Jackson wants to be Georgia’s anti-DEI governor
Rick Jackson, a Georgia Republican billionaire and healthcare founder, is running for governor on a bold promise to wipe out DEI in state government and public education. He says he would ban DEI programs in schools, universities, and state agencies, and he has not been shy about his language. Jackson has called DEI “insanity” and even promised to criminalize reverse discrimination. That is the kind of message that gets applause from voters who are tired of bureaucrats turning every workplace into a social experiment. Jackson has also tied himself closely to President Donald Trump, saying he would be Trump’s “favorite governor” and that he has never met a Trump policy he does not like.
His nonprofit once pushed race minded workplace training
The problem for Jackson is that his own nonprofit, goBeyondProfit, promoted a DEI initiative in 2021 that sounded like it came straight out of the corporate diversity playbook. The group described itself as a resource for Georgia business leaders and launched a video series called “Leading a Thriving Workplace with Race in Mind.” The program urged CEOs to use race-conscious ideas at work, measure progress, look at racial pay gaps, and make hiring decisions with race in mind. It also offered guidance on the “do’s and don’ts” of diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is a fancy way of saying it taught companies how to play the DEI game without messing up the script.
The videos promoted anti colorblind ideology
Among the material highlighted by the initiative was a video promoting Ibram X. Kendi’s book “How To Be An Anti-Racist,” a work that critics say rejects colorblind principles and defends discrimination when it is used to chase equity. The initiative also included speakers who treated doing nothing on DEI as “cringe worthy” and tied workplace race issues to slavery and Jim Crow. One former Jackson Healthcare DEI executive, Matthew Harrison, said the share of “people of color” hired into new roles at the company rose from 9% to 25% after those diversity measures were put in place. That is not exactly the kind of result you expect from a campaign built around merit and common sense.
Jackson’s campaign says merit is the real goal
Fox News Digital asked Jackson’s campaign, Jackson Healthcare, and goBeyondProfit for comment about the nonprofit’s past DEI push and whether Jackson supported it at the time. The campaign answered by saying Jackson hires “like the Georgia Bulldogs,” with only the best players making the field, and insisted he will stop reverse discrimination if elected governor. It also pointed to support from conservative business leaders involved with goBeyondProfit, including Chick-fil-A and the late Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus. The clash here is obvious enough for a third grader to spot: Jackson says he wants to clean out DEI from government, while his business orbit once helped push DEI deeper into the corporate world.
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