Utah is next — NAACP backlash from anti DEI legislation

[J Rocksville]

ESPN Link

I’m guessing the NAACP is going to list Utah next. Can’t be great for a state that already has an uphill battle when it comes to recruiting diverse athletes.

[uteinzoobcounty]

I think Utah will be ok, Utah is more diverse than people think. Florida is a lawless wasteland, just treat everyone from any race, religious background, and culture like you’d wish to be treated and it’ll be fine. I’d rather live here than Florida. Utah has a different image because of the church influence, I would say the LDS Church has adapted to change better than most and I’m not part of the church. Looking outside in

[RoboUte]

Florida really is a s**thole of monumental proportions. Coming from the perspective of someone who lives outside of Utah almost no one has any idea on “the church’s” record with social issues. People do view it as a largely white and potentially very strange place, which isn’t inaccurate.

[AlohaUte]

Meh, we’ll be fine. DEI is just rampant racism in practice and should be eradicated anyway.

[UtesRule]

DEI = Doing Everything Incorrectly

STUPID stuff!

[The Miami Ute]

This is never going to work. The NAACP (and by the way, isn’t the use of the word “Colored” racist in today’s terms?) is a vestige of the past and, like a lot of organizations of its ilk, is desperately trying to maintain its relevance in an increasingly diverse, multi-racial and multi-cultural society where everything isn’t black or white. Athletes of any race, color, and creed are going to go where they perceive they’re going to get the best deal. Maybe this message worked in 1960s Alabama. It surely isn’t going to work in the Florida of 2024.

[Ute Dub]

lol. The NAACP members who wrote this letter are probably Georgia and Alabama grads.

[J Rocksville]

Regardless of our thoughts on it, it still has potential to cast a negative light on our state and institution. I think there are likely lots of people who don’t know all that much about the situation, and will take whatever spin the media and NAACP choose to put on the story.

[The Miami Ute]

I kind of doubt it. It’s one thing to get on a pulpit in states that have historically large populations of people of African descent and quite another to do so in a state that doesn’t. I mean, I don’t really understand what point you’re making. Is it that the NAACP is going to go after Utah because only two percent of its population identifies as black?

[J Rocksville]

I don’t feel like I should have to spoon feed you my point because you (you, the highly informed singular consensus) feign lack of understanding. Either you do understand the point, or you are totally clueless to how messages are disseminated through media and to the average public. More likely you do understand and just disagree with DEI programs, which is an entirely different issue but something you’re apparently passionate about enough to try and set up a straw man to debate about something tangential. At no point did I voice support of, or opposition to, DEI programs. Your opinion of them has no bearing on the topic of this thread, nor does mine.

My point is how this type of media messaging might impact potential recruits who already think Utah is as diverse as a stack of printer paper. Do you want me to explain how media spins messages in a way that the casual, un-informed or uneducated person will take? This is pretty basic stuff.

Would you at least agree that there “might” be someone that has a different opinion about Utah’s recent stance on the DEI topic? And in this hypothetical realm where someone believes or interprets something different than you, would you also agree that it “might” be possible for some of those people to be in/about/around or looking to be in/about/around our sports programs? Could it “possibly” be that those people, who “might” have a different perspective on that (not saying who’s right or wrong, but it’s probably not a deontological point amiright?), might be influenced one way or another by the national media’s messaging? Theoretically?

[The Miami Ute]

Listen, I don’t want to be mean to you, but your post has got to be one of the weirdest things I’ve read in the 18+ months I’ve been on this site. I mean, a simple cursory search would show you that no less than 31 states have enacted, have passed/waiting for signature or are in the process of passing anti-DEI legislation. That includes Texas, Florida, the entire Deep South, almost the entire Midwest (so both SEC and B1G territories), Arizona, even liberal states like Mass, New Hampshire, and Maine, etc…did you know that? It doesn’t sound like it.

Is the NAACP going to send letters to prospective athletes warning them to reconsider going to Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Texas A&M, etc…? I doubt it but. let’s say they did, what do you think the vast majority of athletes would do in that situation? I would probably say “not much”, because those guys have their eyes on getting to the NFL, NBA, and their chances of getting to those leagues lessen in a geometric manner if they bypass those programs. Lastly, if we’re talking about elite athletes of any race, creed, or color, I sincerely doubt that any of those guys, just by virtue of who they are and how athletes are catered to in this society, really have any notion of what the NAACP is talking about.

[J Rocksville]

Ya man, you’re right. It was an off the wall post. I was having a s**tty afternoon and guess I felt like hammering on my keyboard a bit. My apologies. I also didn’t intend for the topic to become political, it was more of an observation of potential national attention that might come our way.

[Extra Medium]

DEI is a scam. 100% race-baiting scam.

Get rid of it and everyone who supports it.

[UteNamedOg]

Best way to deal with it is to work on Utah being a welcoming environment to the players we want to have here: don’t be as a***ole, learn before you talk, all that good stuff.

[thewiz]

The letter referred to was sent yesterday to all current and prospective NCAA members from the NAACP President and CEO, Derrick Johnson. His letter is well written and is in response to the University of Florida’s dismantling of it’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion department to comply with Florida’s 2022 CS/HB 7, Stop WOKE Act, also known as the Individual Freedom’s Act.
The U is in the process of dismantling its Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.

During the 2024 Utah General Legislature, H.B.261 “Equal Opportunities Initiatives” was adopted into Utah law and becomes effective July 01, 2024. This law will require that the two locations of the U of U Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) be eliminated. The bill was quickly revised to protect any U of U’s agreement with the Ute Tribe negotiated prior to 2024.

If you are interested in learning about the services, programming, and events that the U of U Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion offered, you may want to visit their website soon.

To the poster who rhetorically asked about why the NAACP still uses the word “Colored” in their name, this is explained on the NAACP’s official website.

U of U Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

[Utesbyfive]

The U is not dismantling its DEI stuff. It’s renaming it and hiding it. Believe me, I’ve been in enough meetings where they throw out “hypotheticals” that are simply ways to skirt the law. Utah’s law doesn’t have the teeth that Floridas does.

[UtahPilot47]

Ultimately the courts will have a big hand in dismantling DEI. Many corporations and Universities are backing off voluntarily because many tenants of DEI preferences appear to be a violation of the 1960’s Civil Rights acts…..

[CityCreekUte]

this post almost seems like a troll.

Anyone who was going to care about this was not going to play for Utah anyway because they wouldn’t be the kind of player who “becomes us”

[Charlie]

Goodness, DEI is often simply virtue signaling, to actively promote it with departments, statements, policies has nothing to do with actual desired results. Consider the recent news coming from the Veterans Administration related to problems in their DEI department. Sadly aggressive voices promoting DEI may actually be making things worse not better. I for one feel the organic culture that is still developing is much better than mandated and often one sided divisive approaches.

Next, I think Utah offers a very much toned down and easy culture related to this issue. These concerns are not the same everywhere and Utah enjoys a situation that is quite favorable. Also, I could be pollyanna in my understanding but I don’t think this concern is high on everyone’s list, rather high on some.

Last, as for Florida, one could get the wrong impression attending a FB game at UF but Florida is an amazing place. I love the small towns and the people. I once thought California was paradise but Florida has completely taken the best costal vibe from them. The keys are unreal.