McCracken County judge rebuts NAACP president—s remarks, defends right to disagree on DEI

County Judge Craig Clymer said at the Jan. 27 McCracken County Fiscal Court meeting that he had a private exchange with Paducah NAACP President JW Cleary about whether Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have supported diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and that Cleary later publicly criticized him.

Clymer said he wrote to Cleary after seeing a Jan. 21 Paducah Sun article quoting Cleary and that Cleary replied by text, "You're right on point. I will agree with you." Clymer said he later saw Cleary on local television calling for Clymer to be removed from office and saying Clymer was "out of line." Clymer told the court he posted his written thoughts after seeing those public remarks.

The exchange, Clymer said, started with his contention that "Martin Luther King Jr. preached equality without regard to race" and that the principle of equity, as he described it, is distinct from equality. He read from materials he said Cleary had sent him and criticized affirmative-action-oriented definitions of equity, saying those definitions "go beyond equal treatment to give advantages to African Americans to amend for historical discrimination" and that he considered that "unconstitutional discrimination." He told the court that the First Amendment protects his speech.

The topic drew response from others in the meeting. One speaker praised Clymer—s past efforts on race relations and noted the judge—s role in a water-tower unity message and other local initiatives. Another resident urged "more kindness, more diversity, more equality, more inclusion." No formal motion or disciplinary action was presented or taken at the meeting on the matter.

The discussion was presented as a personal defense by Clymer and as a call from several attendees for continued conversation. The court proceeded to its regular agenda after public remarks.