Musk says DEI is ‘just another word for racism,’ mirroring Florida’s crackdown on measures

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk blasted diversity, equity and inclusion requirements, also known as DEI, on social media in response to the resignation of former Harvard President Claudine Gay.

“DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it,” Musk said.

Gay resigned from her position at the Ivy League institution following backlash about potential plagiarism violations she committed on her academic citations, as well as political attacks for supposed antisemitic remarks.

Gov. Ron DeSantis commented on the resignation during an Iowa campaign rally.

“What it shows is there is an intellectual and moral rot on America’s university campuses now,” DeSantis said. “Universities are supposed to be about the pursuit of truth, supposed to be about academic integrity and they’re supposed to be about preparing our students to be citizens of our republic.”

“And yet, in recent years, over many decades, but I think it’s gotten a lot worse over the last 10 or 15 years, these universities have really indulged in ideological indoctrination,” he said.

The governor then asked the crowd how many Republicans have actually done something about DEI and left wing ideology on college campuses.

“In Florida, we’ve done stuff about it,” he said afterwards. “We eliminated so-called DEI from our public universities.”

“They say it’s diversity, equity and inclusion, but it’s really a whole ideological view to try and impose an agenda of social justice onto the university,” he added.

Other Florida Republicans praised Gay’s resignation from Harvard, including U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

“Good, but not enough. @Harvard still plans to keep her on faculty. That’s not okay,” Scott said on social media. “People who embrace Hamas terrorism and refuse to condemn anti-Semitism have NO PLACE at American universities, and she should be fired.”

Donalds explained on Fox Across America that Gay had to “finally pay the personal responsibility of her actions.”

SB 266, signed by DeSantis in May, eliminated DEI measures in higher education and established standards for core courses.

“We’re going to elevate merit and achievement above identification with certain groups, and in order to do that, we had to look at this new concept called diversity, equity and inclusion,” DeSantis said during the bill signing.

“DEI is better viewed as standing for ‘discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,’ and that has no place in our public institutions,” DeSantis said.