The University of Florida took some of the most drastic actions against diversity, equity, and inclusion in the state Friday by eliminating more than a dozen full-time campus positions including the “chief diversity officer.”
UF, Florida’s flagship school, closed the Chief Diversity Officer’s office, scrapped other jobs and “halted DEI-focused” vendor contracts in a wave of decisions under President Ben Sasse. The moves are a response to higher education reforms backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republicans in the state who are targeting “wokeness” and liberal “indoctrination” in Florida’s university system.
“DEI is toxic and has no place in our public universities,” DeSantis said Friday on X. “I’m glad that Florida was the first state to eliminate DEI and I hope more states follow suit.”
I really hope students transfer out of those schools.
Schools should not be treating people differently based on race. Such systems have absolutely no place in the modern world. Getting rid of such a system system has made the world a better place.
That’s not what this is about, though. From the fifth paragraph in the article:
As such, Florida universities are prohibited from using state or federal cash to fund any activities tied to “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “political or social activism,” which carry broad definitions and could apply to a wide range of programs. Schools now are beginning to enact these policies locally.
This isn’t about “treating people differently” and it is almost certainly not about race (although it’s not lost on me that they waited until the day after Black History Month to announce this change). This is about on-campus activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s about teaching students that America is varied, not monocultural. It’s about teaching students that transgender people are just people, not the monsters that Ron DeSantis makes them out to be. It’s about broadening perspectives, not enhancing an echo chamber. It’s about giving a voice and a platform to non-white, non-male, non-straight, non-cis, and non-wealthy perspectives that have historically been silenced so thoroughly that an entire system of class and privilege was built up around that silence.
It does treat people differently in practice. It doesn’t really matter the intent.
I’m reminded of this quote from Malcolm X:
“If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven’t even pulled the knife out much less healed the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there.”
Unfortunately we live in a reality where the people who make up those schools do treat people differently based on race. By not accounting for this, minority groups are harmed.
This is fucking terrible but I bet this gets rolled back when the three big Florida football Universities(UF FSU, and Miami) report they can’t compete because they can only recruit conservative players. It’s fucked up but passion for college football in the south has been used to help drive social change forward in the past. Bear Bryant invited a longtime and dominant integrated USC team to play Bama in Birmingham where the Trojans whipped that ass.
Some rich booster with connections in the government of Florida will get pissed off that the Gators can’t compete and get this removed, it’s sadly gonna take so long it probably won’t be fixable for even longer
