This week, there was a heated exchange between Missouri State Representative Justin Hicks, a black Republican, and State Representative Marlene Terry, a black Democrat, after Terry confronted Hicks over his opposition to state government funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
On Thursday, the Republican-controlled state House voted 105-46 to send House Bill 6, an appropriations bill for Missouri’s departments of agriculture, natural resources, and conservation, to the state Senate.
The bill says that the departments cannot spend funds “for staffing, vendors, consultants, or programs associated with ‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusion’ or ‘Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging.’” The measure also blocks funds for initiatives that go toward programs and policies that promote preferential treatment based on identity, “the concept that disparities are tied to oppression,” “collective guilty ideologies,” and “intersectional or divisive identity activism.”
During a debate on the bill, Terry, who has been in office since 2021, grilled Hicks, who was elected to represent part of St. Charles County in 2022, over his opposition to using state funds for DEI programs.
“You said you were OK with the DEI [measure], and that there is an equal playing field. Did you say that?” she asked Hicks, who said he supports banning government funds from going towards DEI.
“What it does is say that we are not in the business in state government of giving preferential treatment to certain groups and individuals. We treat everyone the same because we are all people under the law,” Hicks said in response, according to the Daily Wire.
Terry asked Hicks how he ethnically identified. In response, Hicks said, “I identify as an American,” which garnered applause from some lawmakers in the room.
After Hicks told Terry that she was being provided with the very same opportunity to get elected to state government as was anyone else, she claimed that Hicks was “delusional.”
“You are delusional if you think that because that’s not how life is going. That’s the reason we need these things implemented in some of these companies,” she said.
Terry further stated that she proposed several “darned good bills,” implying that the system was biased against her since her bills were not progressing. Presently, there are 111 Republican representatives and 52 Democratic representatives in the Missouri state House.
Hicks wasn’t buying it, though.
“I had to work on my own merit, and pretty much promote the principles that I believe in, which is freedom, equality for all, which I believe that America does. And that’s how I got elected into my position. I didn’t get elected into my position because of the color of my skin or do any race-baiting stuff that it seems like you’re promoting here,” Hicks noted after he was asked how he got elected.
