“Woke” Republicans are trying to make it a criminal offense to discuss racial inequality in Florida, although the First Amendment could make that complicated. However, a lot of times, a chilling effect will be enough.
That apparently was the case when a Florida school district “canceled a professor’s civil rights history seminar for teachers, citing in part concerns over ‘critical race theory’ — even though his lecture had nothing to do with the topic,” NBC News reported on Monday, January 24, 2022 (read story here).
The history professor was to give a presentation Saturday to Osceola County School District teachers called “The Long Civil Rights Movement,” which “postulates that the civil rights movement preceded and post-dated Martin Luther King Jr. by decades,” NBC News said. He “was shocked to learn why the seminar had been canceled” but “wasn’t surprised” because educators “feel increasingly intimidated over teaching about race,” NBC News added.
The day before, the GOP-controlled state senate advanced a bill promoted by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, who hopes to become president, that would make it a crime for schools and businesses to make people feel “discomfort” about race. Does that mean a shopkeeper could go to jail for putting a “Racists Not Welcome” sign in his shop window? Why do Klansmen’s feelings need to be protected?
DeSantis and Florida GOP legislators are now stooping to bullying and threatening teachers. Don’t be surprised if that state has a teacher shortage crisis in a few years, if they don’t already. I sure wouldn’t teach there, under these circumstances.
This is what political repression in apartheid societies looks like, folks.