Florida Gov Ron DeSantis proposes law to ban critical race theory

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said he’ll push for legislation to ban schools from teaching the critical race theory, ridiculing the concept as “crap” and “woke ideology.” DeSantis’s speech on Wednesday at a campaign-style event in Wildwood on the contentious issue was interrupted several times by loud applause and cheers. “Nobody wants this crap, OK? This is an elite driven phenomenon being driven by bureaucratic elites, elites in universities and elites in corporate America and they’re trying to shove it down the throats of the American people. You’re not doing that in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis’s proposed legislation would also allow private corporate employees to sue their employers if they receive critical race theory training.

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What is the critical race theory?

Critical race theory began to emerge as an academic concept during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what legal scholars like Derrick Bell, Alan Freemen, and Richard Delgado saw as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.

Critical race theory is based on the premise that American laws and institutions are inherently racist and designed to the benefit white people over African-Americans and other minority groups.

Conservatives reject it as a world view derived from Marxism that boxes people into oppressors and oppressed based on their race. They call it an attempt to rewrite American history and make white people believe they are inherently racist.

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DeSantis is calling his proposal the Stop WOKE (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act.

“What you see now with the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions and I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism,” DeSantis said. “They really want to tear at the fabric of our society.”

At the direction of DeSantis, the state board of education banned critical race theory in schools. The Stop WOKE Act seeks to turn that ban into state law and allow parents to sue school districts that teach it.

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“No taxpayer dollars should be used to teach our kids to hate our country and to hate each other,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis’s proposed legislation would also allow private corporate employees to sue their employers if they receive critical race theory training.

What is the critical race theory?

Critical race theory began to emerge as an academic concept during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what legal scholars like Derrick Bell, Alan Freemen, and Richard Delgado saw as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.

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Critical race theory is based on the premise that American law and institutions are inherently racist and designed to the benefit white people over African-Americans and other minority groups.

Conservatives reject it as a world view derived from Marxism that boxes people into oppressors and oppressed based on their race. They call it an attempt to rewrite American history and make white people believe they are inherently racist.

DeSantis is calling his proposal the Stop WOKE (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act.

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“What you see now with the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions and I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism,” DeSantis said. “They really want to tear at the fabric of our society.”

At the direction of DeSantis, the state board of education banned critical race theory in schools. The WOKE Act seeks to turn that ban into state law and allow parents to sue school districts that teach it.

“No taxpayer dollars should be used to teach our kids to hate our country and to hate each other,” DeSantis said.

In November, University of Florida faculty members claimed administrators had been told them they couldn’t used the words “critical” and “race” together in describing a new concentration of study.

(With AP inputs)