Florida Newspaper Shames DeSantis For Enabling Trump Lies

By
Caleb Newton
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In an article published on Christmas Day, the Editorial Board of the South Florida Sun Sentinel went after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for his crusade against critical race theory (CRT), which prominent conservatives have recently taken to falsely claiming is some kind of anti-American ideology that fosters hatred. In reality, it’s actually a framework that puts forward that racism is essentially intertwined with social and political systems in the United States — and it’s not that difficult to see that such a thing is, in fact, the case. Black Americans (and other non-white residents of the country, for that matter) are facing continued impacts from instances of racism in history, not to mention present-day racism.

Donald Trump has been among those going after critical race theory — in a recent article, he claimed that the notion is “completely antithetical to everything that normal Americans of any color would wish to teach their children.” Actually, it’s just the reality. On a similar note, DeSantis recently helped roll out a legislative initiative targeting critical race theory in schools. If passed, the measure would allow parents to bring lawsuits if the notion is taught in schools where their children attend — although critical race theory has already been banned from being included in Florida public school curriculum. Thus, DeSantis is seemingly trying to pull a fight out of thin air.

As the Sentinel pointedly put it:

‘[DeSantis] wants… to ban [critical race theory] from schools and, for good measure, from the human resource policies and sensitivity training courses of privately owned businesses. That is not conservative; it is reactionary and authoritarian…It perpetuates two persistent great lies: That racism did not have a major influence on American history and that it is not an issue now. That is the current dogma of DeSantis’s Republican Party in its determination to retain the allegiance of white voters who are terrified of losing social and political dominance to changing demographics.’

Republican leaders are clearly interested in what amounts to catering to white voters — in Texas, two new U.S. House districts that the state got because of population growth from non-white residents were given to white majorities. Whether purposeful or not, that means that the GOP is specifically propping up white voters. As the Sentinel added:

‘Demonization of critical race theory, by making it into a boogeyman, is one front in the Republican culture wars. DeSantis would make Floridians ignorant of the most troublesome aspects of our past, present and future. He knows critical race theory isn’t being taught in the schools (where in any case it is already banned by regulation), but he wants to convince parents that it could be and to terrify teachers into glossing over or even ignoring the truths as to how racism has shaped American history and contemporary society.’

Summarizing things, the Sentinel added that “no one is teaching kids to hate our country or each other, but we do need to teach them not to hate each other, even unconsciously, and to recognize prejudices for what they are,” which “cannot be done by pretending they do not exist.” Read more at this link.



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