{"id":151479,"date":"2026-02-11T12:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151479\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T12:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:12:15","slug":"florida-ams-black-history-flyer-fiasco-highlights-anti-dei-absurdity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/151479\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida A&M\u2019s Black history flyer fiasco highlights anti-DEI absurdity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week at Florida A&M University, my alma mater, a law school student was initially told by the university that she couldn\u2019t use the word \u201cBlack\u201d on a Black History Month flyer because it violated Florida\u2019s law prohibiting DEI programming at public universities. The university has since said a staffer gave the law student that information in error<\/a>, but such confusion is an inevitable consequence of the backward law my colleagues in the Florida Legislature passed in 2023.<\/p>\n

Such confusion is an inevitable consequence of the law my colleagues in the Florida Legislature passed.<\/p>\n

Florida A&M is one of our country\u2019s many historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs. It\u2019s absurd when a student at an institution founded to promote Black excellence is put in the bizarre situation where she\u2019s told that she can\u2019t use a word that\u2019s used to describe the university she attends. To be clear, though, it would be just as wrong for officials at a majority-white institution to bar students there from putting up the type of flyers the FAMU student was attempting to distribute.<\/p>\n

Even though FAMU has admitted that its staffer was in error, this must not be the end of the conversation.<\/p>\n

Because this is not just about a single flyer or a staff error<\/a>. It is an example of what happens when there\u2019s a broad effort to sanitize history and minimize the contributions of Black Americans. Florida has attempted\u00a0to create an environment where discussing race, struggle and achievement becomes so legally fraught that people simply choose to be silent.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPlay<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\/\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

I and some of my colleagues in the Florida Legislature warned about such consequences when this bill was being debated. When laws are vague, people overcorrect out of fear, and confusion replaces common sense. When institutions and students are left guessing about what\u2019s allowed, they err on the side of silence. Such a chilling effect threatens the very fabric of historical truth and education in not only Florida, but nationally, and it\u2019s all the evidence we need that the law needs to be repealed.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFla. Sen. Shevrin Jones\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFlorida state Sen. Shevrin Jones, the first openly LGBTQ+ member of the Florida Senate,\u00a0represents District 34, which includes communities in the northern portion of Miami-Dade County.\u00a0\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"MS<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02026 Versant Media, LLC<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week at Florida A&M University, my alma mater, a law school student was initially told by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-151479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-tallahassee","9":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","10":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}