Guillette Speaks Out on DEI in Alabama Schools

Accuracy in Media (AIM) recently released an undercover investigation at the University of Alabama, which found that University personnel were continuing to support Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) programs despite a ban on such programs passed by the Alabama Legislature in 2024.

ALPolitics.com spoke with Adam Guillette on June 23 about AIM, their recent investigations in Alabama and other States, and how Alabama’s 2024 DEI ban is being circumvented and undercut.

We began by asking Mr. Guillette to tell us about his position and organization.

“I'm the President of Accuracy In Media. I've been in that role since 2019,” he said. “We use a combination of hidden camera investigative journalism and cultural activism to hold bad public policy actors accountable.”

We then asked Mr. Guillette to tell us more about “cultural activism” — what it is, and how AIM uses it.

He responded by saying, “We use traditional political tactics against people in the culture — phone calls, email campaigns, confrontations, mobile billboards, that sort of stuff— because these days many of the people in the culture have far more political influence than any politicians. So, if they're going to be players in a political game, it's only fair that political tactics should be used against them.”

ALPolitics.com then asked about his recent undercover investigation and report AIM carried out at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and what they found.

“Well, what we found at the University of Alabama, and other Universities in the State, is that consistently across the university system, DEI programs were simply rebranded. DEI job titles were simply changed, and they kept doing the exact same work. In addition, colleges of sociology, education, and criminology are very much proudly, openly pushing DEI, because the Alabama ban on DEI is incredibly weak and doesn't cover curriculum. So, they are able to push whatever politics they want in math class if they choose to, and they often do, because of the incredibly poorly worded bill.

We asked him to clarify that there is DEI in Alabama math classes.

Guillette responded, saying, “what we consistently see is that the curriculum loophole is used by these administrators and professors to push their politics into every facet of education. For example, we see this stuff even in K through 12 education across the country in math classes, most commonly with something called social and emotional learning, meaning your algebra textbook or your calculus textbook will have equations in the middle of it. But, on the sidebar of the page, it might have something like, “How easy was it for you to arrive at the answer? How difficult was it for students around you? What factors could have made it more challenging for them to arrive at the answer?” That then prompts the educator, who's been trained by an equity officer, or whatever they're called now, to have a discussion about race and social inequity in math class, and how it may affect outcomes in math class.”

ALPolitics.com then asked: “So, rather than reading, writing, and arithmetic, we're teaching DEI reading, DEI writing, and DEI arithmetic, basically?”

Guillette agreed with that statement, saying, “Right, because I think it is because many people incorrectly think that DEI is merely a new version of Affirmative Action. It's far more dangerous than that. It's a prism through which they view the world. It's a prism through which they teach, so that's how it ends up affecting every single kind of class that you could be teaching.”

He went on to say, “You know, the premise of DEI, as they push it in higher education, is that the world is made up of oppressors and oppressed, and if you use violence against an oppressor, that's okay, that's merely resistance to oppression, and it's that kind of logic that they use to defend the October 7 terror attack, amongst other things. Naturally, White people are oppressors, African Americans are oppressed. America is an oppressor nation, and so forth. And I think it's utterly disgusting to tell anybody that, based on their skin color, they're either oppressed or an oppressor.”

Accuracy in Media has not just done investigations at the University of Alabama, but two other Alabama schools, as well. We asked Guillette to speak about those investigations.

“We investigated and exposed DEI at the University of West Alabama and the University of North Alabama,” he said. “In the case of West Alabama, literally the Dean of Students admitted to us about loopholes that they have to continue funding DEI programming, and basically explained how they were still doing it deceptively, and I think anytime somebody is engaged in deception, they're probably not particularly focused on legal compliance. In addition, they told us about how they use, I think, its PBI grants that they dedicate to DEI. This is the Dean of Students, not an entry-level staffer, not an administrator. I went and confronted him about it with a camera, and he wasn't very happy to see me and refused to answer any questions.”

We then asked about any plans AIM had for future investigations in Alabama, to which Guillette said “Well, we can't comment on any ongoing investigations ahead of time. It doesn't do us any favors if we tell them that we're headed for them, but I'm pretty confident that we'll continue putting frowns on the faces of bad people.”

ALPolitics.com then asked about investigations AIM has done in other States, and if their efforts had resulted in any changes based on what they’ve recovered.

“We've seen incredible change in many States. For example, the State of Iowa and the State of Kansas right now are strengthening their DEI bans, and I would say it’s in response to the investigations we've exposed, Kansas is putting into place a DEI ban based on the Florida DEI ban, which prohibits educators from promoting identity politics.

“If you want to discuss a controversial political topic in a political or philosophy class, knock yourself out, but it shouldn't be in math class, and you should never be promoting it. That's basically what the Florida law says, and it's what Kansas is going to,” he answered.

“In addition, about a week ago, the Department of Justice announced an investigation into Arizona State University, directly based on our investigations. Ohio State has been investigated partially in response to our investigations by the Department of Justice. In North Carolina, a number of administrators, including the Dean of Students at UNC Asheville, have been fired because of our investigations. In Texas, administrators have been fired because of our investigations, and their Attorney General launched his own investigations and sued a University. In Florida, administrators have been fired because of our investigations. So, I've been rather disappointed to see that when we released these investigations in Alabama, the elected officials craned their necks to look in the other direction, because they didn't want voters to realize how toothless their law was.”

We asked Guillette if he had shared the results of your investigation with the Alabama Attorney General, and if so, what was the response?

“I forget, admittedly, if the Attorney General hit us up or if we hit them up,” he answered. “We’ve been contacted by many Attorneys General across the country, and I forget if we were contacted regarding the University of North Alabama or West Alabama. But, in our action alert that we set up, we often encourage people to reach out to the Attorney General for them to take action. The challenge with a real weak law like Alabama's law is, to my knowledge, it has no reporting mechanism, and it has no legal consequences for breaking the law. And what use is a law that has no legal consequences for breaking it?”

We then asked Guillette, if he were to suggest ways that Alabama laws could be improved, what would he recommend?

He said, “Well, first of all, you need a Florida-style DEI ban, which prohibits them from promoting identity politics. It's as simple as wording it that way. They can discuss whatever controversial topics in the appropriate class, but it doesn't need to be in every class. They should never be promoting identity politics, which simply pit people against one another and cause them to see racism where it doesn't exist.”

“In addition, we need a major overhaul of higher education in America. Administrative bloat in higher education is insane. In the last 10 years, I think the stat is they've hired something like 10 administrators for every one new faculty position, and many of these administrative positions are merely taxpayer-funded activists. These are your LGBTQ programs, these are your DEI programs. I am not aware of any study that suggests that homosexuals learn differently from straight individuals. There doesn't need to be dedicated staffing specifically for it. All of these students should be viewed as individuals and not defined by who they're sexually attracted to or what their skin color is. Yet, our tuition goes up dramatically, our tax dollars go up dramatically to pay for this massive cast of taxpayer-funded activists that masquerade as University administrators, so there needs to be a major focus on reining in administrative bloat at all of these Universities.”

ALPolitics.com asked Guillette for any final thoughts he might have on his investigations and their results.

“Well, the defense often used against the reforms we propose is that they need to have academic freedom, but anybody who's familiar with these Universities at all knows that there is no academic freedom. There is no inclusion, there is no diversity. I think 95% of the donations, on average, at Alabama Universities go to Democrats. You can have all the academic freedom you want as long as you're a far-left Democrat. They don't believe in diversity of thought. They don't believe in inclusion towards people who hold other viewpoints. You need a major reformer at the university level to refocus these institutions on education rather than activism.”

Accuracy in Media’s investigation of the University of Alabama was recently covered by ALPolitics.com, and may be read HERE. The video of that investigation is embedded in the article.

The AIM report on the University of West Alabama is at THIS LINK, and the video is below:

The AIM invest at the University of North Alabama is available HERE, and the video is below: