Emmett Smith and the NAACP have just handed UF President Ben Sasse a golden opportunity: Not only to get himself out from under The Great DeSanitizer’s (TGDS’s) increasingly toxic shadow, but to begin to emerge as the consequential leader that Florida’s Flagship University deserves.
You might say the ball is in Sasse’s court now.
When Sasse dissolved UF’s DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness) Office, Emmitt Smith, one of the most celebrated and accomplished Black athletes ever to play on Florida Field, reacted with disgust and urged existing UF athletes of color to make their objections known.
“I’m utterly disgusted by UF’s decision and the precedent that it sets,” Smith wrote. “We cannot continue to believe and trust that a team of leaders all made up of the same background will make the right decision when it comes to equality and diversity. History has already proven that is not the case. We need diverse thinking and backgrounds to enhance our University and the DEI department is necessary to accomplish those goals.”
That was soon followed by a missive from the NAACP urging Black college athletes to reconsider playing for universities that have abandoned DEI.
“If any institution is to reap the benefits of Black talent, it is only right that they completely invest in Black futures,” wrote NAACP leaders Leon Russell and Derrick Johnson. “This is not simply about sports; it’s about acknowledging and advocating for the rights and supports of Black students within educational environments.”
Johnson told the web news site frontofficesports, “The value Black, and other college athletes bring to large universities is unmatched. If these institutions are unable to completely invest in those athletes, it’s time they take their talents elsewhere.”
Good luck to Billy Napier next season if some of his most talented players decide to take up the NAACP’s challenge.
But it doesn’t have to come to that if Sasse steps up and does the right thing.
The Great DeSanitizer’s prohibition on DEI says UF can’t spend state or federal money on DEI programs. UF has a Foundation with $2.5 billions in assets. Its Athletic Association is a $500 million enterprise. And we know there are Bull Gators out there willing to pledge millions of dollars for NIL payments to athletes. Bet they could also muster up some extra cash to help keep Black players from jumping the flagship as well.
Still, UF has a responsibility not just to hang on to Black athletes, but to assist all students who don’t fit comfortably into the university’s white majority mainstream.
UF’s DEI Office cost about $5 million a year to run. That’s chump change in the big bucks world of college sports.
Listen, if Sasse doesn’t want to alienate the anti-Ron he doesn’t even have to call his reinstated office DEI. Hell, he can call it the Office Of Making Folks Feel Welcome At UF if he wants. So long as its staffers continue to do what they do best…whatever’s needed to help students of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds succeed here.
And here’s the thing, Ben.
The Great DeSanitizer is clearly in eclipse. His presidential campaign is a bust, and he can’t run for reelection. Hence, not even once slavish Republican legislators are going out of their way to appease their Demagogue In Chief these days.
And we already know that words matter more than substance to TGDS. Every time the guy opens his mouth “woke” spews out. And after all this time, nobody even knows that the hell “woke” means.
Listen, even the Guv’s celebrated “Don’t say gay” law has now been negotiated down to near meaninglessness in a legal settlement.
Apparently even Florida educators are entitled under the First Amendment To The United States Constitution to talk about things like gender, sexual orientation, acceptance and the like.
And get this: Having made that concession, TGDS still claimed the settlement was a major win.
So let him have his victory.
So long as nobody in Tigert Hall actually utters the damnable words “Diversity,” “Equity” or “Inclusion” out loud, UF can do whatever it pleases to help minority students feel a part of this Gator Nation.
William Jennings Bryant once compared pols like our anti-Ron to the Platte River: A mile wide and an inch deep at the mouth.
We expect our university presidents to be possessed of considerably more depth and complexity than that.
Ben Sasse has a golden opportunity to lead this Gator Nation. Will he seize it?
FreeGNV 