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Tourism Body Appointed by Ron DeSantis to Oversee Disney World Will Discontinue All DEI Programs

Tourism Body Appointed by Ron DeSantis to Oversee Disney World Will Discontinue All DEI Programs

“The so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives were advanced during the tenure of the previous board and they were illegal and simply un-American”

It looks like Governor Ron DeSantis is taking the same approach to Disney World that he did with the New College in Florida.

One of the first things his appointees did was shut down the DEI policies.

Caroline Downey writes at National Review:

DeSantis-Controlled Disney Board Ends ‘Illegal and Un-American’ DEI Programs, Roles

The tourism body appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to oversee Disney World and its properties announced Tuesday that it will discontinue all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, including related roles.

Race-based contracting and a DEI committee will be eliminated, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District confirmed in a statement, because these initiatives “discriminated against Americans based on gender and race, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.”

The announcement follows an internal investigation into the district’s policies.

“The so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives were advanced during the tenure of the previous board and they were illegal and simply un-American,” District Administrator Glenton Gilzean said. “Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal. As the former head of the Central Florida Urban League, a civil rights organization, I can say definitively that our community thrives only when we work together despite our differences.”

See if you can spot the subtle biases in the reporting on this from the Associated Press:

DeSantis also has championed Florida’s so-called “Stop WOKE” law, which bars businesses, colleges and K-12 schools from giving training on certain racial concepts, such as the theory that people of a particular race are inherently racist, privileged or oppressed. A federal judge last November blocked the law’s enforcement in colleges, universities and businesses, calling it “positively dystopian.”…

The DeSantis appointees took control of the renamed district earlier this year following a yearlong feud between the company and DeSantis. The fight began last year after Disney, beset by significant pressure internally and externally, publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, a policy critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”

The always great Ace of Spades recently wrote on this topic:

By the way, the whole reason the Reedy Creek Improvement District even exists is because Walt Disney planned to build there an actual city, a planned community, which would be his sci-fi-meets-nostalgia notion of the ideal place to live for workers and families.

The government of Florida granted a special right to build this district, granting Disney unheard-of rights to basically run a corporation-owned city.

But Disney abandoned this idea when he realized he couldn’t actually control the people living in that community like he controlled his employees. In a planned city, there would be alcoholism, prostitution, infidelity, divorces, etc. — things that aren’t ideal and aren’t part of the Disney brand.

So he took the land he owned there and just build Walt Disney World, the theme park. The only vestige of the old “city of tomorrow” idea is Epcot Center.

So that’s how Disney wound up being granted, for 70 years or so, an unprecedented degree of corporate control over the government of a big piece of land people both work and live on.

DeSantis cancelled that. He had every right to. It’s highly dubious the grant should ever have been made in the first place.

Disney picked the wrong time to have this fight with the state of Florida.

DeSantis is completely within his rights.

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Comments

UnCivilServant | August 3, 2023 at 7:19 am

So, how do we get this toxin out of the rest of the country? Especially out of corporate HR.

A shining example of voting our way out of Woke.

A shining example indeed. Ronnie and the fbi

https://twitter.com/LauraLoomer/status/1686692131384020992

    Telemachus in reply to gonzotx. | August 3, 2023 at 8:46 am

    Laura Loomer is a kool-aid-drunk loon. You are known by the company you keep.

    SeiteiSouther in reply to gonzotx. | August 3, 2023 at 11:05 am

    Loomer’s a toy short of a Happy Meal that’s past its sell by date.

    Tiki in reply to gonzotx. | August 3, 2023 at 1:22 pm

    This Tweet is from an account you blocked. View

    She’s a collagen-lipped, strange-o.
    What sort of person does that to themselves?
    She was born with thin lips! Heaven forbid!
    So, she buys Stormy Daniel porn lips.

    CommoChief in reply to gonzotx. | August 3, 2023 at 5:01 pm

    You rely on Laura Loomer to provide you with ‘realistic’ and ‘true’ perspective and reporting of current events?

    Loomer is very charitably described as ‘not reliable’. Some folks would described her as a bat crap crazy, attention seeking grifter looking for maximum monetization of her oddball ideas.

Oddly, Trump has been taking the side of Disney since this started. The idea that a corporation has a sovereign territory as if it were some sort of Vatican is strange.

    Paul in reply to geronl. | August 3, 2023 at 8:29 am

    Trump’s ego often gets in the way.

    MattMusson in reply to geronl. | August 3, 2023 at 9:15 am

    Originally, this was set up because Walt expected people to actually live in Disney World, especially in EPCOT. They were going to be a self-governing community. But, since no residents ever move in, the Corporation took over as Big Brother with Ears.

      henrybowman in reply to MattMusson. | August 3, 2023 at 5:08 pm

      And yet, none of this seems to square with the actual existence of Celebration, Florida — a Disney-built, Disney-managed (for years, anyway) “model community” with nice homes, manicured lawns, and real families as real residents.

      I’ve driven through the place, it looks like a suburb that Darren and Samantha Stephens might live in, under an HOA ruled by the iron hand of Gretchen Whitmer. I’m sure it also had plenty of issues with crime, infidelity, tragedy, and divorce, so it’s not like this should come as any surprise to The Mouse.

Well, *some* DEI policies are compatible with a well-run company or government organization. Be aware of diversity and how it affects the people in the organization, etc… The immediate problem is if you create a separate group for doing anything that seems good, that group will act in a way to maximize its control over the organization regardless of its supposed goals, and DEI groups have influence far in excess of their importance or size. A DEI complaint can totally destroy an employee regardless of any truth behind it, and having that big of a stick makes power-mad nuts out of seemingly ordinary administrators.

In short, DEI groups take over and push DEI, while the rest of the company spirals into failure.

I have to laugh to think that while the rest of The Union embraces selective discrimination, it’s being stamped out in Florida, by “white crackers.”

It’s as if the Democrat fable of “Halftime in America” actually became true… but only geographically, not politically.