It must be a day that ends in "y" because AL(dot) com's J.D. Crowe has drawn a new, albeit not-so-fresh, political cartoon depicting yet another Republican in Ku Klux Klan robes.
Crowe's target this time was State Sen.Will Barfoot (R-Pike Road) due to his sponsoring of Senate Bill 129, dubbed the "Divisive Concepts Bill," which prohibits certain public entities from having an office promoting so-called "diversity, equity and inclusion" (DEI) or other "divisive concepts" and requires people to use the bathroom of their actual sex.
In his latest cartoon and commentary, Crowe responded to the bill by accusing the Alabama GOP of having a "neanderthal mindset," "obsessed with everything they don't understand."
His wordy cartoon entitled "The White Fragility Bill" depicts an older man with white hair and beard — ostensibly Barfoot — wearing a hooded KKK robe with the words "The 'White fragility anti-everything we don't understand stupid solutions in search of a problem' bill" scrawled across the front. Written above the man to help better explain the cartoon are the words: "Alabama GOP lawmakers craft catch-all 'divisive concepts anti-diversity bathroom' legislation."
SEE ALSO: AL.com cartoonist JD Crowe's KKK obsession
If this scene seems familiar, it may be because Crowe used the same motifs in a nearly identical cartoon last April when a similar bill introduced by State Rep. Ed Oliver (R-Dadeville) passed the House.
His complaints were nearly the same then as now, that the bill is "anti-diversity" and consolidates the ALGOP's "misguided, ignorant and racist policies into one horrible catch-all" bill.
"You don't have to be 'woke' to wake up. Like it or not, America is changing. For the better, for the most part (the frenzied conservative backlash leaves a lot to be desired)," Crowe wrote, commenting on his latest cartoon. "Young people are the future. And young people, thank God, are way more inclusive than most of us older folks."
Republicans have argued that, despite its name, DEI creates the very divisions and discrimination it purports to be fighting against, as evidenced in the legal cases involving prominent institutions, such as Harvard and Yale, that have been sued for their discriminatory practices based on promoting DEI initiatives, or the scandal in Loudoun County, Va., where a male teen identifying as transgendered was found guilty of assaulting a female student in the girls' bathroom.
"Higher education must return to its essential foundations of academic integrity and the pursuit of knowledge instead of being corrupted by destructive ideologies," Barfoot said previously. "This legislation will build bridges to celebrate what people have in common, not erect walls that silo people into the idea that their race, religion, and sexual orientation solely define who they are and how society should view them."
The bill passed the Senate last Thursday after seven hours of Democrats' filibustering. Since then, more Democrats have publicly opposed the measure, including Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, who urged college athletes to stay out of Alabama.
To connect with the story's author or comment, email daniel.taylor@1819news.com or find him on Twitter and Facebook.
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