Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith once again criticized the removal of diversity, equity and inclusion programs from universities, claiming these programs are being removed out of malicious intent.
The running back added to his comments in March 2024 criticizing the University of Florida specifically for eliminating its DEI program. Smith himself played at the university and took issue with the lack of pay he was receiving at a time before NIL payments made many college athletes high-income earners.
“Brother, I want compensation from the University of Florida right now,” Smith said. USA Today“I am their [expletive] invoice. I want interest on what is mine. Because there’s one thing I know. That was when I was at that stadium. I hate talking about myself, but the system forced me to talk about it because I didn’t get the NIL. [payments] “I was running up and down the field with Cedric Smith at the front and a great offensive lineman was blocking me, and I looked up in the stands and I saw a bunch of E. Smith jerseys there. E. Smith 22s. If you watch the old videos, you’ll see how many jerseys were walking around. And I didn’t get a dime,” he recalled.
Blaze TV Commentator Jason Whitlock said Smith and the university had a fair exchange.
“Emmitt is infected with the disease of entitlement.”fearless“The University of Florida helped him on his journey, and he helped the University of Florida,” the host said.
“It was a fair exchange. Emmit didn’t care about the skis, he just said what was popular at the moment,” Whitlock added.
“The only thing they want is… please help us raise money so we can continue to build monuments all over the place to people who don’t look like you or me.”
Smith said he believes DEI is a “NIL outcome” and lamented how DEI programs are needed to ensure Black and Latino students are admitted to certain schools.
“How can we help other African American and Latinx students across the country get into this great university? To me, taking away the DEI element is a big part of every decision you want to make.” It means being able to make decisions, and it means excluding people who could have a big impact on the university.”
The former Dallas Cowboys player wants to see DEI applied to the corporate world as well. He said construction companies should be given the opportunity to work on projects based on the race of the owner.
“There’s a lot of talk, there’s a lot of rhetoric, and I’ve seen how these things work…I’ve seen where you do infrastructure projects. . [Dallas-Fort Worth] The same four major companies are leading the construction of these sites. The limitations of minority businesses lie not only in their working capital but also in their ability to do the work. ”
The Super Bowl winner said DEI is being destroyed solely “because of politics,” and because of “malice and pure power.”
He added that DEI programs likely won’t be sustained and cited the death of George Floyd as an indicator of when DEI programs should begin to emerge.
“So they said, ‘This is it for now.’ Again, this just shows that they didn’t really mean it. There was nothing in their minds to do the right thing. There is no idea in their mind to keep the system as it is, which means the people who made that decision never agreed with it and never agreed with it. Some of them weren’t doing it before George Floyd. So why do you think they’re doing it now? Even if they’re small or minority businesses. But we’re removing what was a pipeline of opportunities.”
The football star ended his comments with the comment that people need a certain skin color representation to feel welcome.
“They don’t really have their best interests at heart. The only thing I want them to do is create excitement and enthusiasm across sports and entertainment and give us the money to continue building monuments. It’s about helping people gather.” There are people around you who don’t look like you or me. ”
He said the biggest unanswered question for the University of Florida is “how can we increase minority enrollment?”
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