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Florida’s “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act” or “Stop WOKE Act” has numerous DEI organizations operating on life support. The organizations promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as an integral part of every organization. 

In 2022, Florida Governor and failed Trump challenger in Republican primaries, Gov. Ron DeSantis, signed the Stop Woke Act into law. It prohibited the indoctrination of children via the critical race theory (CRT) in public schools and banned businesses from propagating the ideas of race, gender, racism, and privilege.

Schools that violated the law faced the loss of public funding, while individual violators faced job losses.

One of the affected DEI organizations’ founders, Roni Bennett of the South Florida People of Color, told the Miami Herald that her revenues of about $300,000 were slashed in half in 2022 after organizations stopped requesting her services.

Bennett, 54, who is of Jamaican descent, said corporate America, especially Silicon Valley, lacked enough diversity, and companies did not adequately speak about it. She, therefore, took the challenge to address the issue. “You’re usually the only Black person in a department.”

Bennett had enjoyed a slight boost during the pandemic, with her work going national and attracting DEI clients from as far as New York and Wyoming. 

However, her primary clients were seemingly located in Florida, thus discouraged by the law from continuing with the practice. “We’re in trouble,” she said.

The revenue shortfall starved the DEI organization of funds to organize events, which ultimately slowed down the propagation of the Woke agenda across the Sunshine State.

Bennett facilitated “Awkward Dinner” events where Hispanic, Black and other marginalized groups discussed race and identity. Her training events also featured “PowerPoint slides talking about biases.”

Nonetheless, the former IBM and HP marketing manager had noted an ideological shift away from DEI even before Florida passed the anti-Woke law. She lamented that some new organization heads were no longer interested in diversity training. “One client had a president change, and the new president wasn’t into DEI training,” she added.

While federal courts ruled that the workplace sections of the Stop WOKE Act on diversity training violated the First Amendment, the education sections were spared. 

In August 2022, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker also prevented the act from applying to institutions of higher education, and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision.

Despite the invalidation of the workplace and higher education clauses, DEI organizations experienced a massive cash crunch, suggesting that educational institutions dealing with younger children were their primary targets. This highlights the impact of the Woke policies on younger children.