Ron DeSantis has been rightfully called out at the 60th anniversary of Reverend Martin Luther King Junior’s March on Washington for trying to whitewash history with his Stop Woke Act.
Florida has been a beacon for loss of human rights in recent years, and the Stop Woke Act is a direct attack on civil rights. This proposed bill calls for an end to critical race theory being taught in schools and seeks to ban certain books connected to this important part of history.
Critical race theory has had a lot of misinformation surrounding it in recent years, but it is not as scary as many fear-mongering sources would have you believe. Critical race theory is simply the study of how the very basis of our society has been shaped and molded by the basis of race and racism. Racism is defined as the systematic and consistent oppression of a racial or ethnic group based solely on their belonging to that group. It goes beyond skin color, having become a part of our social hierarchy as people who live in the United States. Critical race theory is taught in high schools and colleges, not elementary and middle schools.
During his proposal for the Stop Woke Act, Desantis bastardized the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying that he would be against critical race theory in schools. During the memorial rally for Dr. King, many speakers called out DeSantis for this disrespectful act, saying that they would fight against his Stop Woke Act.
The president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Centre nonprofit civil rights advocacy group, Margaret Huang, spoke out during the rally, saying that so many proposed laws seek to take away voting rights from marginalized communities. “These campaigns against our ballots, our bodies, our school books, they are all connected. When our right to vote falls, all other civil and human rights can fall too, but we’re here today to say ‘not on our watch.'”
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