Stephen A. Smith Fires Back at Clay Travis for Supporting Florida Cutting DEI Jobs: ‘Why Are We Ignoring History?’

Stephen A. Smith accused OutKick’s Clay Travis of deliberately ignoring historical context when he called for the elimination of all jobs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion — or DEI.

On a recent episode of OutKick the Show, Travis praised the University of Florida for firing all the employees from its DEI department. The move effectively eliminated the department altogether.

While praising the university and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his continued push to get rid of DEI departments, Travis called on all red states to follow suit. He then took it a step further and expressed his desire to have every DEI job on the planet eliminated.

Smith believes Travis’ sentiment is a result of him “ignoring history.”

“Why are we ignoring history?” Smith said on The Stephen A. Smith Show. “See, Clay Travis, that’s my problem, respectfully… Why do we ignore history when you take the position that you took? Diversity, equity, and inclusion. What’s wrong with diversity? What’s wrong with inclusion? Equity might be challenging because not everybody deserves equality in terms of opportunities. You gotta perform!”

Smith then explained how DEI and affirmative action first came to be and how “intergenerational poverty” in the black community needed to be addressed.

“We act like everything has been on an equal playing field,” Smith continued. “You know better than that, Clay. Why didn’t you bring it up? Why didn’t you say that? Why didn’t you touch on its origin?”