Supporters of Florida’s Stop Woke Act” say it prevents the teaching of divisive concepts like DEI, and one woman whose organization raked in cash from DEI says the law put a big dent in her group’s finances.
South Florida People of Color founder Roni Bennett said her business is in decline due to Republican anti-DEI legislation.
Since establishing her organization in 2015 to promote DEI education in businesses and academic institutions, Bennett said she experienced a downturn in both activities and revenue. Bennett said many of her clients “stopped requesting” her organization’s services. She said the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” halved her organization’s annual income of about $300,000.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis supported the legislation.
Supporters of the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act” say that the legislation is beneficial for several reasons. They say that it helps clarify what is permissible in educational and workplace training environments, aiming to eliminate confusion around topics of race and discrimination. They also said that the law prevents educational and training programs from promoting divisive concepts, such as one race or gender being inherently superior or oppressive.
In 2022, Honeyfund.com, a Clearwater-based company, challenged the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” leading to a federal appeals court decision that struck down parts of the law as a violation of free speech. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker stopped the enforcement of Florida’s “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” calling it “positively dystopian” and blocking its restrictions on discussing race at colleges, after constitutional challenges from Florida A&M and University of South Florida educators and students.
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DeSantis enacted the “Stop W.O.K.E Act,” which took effect in July 2022. In August of that year, Walker struck down a section of the law that barred businesses from conducting race-related training programs.
“The Stop W.O.K.E. Act protects the open exchange of ideas by prohibiting teachers or employers who hold agency over others from forcing discriminatory concepts on students as part of classroom instruction or on employees as a condition of maintaining employment,” DeSantis’ office previously said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “An ‘open-minded and critical’ environment necessitates that one is free from discrimination. We intend to appeal.”
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In July 2024, Walker struck down the “Stop W.O.K.E Act,” CNN reported. Walker issued a two-page order permanently enjoining the workplace training provisions of the law, declaring them a violation of free speech rights under the First and 14th Amendments to the US Constitution.
The Miami Herald, nevertheless, said that the law’s “impact on statewide DEI businesses has been significant.”
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.