{"id":32646,"date":"2023-01-19T01:19:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T01:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=32646"},"modified":"2023-01-21T05:40:11","modified_gmt":"2023-01-21T05:40:11","slug":"florida-gov-desantis-leads-the-gops-national-charge-against-public-education-that-includes-lessons-on-race-and-sexual-orientation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/florida-gov-desantis-leads-the-gops-national-charge-against-public-education-that-includes-lessons-on-race-and-sexual-orientation\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Gov. DeSantis leads the GOP\u2019s national charge against public education that includes lessons on race and sexual\u00a0orientation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jonathan Feingold<\/a>, Boston University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 disdain for \u201cwoke ideology\u201d is on full display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a January 2023 inaugural event, the governor boasted<\/a> that \u201cFlorida is where woke goes to die.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is more than political bluster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In just the past month, DeSantis has stacked the board of the New College of Florida<\/a>, a well-known liberal arts college, with right-wing ideologues<\/a> and has directed universities to report their diversity efforts and critical race theory classes<\/a> to his office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what, precisely, does Desantis \u2013 a potential 2024 presidential nominee<\/a> \u2013 oppose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That became clear in December 2022 when multiple DeSantis officials appeared before a federal judge<\/a> to defend the governor\u2019s decision to suspend a local prosecutor whom DeSantis had termed a \u201cwoke ideologue.\u201d The judge asked Ryan Newman, DeSantis\u2019 general counsel, to define \u201cwoke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newman answered that \u201cwoke\u201d is \u201cthe belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newman added that DeSantis does not believe systemic injustices exist in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis, for his part, has explicitly denied that systemic racism exists \u2013 characterizing the notion as \u201ca bunch of horse manure<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my view as a legal scholar on race and law<\/a>, Newman\u2019s explanation was a stark admission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By his own account, Newman placed DeSantis on the side of injustice. We might call DeSantis an \u201cinjustice denier.\u201d Akin to climate change, there is no legitimate academic debate about the reality of systemic racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s real<\/a>. It\u2019s pervasive<\/a>. It\u2019s unjust. No amount of denial can change that \u2013 even if it scores political points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political campaign against \u2018woke\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When DeSantis<\/a> and others bemoan \u201cwoke indoctrination<\/a>,\u201d their claim is not that schools should be value-free zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their claim is that schools teach the wrong values<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This should surprise no one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the wake of 2020\u2019s global uprising<\/a> for racial justice, right-wing think tanks, foundations and officials<\/a> launched an open smear campaign<\/a> to stigmatize modest efforts to make American classrooms more inclusive and curriculum more comprehensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As early as March 2021, one of the campaign\u2019s chief architects, Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, publicly bragged<\/a> about weaponizing critical race theory to further that agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rufo further explained that maligning critical race theory through calculated caricature and distortion was an \u201cobvious\u201d element of a \u201cpublic persuasion campaign<\/a>\u201d to erode faith in public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rufo, one of DeSantis\u2019 recent board appointees, has outlined the end goal: \u201clay seige to the institutions<\/a>\u201d and return Americans to a pre-civil rights social order that lacked affirmative commitments to racial inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A long history of white resistance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Proponents often claim that laws and policies designed to restrict classroom conversations about race are necessary to protect<\/a> mostly white students from emotional discomfort<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet over two years into an open disinformation campaign and hundreds of laws designed to suppress \u201cwoke\u201d viewpoints, many in the mainstream media still frame anti-racism and anti-anti-racism as competing sides in an educational culture war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my view, the culture war framing is odd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It exaggerates disagreement among typical Americans \u2013 most of whom believe students should learn about racism<\/a> and reject book bans<\/a>. It falsely recasts<\/a> a top-down political project as a grassroots uprising. And it minimizes the rising toll<\/a> on students, parents and educators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cculture war\u201d frame also implies Americans are fighting over values, yet rarely makes explicit those competing values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing is clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is little new about this culture war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is hard to miss the parallels in rhetoric and tactics between 21st-century anti-anti-racism and 20th-century massive resistance<\/a>, when segregationists openly defied federal court orders to integrate public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past generations have invoked \u201creligious liberty<\/a>,\u201d \u201cschool choice<\/a>\u201d and \u201cparents\u2019 rights<\/a>\u201d to defend the prevailing social order, defund public schools and discredit efforts to redistribute racial power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
People hold up signs during a rally against critical race theory in Leesburg, Va., on June 12, 2021. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds\/AFP via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In my view, many of today\u2019s anti-anti-racists rehearse the same old rhetoric for similar ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Past generations harnessed state power to penalize educators who dared to teach about injustice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historian Candace Cunningham recounts<\/a> one example from 1956 South Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years after Brown v. Board of Education<\/a>, South Carolina\u2019s white Legislature<\/a> enacted 14 laws designed to stymie civil rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included a law that required all teachers to swear an anti-NAACP oath \u2013 a law designed to target Black educators and \u201cdestabilize the civil rights movement,\u201d as Cunningham explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impact on cultural literacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A revival of such measures has occurred since 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In at least 15 states, GOP officials have passed \u201ceducational gag orders<\/a>\u201d to chill classroom conversations about race, racism and related topics. This includes Florida\u2019s \u201cStop WOKE Act,\u201d a portion of which was enjoined<\/a> in November 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the laws\u2019 design and effect, University of Florida Law Professor Kathryn Russell-Brown has likened this legislation to 19th-century anti-literacy laws<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to free speech advocacy group PEN America, 2022 saw a 250% jump in such laws<\/a>, which became more punitive and more likely to target higher education and LGBTQ identities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar policies have accelerated at the local level across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of December 2022, UCLA\u2019s CRT Forward Tracking Project had identified<\/a> over 130 school district policies that target anti-racist pedagogy and curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A related study from January 2022<\/a> found that state and local anti-literacy laws affected over 900 districts, accounting for 35% of America\u2019s K-12 students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that 2022 saw more educational gag orders than the prior two years combined<\/a>, that number is no doubt higher now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academic freedom under state review<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many of the same GOP officials pushing anti-literacy laws are also actively eroding key safeguards that shield public universities and professors from political interference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, DeSantis is a leading proponent<\/a> of such efforts to curb university independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Texas, the lieutenant governor threatened to terminate tenure<\/a> after the University of Texas\u2019 faculty leadership reaffirmed the value of academic freedom and the right to teach about race and gender justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right-wing groups also have fueled defamatory campaigns<\/a> against school leaders, teachers and librarians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the same groups have spearheaded an unprecedented wave of book bans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PEN America<\/a> tallied over 2,500 individual bans from July 2021 to June 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes books like \u201cWhen Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball,\u201d which explores how an African American athlete overcame physical limitations and racial prejudice<\/a> to win medals in the 1956 and 1960 Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Under
Workers prepare the stage for the 2022 meeting of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla. Paul Hennessy\/SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Experts have attributed the extreme rhetoric accompanying book bans and anti-literacy laws to a rise in threats and acts of physical violence<\/a>. This includes nearly 200 documented anti-LGBTQ+ events in 2022<\/a> \u2013 a twelvefold increase over 2020 \u2013 and bomb threats targeting historically Black colleges and universities<\/a> and other entities serving communities of color<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against this backdrop, it is notable that the midterm elections revealed the limitations of anti-CRT and anti-wokeness rhetoric<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But those limitations seem unlikely to alter GOP talking points or the broader assault on public education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incoming GOP House leadership has already renewed its pledge to purge schools of critical race theory and \u201cwoke ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To borrow a phrase from the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, one might conclude that anti-anti-racism embodies a \u201cfear of too much justice<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan Feingold<\/a>, Associate Professor of Law, Boston University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jonathan Feingold, Boston University Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 disdain for \u201cwoke ideology\u201d is on full display. At a January 2023 inaugural event, the governor boasted that \u201cFlorida is where woke goes to die.\u201d This is more than political bluster. In just the past month, DeSantis has stacked the board of the New College of Florida, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":32647,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[5095,13354,3762,11106,5094,699,2806,1538,5536,13355,1812,9481,13356],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32656,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32646\/revisions\/32656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}