BEATRICE – Some state lawmakers, clearly fed up with what they see as fear stoked over the phrase diversity, equity and inclusion…took to the floor of the legislature Tuesday to push back on a colleague’s description of what he described as a “DEI hire”.


Senator George Dungan calls it the latest acronym used to scare people, such as C-R-T and S-E-L.
"There's nothing wrong, with making sure folks are included. If you thing back to when you were a kid, if you didn't get picked for a game, you felt bad. When you think back to when you wanted to join in with a group of people and they didn't want you there, you felt bad. Inclusion is not something to be ashamed of, but there's been this larger over-arching crusade against the idea of DEI, because it's a wedge issue to scare people. DEI is not the idea that we're just hiring people willy-nilly because of some reason to try to fill a spot, in a job. DEI has its roots in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement."


Senator Ashlei Spivey, who is black, challenged Senator Loren Lippincott whose e-mail or newsletter was at issue,,, about what is a “DEI hire”.


(Spivey).."Can you please explain, ideally in a minute or less...what you mean by a DEI hire..what do you understand that to mean? (Lippincott)..."Well, you'd have to ask the individual who said it...that was told to me on the telephone by an ATC (Air Traffic) Controller...out of Cleveland." (Spivey)..."You repeated it, though, in your letter...to say that that person that you are naming was a DEI hire? So, are you saying that someone is saying something do you and you repeat it, and you don't know what it means?..(Lippincott)..What he inferred was that individual was not doing a very good job."


With a legislature that has a larger diversity presence this year than in recent memory, Senator Megan Hunt said being diverse, equitable and inclusive shouldn’t be something to fear.


"All this whining about DEI, CRT, Woke, Affirmative Action, political correctness through my entire lifetime, is just another attempt to put black people and people of color in their proper place. What is it about diversity, equity and inclusion...that is so scary or harmful? Maybe you say it's...oh, we don't want people to be elevated to positions of power who haven't earned it. We want everything to be merit-based. Well, look around you in the world. Look around you at the people in this country and the people who've been raised to positions of power in this legislature. Do you think you're all here based on your merit?"


The pointed discussion took place at the beginning of Tuesday floor debate as legislators were considering a motion to withdraw a bill that proposed changing boundaries of certain community college areas.