In his own words: Corey Simon before voting to ax diversity, inclusion efforts in higher ed

Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, represents the faculty and students of two state universities and a community college in the Florida Legislature.

Many of them were in the audience Wednesday when the Higher Education Committee approved SB 266, a prohibition on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, known as DEI, in college and university curriculums. It also requires schools to eliminate majors or minors in critical race theory and gender studies, forbids the use of DEI metrics when hiring, and allows for the post-tenure review of faculty at any time with cause.

Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami, accused Republicans of trying to hijack higher education and called the bill a farce. Faculty, students, and parents warned lawmakers the proposal would lead professors and students to flee the state.

Supporters of the bill, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, maintain programs like DEI are "discriminatory" and make "political viewpoints" a condition of hiring, promotion or admissions.

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It was a key vote for Simon, who was recruited by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year to run for the Florida Senate and he flipped a district in November Democrats had held for more than 100 years.

He called on his constituents to appreciate "nuance" as the key to understanding the political process and to avoid name-calling, which often ends discussions.

The following is edited for brevity and clarity 

Sen. Corey Simon in debate of SB 266, March 16, 2023:

"I am a young Black man, I still consider myself young at 46, from Pompano Beach, Florida, on the other side of Dixie Highway that doesn't always get a chance to see differently, experienced different things.

And to many folks I've had an opportunity to make it out. This is a much more nuanced conversation.  The unfortunate thing about politics and how heated it has gotten is that nuance gets lost.  It gets lost for the folks that come up here to talk with their legislature. It gets lost oftentimes from the legislature.

I say all that, to say this.

Sen. Jones and I have become great friends. We work well together. I sit down and I pick his brain because I think he is exceptionally smart and understands the system. And as a freshman senator coming here, I think there's a lot to learn from him.

I can appreciate him and what he brings to the table because he speaks for a lot of us.

We don't always agree. The difference when we start to talk about diversity is he can walk into his neighborhood, and he can voice his opinion and I can walk into his neighborhood, and I can voice my opinion.

If my opinion differs from his, he is seen as a strong Black man standing up for the cause. And if I differ, if I provide a diverse opinion to his, I am seen as all of the names that you have heard Black men that don't succumb to the same thought process as others.  I've heard the Uncle Tom's. I've heard all of the other ones over the years.

So, when we talk about diversity, are we only talking about diversity in the things that we agree with? Or does everybody have a voice? Does everybody have a chance to speak?

Let's think about all the students that wouldn't come up and voice their opinion if they agree with this because their university campuses will look at them harshly and they will define them as racist or other things and they just have a difference of opinion, a diversity of opinion.

That's what has been created. If a student disagrees, now they have to defend why they're not racist. The quickest way to shut down debate and dissent in conversation – and folks in the political space understand this – is to label someone.

Because now, they cannot actually argue for ways to fix the issue. They have to defend something that they never even thought had to be defended.  They're put on the defense. The minute you call someone racist, the conversation stops. And we have used this as our dog whistle. It gets us all fired up.

We can be better. We have to be better. There is a generational divide and I get it.

Listen, I've gone through my district, and I've had these conversations over and over again. And there is a generation of my elders that I understand the life that they had to live and the choices that they've had to bear, and the things that they had to deal with. And I empathize with those.

And I carry some of those very same burdens. But it's the emotional intelligence, of being able to come down and actually see where we are, not where we were but where we are.

We have to be better. And if that's not what's going on on our university campuses, if that's not the discussion that is happening on our campuses, then we are doing it wrong.

I don't want to tell you what to think. I want you to discover how to think. That's what I think should be going on on our campuses."

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Corey Simon on effort to ban diversity, equity and inclusion in Florida