DeSantis introduces Stop W.O.K.E. Act in new stand against critical race theory in schools

https://www.wesh.com/article/gov-desantis-to-speak-from-sumter-county-wednesday/38524313#

Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke Wednesday fr0m Wildwood in Sumter County.

DeSantis said he is “taking a stand against critical race theory in our schools and in the workplace by calling for the enactment of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act.”

He said he was introducing a new piece of legislation: “Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act.”

“With the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and to delegitimize our institutions,” said DeSantis. “I view the wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism.”

The Governor said his goal is to block activism like critical race theory from classrooms and workplaces. The Florida Department of Education already banned CRT from K-12 public schools last summer at the Governor’s direction. This new proposal would codify that that ban into state law.

What exactly is critical race theory?

“The easiest way to understand it is that it teaches you to understand your state institutions: the Department of Education, the Department of Corrections, from the perspective of race,” said Dr. Eric Smaw.

Smaw is a philosophy professor at Rollins College and teaches CRT.

“The best analogy is to think about it in terms of gender studies,” he said.

According to the Associated Press, critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. Scholars developed it during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what they viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society.

When CRT was banned in classrooms this summer, all Central Florida school districts told WESH 2 News that they don’t teach critical race theory anyway.

Regardless, the governor has continued to wage a war against the teaching of critical race theory.

“Our legislation will defend any money for K-12 going to CRT consultants,” the governor said. “No taxpayer dollars should be used to teach our kids to hate our country or hate each other.”

DeSantis said the Stop W.O.K.E. Act will give parents “private right of action” to sue if they think their kids are being taught critical race theory. It will also allow parents to collect attorneys fees if they are successful in their suit.

The governor said the rise of “woke ideology” is an attempt to erase the country’s history, referencing the removal of statues in recent years.

“They want to tear at the fabric of our society and our culture,” he said. “They want to delegitimize the founding of the country and the constitution.”

The governor said critical race theory violates Florida standards. He also claimed that people are making a fortune on teaching CRT to schools and businesses.

He said the term “equity” is used to mask CRT and is used by people to “smuggle in their ideology.”

But Aston Mack, a Black Lives Matter activist and founder of Orlando Freedom Fighters, said the Governor’s new proposal poses dire consequences.

“Quite frankly, it’s going to grow up with a lot of black and brown kids disenfranchised for not knowing their history, not having a connection with the past and allowing these repeated patterns and cycles of racism to disproportionately affect them,” Mack said.

The Governor said the legislation would also protect employees from any CRT training at work, though it is unclear how the state will block it from the office.

Mack said this stop sign to CRT is a green light for others.

“It makes those that are already predisposed to racism, so the white nationalists, the KKK members, all of the Neo Nazis, all of them see this as, ‘OK, Florida the place to go.’ That’s where we’re going to be, ” he said. “And that makes our fight tougher because I know I’m going to see them on the street more often.”

Wes Hodge, the chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party said DeSantis’ platform on schools is all politics.

“It’s 100% about getting the Governor into the White House,” Hodge said.

Hodge said that the Governor is staking his claim in the nation’s new political battleground: the classroom.

“This is 100% trying to rally that far right base to get behind him for not only 2022 reelection, but nationwide for a 2024 presidential run,” he said.

While the Governor said he is protecting parents’ rights and workers, Hodge said the anti-CRT proposal is a scare tactic.

“We need to make sure that people realize that they’re being played emotionally to get them to come out to the polls and vote,” he said.

Governor DeSantis said the Stop W.O.K.E. Act will be introduced when the legislature reconvenes next month.

DeSantis introduced the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act” during a rally-style event in Central Florida. DeSantis said the legislation would put into law the Florida Department of Education’s prohibition on “critical race theory” in K through 12 schools.
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Why does the US turn a blind eye to Israel’s expansion of Squatter-Settlements on Palestinian Land?

https://www.juancole.com/2021/12/expansion-settlements-palestinian.html

Israeli media have been pointing out that the Biden administration in Washington is not too bothered about the occupation state’s illegal settlement expansion. There is little reason to doubt the veracity of the claim. So far, US President Joe Biden has managed to maintain a fine balance between his agenda in favour of the two-state compromise, and his predecessor’s legacy which promotes Israel’s annexation of more Palestinian land.

As long as Biden adheres to the international consensus about the two-state compromise, all he has to do is issue periodic condemnations and look the other way, turning the proverbial blind eye to Israeli settlement expansion. After all, that is what the UN has been doing ever since it recognised Israel’s colonial existence.

“We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and damages the prospects for a two-state solution,” said US State Department spokesman Ned Price in October.

This perpetual “concern” can be seen from this statement as saving and perpetuating the rhetoric of two-state diplomacy. Settlements are not opposed because of the dispossession of the Palestinians from their land; that consequence has already been cloistered within the humanitarian agenda. The international community bases its relevance to the issue upon two-state politics, as does the US. Hence the tactic of opposing just one fragment of the entire series of repercussions as a result of settlement expansion and de-facto annexation. Whenever the two-state compromise is mentioned, the Palestinian people rarely feature. It is safe, therefore, to state that the paradigm does not exist to grant Palestinians their rights, but to maintain international interference so that the Palestinians are forever unable to claim their legitimate rights to their land.

Last week, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz reiterated the Biden administration’s rigmarole. Speaking to reporters in Washington, Gantz said that US officials do not criticise settlement expansion with the same fervour that they speak about the two-state compromise. The US, Gantz said, is concerned mostly with “maintaining a political horizon between us and the Palestinians open, and about not creating a reality that blocks such a horizon from developing.”

Even more telling was Gantz’s statement that that there are “lots of differences between what the US and Israel view as a two-state solution.” Taking into account that the two-state compromise has been declared obsolete and remains relevant only within international diplomacy, any purported differences about which Gantz speaks are purely hypothetical.

If the US does not care about settlement expansion, why would it be concerned about how the two-state paradigm is applied, considering that it is no longer viable and Israel is well on its path to de-facto annexation in any case? If the US and Israel are on the same page when it comes to preserving the Palestinian Authority and its compromised politics (and “sacred” security coordination with the occupation state), there is little difference in terms of the ultimate aim that Israel is aiming for, which is complete control over all Palestinian territory. The US certainly doesn’t seek an alternative reality, not when it is so heavily invested in Israel. It is only that Biden has publicly aligned himself with international consensus, while Israel has been publicly rejecting any political negotiation for a solution, which gives Gantz any reason to claim political divergence with Washington.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor or Informed Comment.

Thanks to Homeless on the High Desert at https://homelessonthehighdesert.com/2021/12/15/tilting-windmills/ for the link. There are other good links in the post at the link. Hugs