anti-meritocratic practices” in its faculty fellowship program aimed at boosting diversity, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit noted that the program discriminates against white and Asian men, preventing the University of Texas finance professor “from competing with other applicants for these faculty positions on an equal basis.”

The faculty hiring program — which fell under Texas A&M’s Accountability, Climate, Equity, and Scholarship (ACES) Faculty Fellows Program — exclusively targeted “new mid-career and senior tenure-track hires from underrepresented minority groups, that contribute to moving the structural composition of our faculty towards parity with that of the State of Texas,” according to an email sent out to deans.

During the fall semester of 2021, about 60% of the university’s faculty was white. Nearly 14% was international, only about 10% was Asian or Pacific Islander, about 6% was Latino and less than 4% was Black.

Merit and talent should be determining factors for advancement. Whatever happened to judging people on the content of their character, not the color of their skin?