Yesterday, the governor of Alabama made ignorance a requirement at public universities in her state. Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB129, known as the “divisive concepts” bill, into law Wednesday. The law will become effective Oct. 1, 2024. The law lists eight so-called “divisive concepts,” with most covering topics related to race, ethnicity, sex, religion and national origin.
A dumbass Republican state senator from Pike Road, Alabama, Will Barfoot, introduced the bill. (By the way, Pike Road is not even a real town. It fought to be declared a city because a bunch of rich racist white people didn’t want to be part of the city of Montgomery, so the took Montgomery to court to keep from being part of a city that was as diverse as Montgomery.) Barfoot stated nothing in the legislation prevents the accurate teaching of history. Educators who knowingly “compel” students to believe certain banned ideas, however, could be terminated or disciplined at the discretion of college and school board leaders.
In other words, any professor could be fired for teaching diversity, education, and inclusion, or DEI. That being the case, no public institution in Alabama should be allowed to call themselves a university. The word university (from the Latin universitas meaning ‘a whole’) is derived from the Latin phrase universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means “community of teachers and scholars.” How can any institution have a “community of teachers and scholars” without teaching diversity? It’s insane, ignorant, and, above all, hateful.
I hope my undergraduate institution, which is in Montgomery, will find a way to fight or ignore the new law. It was always a liberal institution, and a core aspect of my history degree was studying the Civil Rights Movement which began in Montgomery. It’s a sad and depressing day when a university is no longer allowed to teach the “whole” of the knowledge available. Censorship like that found in SB129 is one step closer to a dictatorship.
I am ashamed of my home state. Vermont isn’t perfect either, but at least it is welcoming to all kinds of people.
And now, to bring a little levity to this discussion, I wanted to show you that at least Isabella is not scared of a little knowledge.
Joe
The Closet Professor 
March 21st, 2024 at 11:49 am
Isabella has much on her mind.
March 21st, 2024 at 3:17 pm
Sounds like the kind of state Florida has become. I don’t envy the citizens of Alabama. Thank you for posting this interesting perspective and your experience.
March 21st, 2024 at 4:03 pm
I think Alabama is jealous of the hate that permeates Florida. The saddest part is how they compete to see who can be the most awful and disgusting. Florida and Alabama are running neck to neck at the moment.
March 23rd, 2024 at 8:18 am
Isabella clearly has a better brain than those ridiculous politicians in Alabama.
Here in so-called liberal England we have our own problems with leftie politicians and academics determined to make their mark in the interests of “equality”. They forget (or prefer not to realise) that nothing is equal. If we were all the same life would be exceptionally boring. ”Vivre les differences” is my motto.
I took some glee in reminding two academics that slavery built many civilizations, including those of Greece and Rome, yet curiously neither the Greek government nor that of Italy seemed prepared to apologise for invading, bashing up and stealing from much of Europe and the Middle East over the course of many centuries.