Governor publicly attacks the 'positive discrimination' recruitment tactics of the NHL.
On Friday 13 November, a LinkedIn post by the NHL advertising their forthcoming recruitment fair came under fire by the DeSantis administration as discriminatory, for stating it would be proactively and intentionally recruiting new talent to the league based on various required characteristics, including race, gender and sexuality.
The event, titled "Pathway to Hockey Summit" is scheduled for Feb. 2 during the 2023 All Star Festivities in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and is intended to help diverse job seekers who are pursuing careers in hockey.
The post in question, now removed, stated that:
Participants must be 18 years of age or older, based in the U.S., and identify as female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability. Veterans are also welcome and encouraged to attend.
Seizing an opportunity to enact practical action in support of the 'war on woke' repeatedly referenced by DeSantis, his administration issued a swift and aggressive message to the NHL, labelling their approach discriminatory, exclusionary and an attempt to fall in with politically popular 'Woke' opinions.
In a statement to Fox News, spokesman Bryan Griffin made the DeSantis administration's views clear:
Discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of Florida, and we do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a politically unpopular demographic. We are fighting all discrimination in our schools and our workplaces, and we will fight it in publicly accessible places of meeting or activity.
Whilst Governor DeSantis continues to defend Florida against the detrimental impact of Woke culture at every opportunity, the debate on whether Woke culture should be wholly segregated from sport and sports culture continues to rage, with outspoken ambassadors for the movement such as Outkick's Clay Harris, happy to fuel the fire:
It remains to be seen whether debates around Woke culture will continue to grab headlines for the foreseeable future, or not.
Do you think Woke culture has any place in sport? Or should politics and sport remain separate? Let me know your views on Woke culture in the comments section below.
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