Editorial

DeSantis in Denial

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has been getting plenty of attention for his authoritarian moves to exercise control over the state’s educational institutions, from the earliest grades through the universities. He has threatened elementary schoolteachers and librarians with felony charges if they expose students to objectionable material, such as references to homosexuality, and he doesn’t want students to feel bad about actions by their ancestors.

In March 2022, the Florida Legislature enacted the Parental Rights in Education Law, better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. According to DeSantis, the scope of the bill is limited and only prohibits “sexual instruction” directed at young students, but public records obtained by Judd Legum of Popular.Info revealed that several Florida schools have removed books with LGBTQ characters from their libraries, citing the Parental Rights in Education Act. Further, training materials produced by the Florida Department of Education for librarians reveal that the DeSantis administration is encouraging this expansive interpretation of the law.

Teachers in Manatee County (Bradenton), Florida, were told to make their classroom libraries — and any other “unvetted” book — inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution.

Duval County (Jacksonville) school officials also told its teachers under the new Florida law, all books in elementary school libraries (including classroom collections for independent reading) must be reviewed by a certified media specialist to make sure books are free from pornography; instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in grades kindergarten through three; and discrimination in such a way that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin is inherently racist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.” Teachers were reminded that violation of this provision is a third-degree felony.

DeSantis also acts on grudges, which is a bad look for a fascist. After the Walt Disney Company opposed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, following pressure from its employees, DeSantis retaliated by ordering the Legislature to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was created by the state in 1967 to give Disney unfettered control over public services, zoning and land use decisions. The district covers nearly 40 square miles of Orange and Osceola counties, including Walt Disney World, other Disney parks and two “cities,” Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake, home to a total of 53 residents, all Disney employees and their families. The Legislature was moving to put an independent commission in charge of the district as we went to press.

Normally, we wouldn’t object to the state withdrawing such a perk from a corporate behemoth such as Disney, but in this case, where DeSantis’ is punishing an opponent that formerly had supported him and other Republicans, we hope Disney, which has 70,000 employees in Florida, wields a hefty counter-punch against its fascist overlord.

The Stop W.O.K.E. Act, which the Florida Legislature also enacted in March 2022, two days after the Don’t Say Gay bill, is designed to to root out ideas DeSantis deems “woke.”

The law, whose official title is the “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act,” prohibits educational institutions and businesses from teaching students and employees anything that would cause anyone to “feel guilt, anguish or any form of psychological distress” due to their race, color, sex or national origin. DeSantis also tried to bar Florida university professors from testifying against changes in the state’s voting law to make it harder to vote; he claimed professors at public colleges have no right to freedom of speech; and he organized a “hostile takeover” of the New College of Florida with six right-wing appointees to the 13-member board of trustees with the mission to reverse its progressive elements.

The Stop W.O.K.E. Act requires lessons on race to be taught in “an objective manner,” and not “used to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.” It also says students should not be made to “feel guilt” because of actions committed by others in the past. DeSantis and other proponents of the law, which went into effect last summer, contend some teachers have inserted political beliefs into lessons related to race.

The new law doesn’t prohibit teaching about historic events like lynchings, Lori Rozsa noted in the Washington Post Jan. 21, but teachers in several parts of the state said they fear it will compel them to water down or gloss over uncomfortable truths about Florida’s past.

But uncomfortable truths won’t stay down. “I can’t tell the story of the Newberry Six without expressing my disgust for the lynching of a pregnant woman,” said Marvin Dunn, 82, a professor emeritus at Florida International University who has spent years documenting the case of the lynching of the Rev. Josh J. Baskin and five other Black Floridians, who were hanged from an oak tree by a White mob in 1916 after an accusation over a stolen hog sparked two days of terror.

Dunn takes students and their parents to the Pleasant Plain Cemetery tucked in the north Florida woods to see the victims’ tombstones, and it’s hard not to take sides. “As a teacher who has spent 30 years going from place to place in Florida where the most atrocious things have happened, I don’t know how to do that. And I don’t want the state telling me that I must.”

Dozens of states have enacted or considered laws banning or restricting “critical race theory” in the classroom, but Florida has gone a step further than most, Rozsa noted. DeSantis has also targeted academic programs and initiatives embraced elsewhere and appointed like-minded officials to state and local boards.

The Florida Department of Education recently rejected an Advanced Placement African American studies course offered by the College Board after determining that it is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” The White House called the decision “incomprehensible.”

In Duval County, school administrators recently held back 26 books from elementary schools — including “Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates” and “Climbing Lincoln’s Steps: The African American Journey” — until a committee determines if they meet the standards of the new state law.

The DeSantis administration required all state colleges and universities to submit details about “campus activities” and costs of anything “related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and critical race theory.”

Dunn is one of eight plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the W.O.K.E. Act. A federal judge ruled against the state in November 2022, ordering a temporary injunction against portions of the act that restrict how college and university professors teach about race.

“Listen, if there is such a thing as the woke mob in Florida, I aspire to lead it,” Dunn told Rozsa.

DeSantis, who is expected to run for president in 2024, has made “anti-wokeism” a cornerstone of his governing philosophy in the past two years, Rozsa noted. His staff has described the term “woke” as “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them,” and said DeSantis doesn’t believe that theory.

If that’s the case, DeSantis is just a bully in denial of the lingering effects of racism. But being a jerk works for Gov. Ron.

DeSantis’ major accomplishments are making transgender people targets of state harassment and whitewashing history at the cost of academic freedom. Plenty of ambitious Republican officeholders are willing to follow his example. Don’t be like Ron. — JMC

From The Progressive Populist, March 1, 2023

Populist.com