Can Black History Month Survive Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ‘Anti-Woke’ Politics?
Finally we are beginning to see some pushback against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ infamously cynical “stop WOKE” crusade.
Appropriately, part of the push comes from a prominent Black Florida historian, Marvin Dunn, 82, a retired Navy officer, professor emeritus at Florida International University and author of “A History of Florida: Through Black Eyes.”
“Listen,” said the professor in an interview with MSNBC’s Joy Reid. “If there is such a thing as the woke mob in Florida, I aspire to lead it.”
Right on, I say. Dunn is one of eight plaintiffs who are challenging the state’s new and controversial Stop WOKE Act (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees), among other efforts by the governor to set up a system that could punish teachers for teaching race in ways that the governor does not like.
The DeSantis administration’s latest headline-making move came earlier this month when the Florida Department of Education rejected an Advanced Placement African American studies course offered by the College Board.
The College Board has been developing the class for more than a decade and is currently piloting it at 60 schools across the U.S., while planning to make it available to all schools in the 2024-2025 school year. High school students can choose to take AP classes to earn college credit or place into higher-level college classes.
Although it was unclear whether any Florida schools are included in the pilot program, the state judged the course to be “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
The White House on Friday called the decision “incomprehensible.”
So is much of DeSantis’ reasoning, it might seem. Yet his anti-wokeness crusade appears to be paying dividends in his apparent efforts to sound more Trumpish than Donald Trump in a possible bid for the White House.
After Republican Glenn Youngkin’s long-shot victory in Virginia’s governor’s race in 2021 after campaigning heavily against “critical race theory,” a line of study not taught in public schools, Republicans and other conservatives have weaponized the term to blast any lessons on race, gender and identity that they don’t like as liberal “indoctrination.”
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