Returning from summer break, University of North Florida professor John White was caught off-guard by the urgent news, relayed by administrators, that the state ordered certain taboo words to be removed from all class syllabi or course descriptions in the university’s teacher-education department, where he’d worked for 17 years.
The offending words included “diversity,” “equity,” “inclusion,” and “culture” — a list that came down from state officials, according to UNF emails, and represents the latest effort by the DeSantis administration to eradicate what it views as left-wing concepts, like systemic racism, from Florida’s universities. State officials cast a wide net, ensnaring courses like White’s where words like “culture” and “diversity” appear in innocuous contexts far removed from culture-war politics.
“We found this shocking,” White said…