The Recent Policies of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to “Stop Woke”: Is it Democracy or DeSantis’ Attempt to Disassemble?
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has shaken and disturbed the nation with several alarming new policies implemented in Florida schools and workplaces. And in the process, he started his own “War on Woke.”
From his “Don’t Say Gay Bill” to the “Stop WOKE Act,” DeSantis has pushed the limits of democracy to a breaking point with new, restrictive laws threatening any discussion of topics related to racism, diversity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. And with the broad language in these bills, anything DeSantis considers “woke” is on the chopping block.
What is “Woke”?
The term “woke” refers to members of society who are mindful and informed about issues such as social injustice and racial discrimination. Originating within the Black community decades ago, “Stay Woke” meant to keep aware of the world around you and the injustices of systemic problems. However, the term really took off in the last decade with the rise of social justice movements like Black Lives Matter.
In recent years, however, the right has latched onto the phrase and now uses it to attack anything related to social issues they disagree with. From M&M making candy “less sexy” to Disney casting a Black woman as the Little Mermaid Black, conservatives have been foaming at the mouth with the subject of “wokism.”
To learn a little more about the history of this phrase and the implications of the recent outrage by the right, check out this video by YouTuber illuminaughtii: The “Woke” Joke: What the Right is Really Doing.
“Where Woke Goes to Die” – H.B. 7 (2022): Individual Freedom Act
Governor DeSantis has publicly declared that he and the entire state of Florida reject the “woke” ideology everywhere; in the legislature, schools, and even corporations. Earlier this year, in an article discussing DeSantis’s potential 2024 presidential run, Politico quoted him saying, “We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”
To legally cement this position, the Florida state legislature introduced and passed House Bill 7 last summer. Officially entitled the Individual Freedom Act, the bill was nicknamed “Stop WOKE Act.” by the governor. The word WOKE here means “Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees.”
This bill limits the discussion of race or privilege in different areas of Florida institutions, such as schools and workplaces. In addition, DeSantis claims the bill addresses perceived racial and cultural discrimination issues, giving Florida residents the supposed ability to fight back against racial and gender-based issues. Ultimately he’s pursued all facets of what he considers critical race theory and eliminated education on the importance of equality and equity. DeSantis even stated that he wants to require schools to prioritize “graduating students with degrees that lead to high-wage jobs, not degrees designed to further a political agenda.”
The bill also severely limits private businesses from implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives or training programs (DEIs) in workplaces and Florida colleges. While the language suggests an effort to prevent discrimination in DEI programs, the language ultimately creates a situation wherein an individual who is white can claim that the training makes them uncomfortable or feel “white guilt” and then argue that they’re being discriminated against by going through the program because they are white.
Legalized Discrimination
Despite DeSantis’s claims to prevent discrimination and protect individual freedoms in both workplaces and schools, the bill appears to be a way for discriminatory and racist individuals to justify their behavior due to the right of their own beliefs. It can be argued that this bill claims an argument of free speech for straight, white, cis-gendered Florida residents while stripping the freedom of speech from everyone else.
Essentially, in an ironic fashion, the bill creates a legal safe space to spread hate and censorship for the very people who claim safe spaces are for “snowflakes.” And many people, including educators and businesses, agree. Last August, eight Florida professors sued representatives of the state’s higher education system and called the legislation “racially motivated censorship.”
The Bill’s Current Situation
Since taking effect, the bill has been challenged and appealed numerous times by the Federal government and the state of Florida legislation as of March 16, 2023.
In mid-November of 2022, NPR reported that a federal judge blocked the anti-’woke’ law from taking effect in colleges.
“In a 139-page order issued Thursday, Tallahassee U.S. District Judge Mark Walker excoriated the Republican-led bill and blocked it from taking effect in the state’s public universities.
“The State of Florida’s decision to choose which viewpoints are worthy of illumination and which must remain in the shadows has implications for us all,” Walker wrote. “But the First Amendment does not permit the State of Florida to muzzle its university professors, impose its own orthodoxy of viewpoints, and cast us all into the dark,” (NPR). This comes after Walker blocked the part of the bill targeting workplace diversity practices in an August 2022 ruling.
According to CNN, on March 17, 2023, a federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that a temporary block on a portion of a law pushed by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis restricting what can be taught in Florida’s public colleges and universities will remain in place.
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“Don’t Say Gay” – HB 1557 (2022): Parental Rights in Education Bill
Under the guise of protecting children, the Florida legislature passed HB 1557, the Parental Rights in Education Bill. Critics of the bill nicknamed it the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” due to its restrictive language, ultimately prohibiting the use of words like “gay” in public schools and making the acceptance of discussion about someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity illegal in Florida school districts up to certain grade levels. With the new law, faculty and students are banned from discussing these topics in school.
According to NBC News, “Supporters of HB 1557 say it would give parents greater control over their children’s education, vindicating their “parental authority.” Conversely, opponents say it would unfairly target the LGBTQ community — particularly gay and trans students — and is “pretending to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”
As covered in a previous article, despite initially donating to some of the politicians that voted for the bill, Disney spoke out against this bill, calling for it to be repealed after it passed. Since then, DeSantis and Disney have been going back in forth, legally speaking.
When Parental Rights Overstep Children’s Privacy and Autonomy
Moreover, the bill makes it illegal for a teacher or school to not disclose information to parents regarding how their child is presenting at school in terms of their orientation or identity. If a parent feels the school withheld information about their child, the law provides the additional award of injunctive relief, damages, and reasonable attorney fees & court costs to certain parents.
Meaning that if a student confides in a teacher or counselor that they identify as anything other than their assigned gender at birth or use different pronouns, parents must be notified. If not, the parents can sue the school.
This situation also puts children in potential danger if their parents don’t know or are against their children identifying as anything other than cisgender or heterosexual. And if a student confides in a teacher or another student because they feel safe at school to do so but not safe at home, this bill ultimately strips children of their privacy and autonomy.
SB 1320 (2023): Child Protection in Public Schools
Continuing his attack on the LGBTQIA+ community, DeSantis and his legislature just filed a new bill last month, S.B. 1320, which would ban the use of pronouns not corresponding to the person’s sex assigned at birth by anyone in a Florida public school. The bill also somewhat piggybacks H.B. 1557, which made discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom illegal, in that it now extends the law from the third grade to the ninth.
Since the original drafting of this article, Reuters reported that the Florida education board extended H.B. 1557’s ban on gender identity or sexual orientation discussions or lessons to all grades.
Moreover, according to the bill, “… materials used to teach reproductive health or any disease as part of certain courses must be approved by the Department of Education; requiring district school boards to adopt and publish a specified process relating to student access to certain materials, etc.”
With DeSantis replacing elected members of the Florida School Board with his own appointees, one can only imagine how regressive the materials and curriculum surrounding reproductive health will be. And if anything is at risk of being deemed “too sexually explicit” or “indoctrination,” the information (or lack of information) Florida will be giving students about their bodies will do far more harm than good.
Conflating History with Pornography
While DeSantis claims he’s not imposing an agenda upon children, he’s set one by limiting children’s access to learning materials.
The DeSantis anti-woke movement initially claimed to focus on abolishing pornographic and sexual content from student libraries and assigned reading material in schools. However, DeSantis subsequently banned the A.P. African-American Studies program from the Florida curriculum. “We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them. When you try to use Black History to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.” (- Ron DeSantis, CBS).
It appears that DeSantis categorizes racial, ethnic, and historical topics in the realm of sexual preference and identity material. Because he considers anything discussing orientation or gender as sexual and pornographic, Black history apparently is too. And banning the teaching of people’s histories by claiming that it’s indecent or that they’re forcing gender ideology upon children in the U.S. just reeks of racism and homophobia.
Through these actions, DeSantis is not only exerting control over what he personally deems appropriate for children, but he’s also controlling what’s appropriate for adults in college and Florida businesses. And in exerting that control through the Florida government, this directly contradicts any claim from Republicans that say they’re the part against “Big Government.”
A Woke War Over the Future of America
While DeSantis pushes bans and regulations in Florida, most Americans’ opinions of handling these situations are likely not as extreme as the media propagates.
Most people are against pornographic material in children’s libraries and sexually-explicit entertainment for children. You’d expect that most people would be against banning historical books and education detailing slavery and racism in America.
Yet, with his War on Woke,” DeSantis attached racist and homophobic political ideology to common sense. No one wants children exposed to pornographic material. We should all be able to agree about that. However, DeSantis cemented this narrative of political grooming by the “woke mob” to the alarmingly fast-growing far-right movement’s attack on civil rights. And in the process, he captured and redirected the energy of people wishing to strip away human rights and ultimately eradicate the LGBTQIA+ community and other marginalized groups.
No exaggeration exists in that statement. During Pride Month this year, Nazi protestors stood outside Disney World holding Swastika flags and other Nazi imagery. They also flew a flag supporting DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign. And if your history classes didn’t teach you, along with the millions of Jewish people, disabled people, and other groups that Nazi Germany committed genocide against, they also persecuted and attempted to eradicate LGBTQIA+ people and their histories.
Nazis today are no different; they want to incarcerate and eliminate entire groups of people. And they’re openly, publically, telling us this. Will we take these threats seriously and stop hatred from taking hold, or will we stand by while our country marches on this authoritarian path?
Words of Warning
We know what it means when DeSantis pushes rhetoric and policy targeting marginalized groups, and literal Nazis support him. We face a grave threat of rising fascism in America, and Florida’s become a crucial battleground for this country’s future.
Ron DeSantis insists that “we must embrace the founding creed of this country, that our rights are not the courtesy of the government, but are a gift from Almighty God,” (DailySignal).
In actuality, the American Creed promotes unfiltered liberty, justice, and equality for all Americans. Our Constitution strictly prohibits forced religious worship and the establishment of religion by the government. Arguing that our rights come from God, DeSantis openly holds our Constitution with contempt. After officially announcing his run for president in the 2024 election, it doesn’t bode well for what he’s planned for the entire county if elected.
People throw the word fascism around more often these days, but that’s because it’s here. It’s not just staring us in the face; it’s screaming at us and waving flags. And it’s seizing control of our institutions and reverting decades of progress. With how things are going in this country, from states stripping voting rights to the Supreme Court stripping civil rights, the fate of our country’s future and what it truly means to be an American is in our very hands. But our grip is slipping with complacency.
This Independence Day, the fight for America’s very soul continues.
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