DeSantis signs Florida law banning local DEI funding; white men ‘disfavored’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Wednesday that bars counties and cities from funding or promoting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and he used the bill-signing to argue that DEI programs discriminate against white men.
At a news conference following his signature, DeSantis defined diversity, equity and inclusion as “an ideological construct that is designed to promote a particular political agenda, particularly to the detriment of disfavored groups,” according to the Associated Press account of the remarks.
DeSantis said the “disfavored groups” include “white males,” adding that “they’ve been discriminated against” and calling the response from some critics “wrong.” Speaking in Jacksonville, he described his view that people should not treat that discrimination framing as acceptable.
Evelyn Foxx, president of the NAACP branch in Gainesville, disputed DeSantis’s characterization when asked about the comments. Foxx said that if DeSantis “talked to 100 white men,” they “wouldn’t feel the same way,” and she said the governor is “out of touch with people.”
Supporters of the concept of DEI, the AP reported, say the purpose of such programs is to address the effects of long-term discrimination against certain groups. The AP also said that a nationwide conservative push to limit diversity programs has led some companies, schools and governments to reduce or remove DEI initiatives, especially amid the current Trump administration.
DeSantis, in his remarks, also pointed to discrimination claims related to education, saying Asian Americans have faced discrimination in university admissions and that people should be judged based on merit rather than demographic background. He said that if people still face barriers because of discrimination, there should be policies to “even the playing field,” while arguing that this is not the same as “trying to socially engineer certain outcomes” against groups favored or disfavored by “intellectual elite” critics.
The AP reported that the law fits into a broader record from DeSantis’s administration, which has championed legislation restricting public colleges and universities from spending money on DEI programs and promoted the “Stop WOKE Act,” which restricts how race and sex are taught in schools. It also reported that Democratic lawmakers have warned the new legislation is overbroad and potentially unconstitutional.
Under the bill DeSantis signed, residents can sue local governments for alleged violations, the AP said. If local officials are found to have funded DEI initiatives in violation of the law, they can be removed from office, a mechanism DeSantis said is designed to create accountability.
“When people know there is accountability they are much more apt to toe the line,” DeSantis said, according to the AP’s account of the signing remarks.
The Associated Press reported that DeSantis’s comments and the law reflect the administration’s approach to limiting local public support for DEI initiatives, even as civil rights leaders challenge his description of who is harmed and how.