Outkick founder Clay Travis: “We have more issues of fake racism in America today than we do instances of actual racism”
Travis: “I'm opposed to everything except diversity of thought, which is the only diversity that matters”
Published
Citation From the March 5, 2024, edition of OutKick's OutKick The Show
CLAY TRAVIS (HOST): Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in my opinion, as it is applied today, is actually foundational racism.
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TRAVIS: I'm opposed to everything except diversity of thought which is the only diversity that matters. Equity. Equity is BS. I believe in equality of opportunity. I believe the United States should treat all people white, Black, Asian, Hispanic, gay, straight, male, female, the same under the law. There is a reason why Lady Justice is blind. Equity doesn't do that, equity tries to give artificial versions of success based on what we think society should look like. Equity is the opposite of everything that Steven A. does is talk about sports. We don't want equity in sports. We want inequality. Somebody is trying to be better than somebody else, we don't want everybody to be even.
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TRAVIS: If you were born like I was around 1980, and you went to public school like I did, starting at around 1985, in Nashville, Tennessee, I don't think you were treated any different if you were white, Black, Asian, or Hispanic. I graduated from a school named after MLK. Our principal was a Black woman. I had tons of Black teachers. I had tons of Black classmates. Not really any Hispanic classmates at the time. I don't know what the public schools would look like in Nashville now. But we didn't have a huge Hispanic population, a lot of Asian kids at my school. I think everybody was treated the exact same, I really do. And I think I would've had the exact same measure of success if I were Black, Asian, Hispanic or white. I believe that America, historically, has had all sorts of issues of racism. By the time I went to school, I think we have more issues of fake racism in America today than we do actual racism. And I think if you were raised in the 90s like I was and if you were raised in the early 2000s like I was, I think that we have gone backwards on race relations since those days because of the principles of DEI. Now if you are 70 or 80 years old and you are watching me now or you are older and grew up in a Jim Crow era, you grew up in a pre-Civil rights America, your experience is different than mine and I don't begrudge the decisions that were made to address those clear wrongs. But at some point you moved from trying to address wrongs to embracing racism by trying to argue it favors others. This is why I'm opposed to reparations, this why I'm opposed to affirmative action, this is why I'm opposed to diversity and equity in the name of race.
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TRAVIS: And so I'm happy to debate Stephen A. Smith anywhere. I don't think he's successful because he's Black. I think he's successful because he's talented. Which is how the meritocracy should work. There are other Black guys that got great opportunities at ESPN. I think Bomani Jones is a good example. Dude failed in radio, failed in TV, failed in premium TV, has never been able to create an audience, keeps getting promoted because he's a Black guy, that's DEI.
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TRAVIS: In fact, if you actually want to apply DEI, you're going to have to fire a bunch of Black dudes. Because guess what? The basketball team that represents the United States is all Black. The best players in the country are Black. But if we wanted the DEI basketball team to perfectly represent racial difference in America, you'd have to fire a bunch of Black dudes.
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TRAVIS: Since the Great Society, the Black family has been destroyed such that I believe the data is now, only about 25% of Black kids grow up with a mom and a dad in a household. Why is that? I think it's because of policies like DEI that actually claim to help when in reality they push down overall success.