A Kentucky Democrat sparked a political firestorm this week after a stunning video showed her confessing — proudly, no less — that she “doesn’t feel good about being white every day,” using a legislative hearing to promote race-based guilt and defend DEI indoctrination in public schools.
State Rep. Sarah Stalker made the remarks during a meeting of the Kentucky General Assembly’s Interim Joint Committee on Education, where she argued that diversity, equity, and inclusion programs should be used to force students to reflect on their skin color and the supposed “privilege” attached to it. Her comments quickly went viral, drawing massive backlash and even condemnation from Elon Musk, who bluntly wrote, “What an evil woman.”
Stalker began her monologue by proclaiming that she intended to be “honest,” then immediately launched into what looked more like a self-flagellation ritual than a policy discussion. “I don’t feel good about being white every day, for a lot of reasons,” she declared — a statement that would have ended the career of any Republican who dared to say something similar about another race.
But Stalker didn’t stop there. She described her own race as a permanent moral stain, insisting that whiteness is a built-in “point of privilege,” and suggesting she moves through life with unfair advantages that others supposedly lack. “And I’m just a woman, a white woman,” she added. “If I were a white man, I would be functioning from a point of even greater privilege.”
Her solution? Inject DEI programming deeper into public schools so children can be taught to interrogate their race — and feel the same racial guilt she claims to experience. Opposing that, she argued, means “running to them and trying to stifle” uncomfortable feelings. In other words: if students start feeling ashamed of themselves because of their skin color, then good — that’s the goal.
Ironically, minutes later Stalker insisted that DEI initiatives are not about making anyone “feel bad about being white,” despite having just described her daily guilt trip as her justification for the programs.
She went on to recite the usual progressive talking points about “historical privilege” and accused anyone skeptical of DEI of wanting to “whitewash” history. She invoked demographic statistics from Jefferson County Public Schools, describing its racial diversity and high rate of low-income students as proof positive that DEI is necessary — though she never explained how teaching white children to feel shame improves literacy rates, math scores, or graduation outcomes.
Stalker claimed DEI merely “pulls in other students,” ensuring cultural stories are “reflected” in reading materials. Critics, however, argue that DEI programs across the country have done far more to divide students by race, politicize classrooms, and replace academic rigor with ideological conditioning.
The blowback was swift. Musk’s post alone garnered over a million views within a day, reflecting a growing national impatience with race-based narratives and the ideological extremism that often accompanies them. Many conservatives noted that Stalker’s speech perfectly captures the underlying philosophy of DEI: divide students by race, assign collective guilt, and call it “education.”
Kentucky lawmakers and parents now find themselves confronting a question appearing in school districts nationwide: Are DEI programs helping students — or indoctrinating them? With speeches like Stalker’s making headlines, that answer is becoming clearer by the day.
