White Kentucky State Representative Shuts Down DEI Initiative While Referencing Her Father As A’Slave’ During NAACP Meeting

...What does that have to do with DEI?

State Rep. Jennifer Decker (R-KY) proclaimed that her white father was a slave during a meeting with a local NAACP chapter.

The audacious lawmaker sat before the Shelbyville Area NAACP chapter in early February to discuss an anti-DEI bill she and 19 other colleagues were supporting. When asked if her family played any role in the slave trade, the 68-year-old politician decided to give an inside look into her life.

“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,” she said. “So, if you’re asking, did we own slaves? My father was a slave, just to a white man, and he was white.”

Reporter Joseph Gerth tracked Decker down after the meeting to get a thorough understanding of her comments. The journalist told the legislator that holding on to a claim that a white man was a slave well after the 13th Amendment abolished slavery was “weird.”

So, she decided to break it down further. “Well, my father was born into poverty. There was a very influential man who allowed them property, and then they worked on it,” Decker said. She added that they weren’t paid by the farmer.

Gerth, also white, said he was offended by her remarks. He said that Decker spoke about the purpose of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts during her speech, describing their sole purpose as increasing Black enrollment. However, those programs do so much more and are not solely focused on race.

At the University of Kentucky, the DEI office helps students with disabilities, provides counseling services for students harmed by racism, and more. Unconscious bias training is also available for employees, and DEI learning modules are incorporated into entry-level courses.

HB 9 was filed to dissolve departments and staff positions related to DEI in Kentucky’s public colleges and universities. “HB 9 would ensure the postsecondary system in Kentucky is held accountable to dismantle the failed and misguided DEI bureaucracies that have made college more divided, more expensive, and less tolerant,” Decker said.

Under the legislation, all said programs that promote what is described as “discriminatory concepts” would be dissolved by June 30. The Council on Postsecondary Education would also be required to “remove the ‘equity’ priority” from strategic plans and initiatives, including diversity plans and cultural competency certification programs.

With the Shelbyville NAACP chapter being a key component in combating racism in the state, the comments could be looked at as inappropriate. In 2021, the chapter and the Shelbyville Community Remembrance Project Coalition collaborated on efforts to remember six Black men who were killed by lynch mobs between 1878 to 1911 in Shelby County. Three blue and gold markers were placed in downtown Shelbyville honoring Reuben Dennis, Sam Pulliam, Clarence Garnett, Jimbo Fields, Wade Patterson, and Eugene Marshall–who were hung from the railroad bridge near the tracks.