Council Member Carolyn King Arnold claimed earlier this week that reducing the Office of Equity & Inclusion’s budget could “put legs on Jim Crow.”
“I’m particularly concerned about any, what I call, attacks — rolling back the hands of time with equity and inclusion,” she said during a City Council budget workshop. “If we begin to turn back the hands of time, we’re going to roll ourselves all the way back, and we’re going to put legs on Jim Crow, and he’s going to be right back in here in Dallas, Texas.”
Arnold, who represents District 4, made the comments in response to a budget amendment proposed by Council Member Paul Ridley (District 14) that would have reduced taxpayer funding for the Office of Equity & Inclusion (OEI) by $474,288.
The budget decrease would have resulted in the OEI receiving a total of $3,435,641 — the same amount allotted in the FY22-23 forecast budget — plus required contractual salary, benefits, and pension increases. City Manager T.C. Broadnax suggested directing $3,842,488 of taxpayer money to the OEI in his $4.6 billion proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The $474,288 differential in spending would have been used to offset a reduction in the property tax rate. While the adjustment at the OEI alone would have had little impact on property taxes paid by residents, Ridley and Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) put forth several other amendments that would have reduced spending in various departments and directed the savings toward offsetting the property tax rate decrease.
They argued that substantial property tax reductions could be realized by trimming spending across the City. However, the rest of the council members rejected most of their amendment proposals, as reported by The Dallas Express, including Ridley’s proposal to trim the OEI’s budget.
Arnold claimed, “[Dallas] cannot afford to wrap our arms around those types of cuts that hold back the momentum that we’ve been able to gain. When you see folks in some of these major cities where they’re just shooting people just because of their race and their color, it’s real.”
She went on to allege that the black community encounters “that same mentality” when trying to start a business or move into a new neighborhood.
“I think we’ve made great strides to move forward with racial equity and inclusion,” she said, citing the Racial Equity Plan passed by the City Council in August last year. “Our vote was a commitment to move forward and to not go back to the systemic practices that cripple communities.”
“We cannot put legs on Jim Crow. Let him stay at least crippled. If we cut back, he becomes very, very strong, and Dallas has a real deep history on this very topic,” she remarked.
Council Member Omar Narvaez thanked Arnold for her “eloquent words” and agreed that it was important for the City to financially support its Racial Equity Plan.
However, not everyone shared their same perspective. Mary Elizabeth Castle, director of government relations for Texas Values, told The Dallas Express that she finds Arnold’s comments “irresponsible and a little manipulative.”
“We know that Jim Crow laws were horrific and denied basic civil rights. They forced segregation and even kept people like myself from getting opportunities in our country,” said Castle, who is a black woman.
“We are years past Jim Crow, and we have made gainful strides in our country,” she continued. “Not having an office of diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] would definitely not take us back to … [before the] Civil Rights Movement of 1964.”
Furthermore, Castle asserted that most DEI departments are not focused on the concerns Arnold was raising but are rather “mostly about LGBT rights, forcing pronouns, and forcing people to go against their religiously held beliefs in the workplace and in government offices.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the City of Dallas requires all public employees to use a transgender person’s “preferred pronouns” regardless of their own personal beliefs.
Castle added, “As a member of this community myself, I would say a majority of African Americans do not necessarily agree with the advancement of LGBT rights.”
The OEI took part in several LGBTQ Pride initiatives in 2023, including raising an official Dallas LGBTQ Pride flag at City Hall for the duration of Pride Month. Broadnax’s proposed budget specifically directed more taxpayer funding toward LGBTQ Pride events, as reported by The Dallas Express.