Ron DeSantis is continuing his attacks on diversity efforts as he campaigns in South Carolina.
During remarks in Lexington, the Governor asserted the "need" to "get rid of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) in all facets of American life," including "military, corporations, and bureaucracy."
DeSantis illustrated that alleged need with an anecdote suggesting that organizations were invested in making white people feel guilty.
"I think it's bad in corporate America," said DeSantis, who has been in elected office since 2013 without interruption.
"I mean, you know, you have a job with, like, a corporation and they force you to do a training where you basically say, you know, have to say you're bad because you may be white or something like that," the Florida Governor added.
"I mean, how stupid is this? And honestly it's divisive, it's going to create more conflict," he continued. "That's not bringing unity."
He has also vowed to strip accreditation from universities with DEI programs in the past, and repeated that claim in Lexington.
"You will not get accredited if you do DEI," he said Saturday.
DEI has been a punching bag for DeSantis both as a Governor and a national candidate.
During a recent campaign stop, he said he didn't want a Vice President who was "trying to satisfy the DEI sweepstakes" and vowed to avoid that kind of "funny business" in the event he had to pick a running mate.
He has also vowed to use the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division to "look at corporate America, government, academia, how they are wielding things like DEI in a discriminatory manner against other people," with a goal of "no tolerance for discrimination of all kind, regardless of whether you're in the majority or the minority."
The Governor has also blamed "DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff" for the failure of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this year.
DeSantis declared war on DEI in rolling out legislative proposals "pushing back against the tactics of liberal elites who suppress free thought in the name of identity politics and indoctrination." These proposals targeting universities and colleges spending money "for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination" became law during the 2023 Legislative Session.
But the Governor's derision of DEI is new. Earlier, in his first term, his administration greenlighted much of it in the very colleges he's targeted more recently.
DeSantis told reporters last February he was ignorant of the subject back then.
"I didn't know what DEI was a couple of years ago as this had taken hold. I mean, it sounds innocuous, right? I thought maybe diversity of ideas, maybe actually have more than one viewpoint. Well, that's not what it is. What it is, is trying to enforce a political agenda and a political orthodoxy under the auspices of administration," DeSantis said. "And that is something that is not in the best interests of the state."
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