Gerth: White Kentucky politician who opposes DEI tells NAACP: ‘My father was a slave’
State Rep. Jennifer Decker went before the Shelbyville Area NAACP a week and a half ago and gave its members some pretty startling news.
Decker is a white, 68-year-old lawyer who is trying to prohibit state colleges and universities from offering diversity programs aimed at helping African Americans and other underrepresented students.
“My father was a slave, just to a white man and he was white,” Decker said before the predominantly Black audience.
Decker’s father was a white preacher. He was born sometime around 1933 – that was 68 years after the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery.
It was a moment that, in many ways, proved how badly diversity, equity and inclusion programs – this year’s chosen bogeyman of Kentucky’s right-wing politicians – are needed in Kentucky’s schools.
Such diversity programs weren’t around when Decker was in school.
If they had been, she might have learned that few white people in America, short of those who have been trafficked for sex, should ever claim something like that. It’s deeply offensive to those who are descendants of actual slaves to hear a white person claim that they are a descendent of a slave.
Heck, it’s offensive to me and I’m as white as Decker.
It really is difficult to compare the life of a white person in the mid-20th century with the atrocities that white people in America did to Black people before the Civil War.
Here’s how this craziness started.
Decker said the NAACP invited her to speak to them on Feb. 1 about House Bill 9 – the bill she sponsored along with 19 other lily-white Republicans – to stop schools from offering educational opportunities and programs based on race.
She also threw in sex, national origin and religious beliefs. But make no mistake about this − it’s all about race.
During her presentation, she spoke as if the only purpose of what are called “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, is to increase Black enrollment.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. At the University of Kentucky, the diversity, equity and inclusion office operates a program to help students with disabilities; it provides counseling for students who have been harmed by racism, and other services.
The school’s Disability Resources Center offers a wide range of services from providing transportation to helping the deaf and hearing impaired to helping students with food allergies and celiac disease.
The program at UK offers organizations for employees that are based on race, place of origin, sexual orientation, religion and disability. The diversity program even operates an organization for employees who are veterans.
The counseling program to deal with trauma caused by racism is offered through the same counseling center that helps students who are struggling with all kinds of issues – not just race or sexual orientation – that can affect college students.
It also works to incorporate unconscious bias training for employees and DEI learning modules into some of its entry-level classes.
Outrageous stuff, huh?
And racism and discrimination goes on at UK. It was just last school year that a drunken student attacked a resident assistant at UK’s Boyd Hall and repeatedly called her the “n-word.” Following that, UK sank more money into its diversity program.
At the University of Louisville, they offer the same sorts of programs, including the Muhammad Ali Institute for Peace and Social Justice.”
Oh, the horror!
By the way, I can’t find anything that suggests a white male, straight Christian wouldn’t be allowed to take part in these programs, except for obtaining scholarships.
But anyway, according to an audio recording of the meeting provided to The Courier Journal, during a question-and-answer session, someone asked Decker if her family played any role in the slave trade.
“My father was born on a dirt farm in Lincoln County. His mother was the illegitimate daughter of a very prominent person who then was kind enough to allow them to work for him as slaves. So, if you’re asking, did we own slaves? My father was a slave, just to a white man and he was white,” Decker responded.
It got me wondering what in the world she was talking about.
So, I tracked down Decker before she went onto the House Floor Friday morning and began to ask about her comments about her father.
“Irrelevant, irrelevant.” she said. “My father’s past poverty is a great equalizer.”
I didn’t quite understand that, so I tried a different tack and asked her how she defines slavery.
“Irrelevant,” was her answer again.
Slavery is irrelevant?
“Well, it’s not irrelevant,” she said. “No. It’s not irrelevant what slavery is, but it’s shifting the focus from what we’re talking about.”
Then I told her that claiming a white man, in the middle of the 20th century, was a slave was weird and that I was just trying to understand what she was talking about at the NAACP meeting.
“Well, my father was born into poverty. There was a very influential man who allowed them property and then they worked on it,” she said. She added that they weren’t paid by the farmer.
It sounded like a tenant farmer operation to me. Certainly not a way to make a fortune but far from what slaves endured.
She then said that she “probably overstated. Was I saying that it was kidnapping and abuse the same as the slaves? No.”
But why was he working for no pay?
“He was a child and his family all worked there,” she said.
So, Decker’s father was forced by his parents to do chores? And that was what made him a “slave?”
I suppose any of us who washed dishes, cut grass or took out the garbage were "slaves" according to Decker's definition.
What’s stunning about this is both at the NAACP and when I spoke with her, Decker fell back on the notion that her family found its way out of poverty through education.
I don’t doubt that. That’s how many families escape poverty.
What’s sad is that Decker, a white lawyer, and 19 of her white Republican coworkers are making it more difficult for Black families that really are descendants of enslaved people to get the same sort of education.
Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: White Kentucky representative tells NAACP her father was a slave
