Gill Opens Hearing on Combating DEI in American Institutions

WASHINGTON-Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses Chairman Brandon Gill (R-Texas) delivered his opening statement at today's hearing on "Combating DEI in American Institutions." In his opening remarks, Task Force Chairman Gill pointed out that modern DEI goes against the efforts of civil rights leaders to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all and actively fuels discrimination in schools and workplaces. He also urged Congress and witnesses to find ways to end this harmful ideology that leads to unlawful discrimination.

Below are Task Force Chairman Gill's remarks as prepared for delivery:

Good morning and welcome to today's hearing before the Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses on the discriminatory, harmful, and often illegal nature of so-called "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" or "DEI" policies.

DEI is, by its very nature, an affront to the principles and ideals that define our great nation and a rejection of the progress our predecessors made in ensuring civil rights protections for all Americans.

Our forefathers fought and died to ensure that this country would be a place where every person has the opportunity to achieve great things as the fruit of his or her own talents and hard work.

Civil rights leaders of the 1950s and 1960s fought tirelessly in the pursuit of these same principles.

To ensure that Americans would "not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Today DEI has become a euphemism for a Marxist ideology which seeks to undo those very efforts by civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King and his contemporaries.

DEI represents a conscious effort to specifically judge people by the color of their skin and other immutable characteristics.

Not only is this an utterly disgusting and racist ideology, but it is also a clear violation of the Constitution and federal law.

Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 clearly prohibits unlawful employment practices that discriminate against an individual "because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

And the Supreme Court ruled in a 2023 case that the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution prohibits racial discrimination in college admissions practices.

Meanwhile, DEI policies embody racist and stereotypical attitudes harbored by the left toward groups that these policies purport to benefit.

Do Democrats believe that people they would categorize as "diverse" do not possess the skills to succeed in our country without quotas and preferential treatment?

Apparently, yes. We know this because the mask slips and they admit this explicitly.

New York Governor and Democrat Kathy Hochul patronizingly claimed in 2024 that, quote, "Black kids growing up in the Bronx [] don't even know what the word computer is."

I guess if you believe that nonsense then DEI makes more sense.

It isn't just prominent Democrat politicians.

Some of the largest American companies bought into this absurdity.

For instance, companies such as Macy's, BlackRock, Starbucks, Disney, Google, Amazon, among others, in recent history instituted aggressive DEI policies.

In higher education, institutions have, in open defiance of the Supreme Court, merely rebranded their racist DEI practices while continuing to seek out novel means to racially categorize and then discriminate against individuals.

To combat this, the Trump Administration has taken historic action to enforce federal civil rights law and ensure all citizens are protected from discrimination.

Despite this bold stance against discriminatory practices, I am concerned that the DEI proponents in industry and academia are just biding their time.

The behavior of the Radical Left indicates that DEI is not truly eradicated from our society, but merely lying dormant and licking its wounds until it has an opportunity to rise again.

If the Left does not abandon this obsession, where will that lead our country?

I look forward to a discussion today on how we can work toward a society that has eradicated insidious discrimination under the guise of DEI.