Ron DeSantis’ beef with diversity, equity, and inclusion has reached a new low, if that’s even possible.
The Republican Florida governor is blaming DEI initiatives for the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. CNBC reported DeSantis said the bank was worried about the wrong things. “This bank, they’re so concerned with DEI and politics and all kinds of stuff, I think that
really diverted from them focusing on their core mission,” DeSantis said. “We have a massive federal bureaucracy and yet they never seem to be able to be there when [we] need them to be able to prevent something like this.”DeSantis’ supporter, Home Depot co-founder, Bernie Marcus, backed up this theory while both were interviewed by Fox News. “I feel bad for
all of these people that lost all their money in this woke bank. You know, it was more distressing to hear that the bank officials sold off their stock before this happened,” Marcus saiid. “Who knows whether the Justice Department would go after them? They’re a woke company, so I guess not. And they’ll probably get away with it.”DeSantis’ issue
with “woke” culture is criminalizing the state of Florida with his recent tactics. During Black History Month, he announced he would be cutting all college diversity programs, as well as African-American studies from educational curriculum. Several educators were expelled for teaching “woke” studies, including Columbia law professor, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, and reparations author, Ta-Nehisi Coates. Books by esteemed author, Bell Hooks, were also removed.SVB, which is the 16th-largest bank in the United States, does promote DEI initiatives, saying they are “strategically working for a world where every client and employee has the opportunity to bring their bold ideas to life” via their website.
According to Florida Politics, this is the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history, since the collapse of Washington Mutual in 2008.