Editor’s Note: The following information was excerpted from an article by The Indiana Capital Chronicle a free news source covering various aspects of politics and policy in Indiana, including the economy, elections, healthcare, the environment, and education.
Grants to reduce racial health inequities.
Scholarships for Black and Hispanic students.
Racial bias training.
A camping initiative for Black Hoosiers.
All are programs that have been abolished and even erased from their respective agency websites following an executive order by Gov. Mike Braun. The directive forced agencies to replace “diversity, equity and inclusion,” or DEI, throughout state government policies and programming with “merit, excellence and innovation,” according to a report by IndianaCapitalChronicle.
The January executive order gave agencies until July 1 to complete a review and identify DEI in their policies, which Braun released late Wednesday afternoon. In total, 350 DEI initiatives were identified and detailed across more than 3,800 pages of information.
One of Braun’s directives, the article notes, prompted the Department of Natural Resources to purge campfire-emblazoned flags and other merchandise from state facilities, strip stickers from state-owned vehicles and scrub trainings from its human resources platform.
That’s because the campfire, dubbed a “unity blaze,” is the logo for North Carolina-based Black Folks Camp Too. Founder Earl B. Hunter Jr. launched the company to combat “generational fears” — like of lynchings — that Black people may hold of the outdoors, ABC 11 reported.
Black Folks Camp Too offers training on “how to create a more inclusive outdoor experience for all,” according to a joint news release with DNR.
The duo entered into a yearlong agreement in 2023 for $17,500 and renewed it in 2024 for $62,666, but under Braun’s executive order, DNR backed out two months early. The agency paid a final bill of $56,698, per the report.
Click here to read the complete article at IndianaCapitalChronicle.com.
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