UK College of Social Work ‘rooted in social justice’ despite DEI bans
April 30, 2026
The University of Kentucky’s efforts to keep Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion up and running appear to extend to every area of campus, according to the countless faculty admissions uncovered by Accuracy in Media.
UK Director of the Martin Luther King Center Ja’Mahl McDaniel is the latest to be caught on AIM’s hidden camera discussing how “antiracist work” is happening at the university.
He told AIM’s undercover journalist that the university’s College of Social Work is “rooted in social justice” and known as “a very very strong college here.”
McDaniel also acknowledged the various policies against DEI, noting that, “In the state level, yes DEI is not something that we can facilitate in the ways that people assume DEI to be, right, so anything that seems like it is rooted in race, gender orientation or feels like it is not neutral, right, to different political viewpoints and all those things, then you won’t see that happen at the institution level.”
But, he made it clear that these laws aren’t stopping DEI. “That does not mean that like there isn’t work that, the way that I understand and know what antiracist work is, that doesn’t mean we aren’t still doing it in different ways,” he said.
McDaniel also added that there is a gray area to what he called “inclusion work.”
Kentucky state legislators voted to override a veto by Democratic Governor Andy Beshear last year and enact a DEI ban in public institutions of higher education.
At the time, State Rep. Vanessa Grossl said, “DEI is costing our taxpayers millions of dollars and has largely been an embarrassing failure in our commonwealth.”
If that weren’t enough, President Donald Trump’s administration has enacted several anti-DEI executive orders, warning public universities of the financial risk of continuing their DEI crusades.
Even so, universities like UK are time and time again caught continuing to push DEI and woke ideology by any means they can. That comes in the form of “gray area” and language adjustments–but the destructive content remains.
Part of how these universities manage to preserve DEI is by deferring to their accreditation criteria.
They point to the fact that the Council on Social Work Education mandates that DEI be taught as part of an accredited degree program. According to a 2022 copy of CSWE’s standards for accreditation, programs must “Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice.” This is considered one of nine “core competencies.”
Several states have taken action into their own hands, developing their own accreditation bodies that don’t have DEI requirements. This would prevent social work programs from using the CSWE loophole to preserve their DEI indoctrination.
Kentucky must take similar steps to develop its own accreditation body, otherwise its DEI bans will remain hollow, leaving taxpayers on the hook for ongoing woke ideology being taught at state universities.
Visit DEIInKentucky.com now to take action. There, you can send one convenient message to all relevant parties. Tell them that covert DEI efforts can’t continue on the University of Kentucky’s campus.