Abstract
In recent years, a growing media movement has publicized the concept of “wokeness” in America. Stopping wokeness is now a lightning rod for the political right and the political left, with the issue exploding from the traditional political arena to social circles, families, businesses, and even workplaces. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “woke” as being aware of and actively attentive to issues of racial and social justice. Prejudice and discrimination are not new concepts – they are the ancient obstacles in the path of society’s march towards equality. America’s journey on this path began with passing anti-discrimination legislation through the Civil War Era Constitutional Amendments, aimed at ensuring equality for African Americans, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Its successor, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which expanded protection against discrimination to include religious belief, sex, national origin, and familial status, represented the next mile marker on this journey. In the minds of many, its passing rectified the issue of discrimination entirely. In 2022, more than a dozen bills were proposed or enacted related to social and other issues, including “divisive concepts” like critical race theory. These anti-woke laws, aimed at individuals, education, and corporations, are used as political tools as America has become more politically polarized over issues from racial justice and LGBTQ rights to the environment and COVID-19 vaccines, and most recently abortion. This article examines how these anti-woke acts harm equality in America by examining the specifics of one of the first bills to pass into law. Florida’s recently enacted law dubbed the “Stop WOKE Act” prohibits an employer from conducting, as a condition of employment, training that it specifies as divisive, however, the actual intended effect of this training is to stop tackling issues of implicit bias and discrimination. This article explains the heart of the conflict between the Act and federal law, reasons for supporting anti-discrimination training, and the positive effects of preventative discrimination training in the workplace.
Recommended Citation
Michelle Bilsky,
Stop WOKE Acts: How the Legislative Attack on CRT Harms Equality in Employment,
18
Fla. A&M U. L. Rev.
().
Available at:
https://commons.law.famu.edu/famulawreview/vol18/iss1/6