America’s first Muslim congressperson and now first and only Muslim State Attorney General Keith Ellison (D-MN), self-proclaimed White man and fighter for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) Tim Wise, and African-Filipino Tennessee State Representative and member of the Tennessee Three Justin Jones provided a series of stinging but informative and instructive quotes on defending efforts to kill DEI programs in the United States.

The three spoke during a panel discussion at the NetsRoots Nation, the progressive movement’s annual conference.

“They are trying to resegregate our country to the way it was before the 1964 Civil Rights Act,” proclaimed Ellison, chief legal officer for his state. He labeled the 303 Creative Supreme Court ruling allowing Lori Smith to claim the right to free expression when refusing to create wedding websites for LGBTQ+ couples as “Jim Crow segregation for gay people.” He predicted that by 2027, other court cases will claim that other inclusion laws are also in “violation of (a person’s) right to free expression.”

DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is the “new N-word,” proclaimed Wise. He reminded the audience in Baltimore that back in March Republicans tucked into the $1.2 trillion government funding bill a provision that shut down the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

The much sought after speaker also recalled how social media posts tagged Afro-topped Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott as the DEI mayor after the Francis Scot Bridge collapsed. Scott told the Baltimore Banner, “Whether it is DEI or clown. They really want to say the N-word. But there is nothing they can do and say to me that is worse than the treatment of my ancestors. I am proud of who I am and where I come from.”

Weeks later, Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) called Vice President Harris a DEI hire. Many people believe that DEI “is very cruelly unfair to mediocre White men,” explained groundbreaking tech start-up entrepreneur Cheryl Contee when introducing the panel.

The youngest on the set, Jones, had much to share. He recalled how a hostile colleague Tennessee State Senator Jack Johnson welcomed him to the state capitol building, “I want you to know you are worthless and don’t belong here.” The Fisk University graduate says he was glad Johnson clarified himself, which made him realize that “I am not here to make friends.”

“They use our state houses as laboratories. We were the first state to pass a ban on drag shows, the first to pass divisive contraceptive bans, to pass voter ID, the most restrictive form of voter ID, and the most restrictive anti-abortion law,” added Jones, who represents Nashville. “If you want to know what Project 2025 is, Look at Tennessee 2024,” he said without missing a beat.

“I have been White for a long time. I have been 55 years in this skin,” Wise added to the pleasure of the activist audience. He spelled out to the conventioneers that you can be “White and you can be as progressive as the day is long,” but that does not mean “you know that race is the background noise of everything that happens in this country.”

He said White kids don’t have to feel bad about knowing their true history if society taught them about Whites who were on the correct side of history, such as Reverend John Gregg Fee, founder of Berea College, who the Presbyterian church defrocked for refusing to preach to enslavers. “You let children know they have a choice to make. They can choose collaboration and accommodation, or they can choose resistance.”

All three called for unity, reminding people that words such as the N-word, busing, and cutting taxes - - which means Blacks will suffer more - - are dog whistles to maintain the current racial hierarchy. Ellis concluded, “If they can keep us looking at each other suspiciously, they can maintain power structures over us all.”

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Note:  Jones, Wise, and panel moderator and critical race theory scholar Kimberle Crenshaw will also participate in The African American Policy fifth annual CRT Summer School — Freedom Summer 2024: No U-Turn on Racial Justice — coming to Nashville, Tennessee and online.