This is an opinion cartoon.

Our GOP Alabama lawmakers are obsessed with everything they don’t understand.

This neanderthal mindset is costing us our future. You don’t have to be ‘woke’ to wake up. Like it or not, America is changing. For the better, for the most part (the frenzied conservative backlash leaves a lot to be desired.) Young people are the future. And young people, thank God, are way more inclusive than most of us older folks.

Last year, the ‘divisive concepts’ torch was carried by Republican state Rep. Ed Oliver. This year the torch has been handed to Will Barfoot (caricatured above – you’re welcome, dude), the Republican state senator from Pike Road, Alabama. To his credit, the multi-tasking Barfoot has tried to consolidate all of his party’s misguided, ignorant and racist policies into one horrible catch-all, anti-diversity bathroom bill. Thank you. That’s where this thing belongs. The toilet.

Related: Vote ‘frozen embryo’ for Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice – al.com

Related: The only thing we have to fear is Alabama’s red state politics of fear – al.com

Related: Alabama: The ‘Frozen Embryos are People’ state – al.com

Related: Alabama Senate passes bill that impacts college DEI programs, bathroom access – al.com

Related: Woodfin says if anti-DEI bill passes, he would urge athletes to leave Alabama – al.com

We live in a beautiful state. With amazing, generous and genuine God-loving folks. But politics sucks the life out of this place. Out of us all. The young folks are figuring it out. High fives all around and God bless ‘em going forward.

Read my colleague Roy S. Johnson’s column: Roy S. Johnson: DEI bill tells all students: We don’t want you to win. Or be safe – al.com

An excerpt from Johnson’s column:

“That’s how Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin got their attention. “Although I’m the biggest Bama fan, I have no problem organizing Black parents and athletes to attend other institutions outside of the state where diversity and inclusion are prioritized,” Woodfin posted Wednesday on social media.

“If supporting inclusion becomes illegal in this state, hell, you might as well stand in front of the school door like Governor Wallace,” he continued. “Mannnn it’s Black History Month. Y’all could have at least waited until March 1.”

Bless our hearts.

Recent JD Crowe cartoons

Vote ‘frozen embryo’ for Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice – al.com

Alabama: The ‘Frozen Embryos are People’ state – al.com

Nick Saban, Eli Gold are gone. Bryant-Denny is icon-free – al.com

Latest Alabama star in transfer portal hits Nick Saban hard – al.com

Kay Ivey is on the ‘Highway to Hell’: AC/DC rocks the caption contest – al.com

True stories and stuff by JD Crowe

The mysterious ‘Bubble Guy’ of Fairhope and the art of bubble Zen – al.com

How I met Dr. Seuss

Robert Plant head-butted me. Thanks, David Coverdale

I was ZZ Top’s drummer for a night and got kidnapped by groupies

Check out more cartoons and stuff by JD Crowe

JD Crowe is the cartoonist for Alabama Media Group and AL.com. He won the RFK Human Rights Award for Editorial Cartoons in 2020. In 2018, he was awarded the Rex Babin Memorial Award for local and state cartoons by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists. Follow JD on Facebook, Twitter @Crowejam and Instagram @JDCrowepix. Give him a holler @[email protected].

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