After two days of emotional debate on a proposal that remains clouded by considerable confusion, the Senate passed the framework for the so-called “Stop Woke Act” 24 to 15, in a party-line vote. DeSantis initially proposed the bill in December, arguing he wanted Florida to become a bulwark against corporate trainings and school lessons that make people uncomfortable about the actions of their ancestors.
The proposal has resulted in deep divisions within Florida, a diverse state that relies on workers from across the globe to power its tourism-driven economy. The debate comes as Republican-controlled legislators around the country are pushing similar laws, falsely arguing that an academic theory known as critical race theory is widely taught in public schools.
The battles over critical race theory – which Florida already banned from classrooms last year – is resulting in emotional struggles in legislative bodies across the South and parts of the Midwest, often pitting White conservative lawmakers against their Black colleagues. Six weeks ago, the entire Black delegation of the Mississippi Senate walked out when that chamber considered a similar measure.
During the debate at Florida’s state capitol on Thursday, Black lawmakers spoke about their struggles against racism and bigotry to personally plead with with their colleagues to oppose this proposal.
“This bill is about fear,” said Sen. Audrey Gibson (D), who is Black. “Not fear of someone feeling guilt, but fear of our young people coming together to tear down walls of division that some people want to keep up … The bill makes it okay to talk about Pilgrims coming over on ships, but not a race of people coming who came over on slave ships.”
“You can’t say you support me, and then you use the word ‘but’,” added Sen. Shevrin Jones (D), who is also Black. Jones looked directly at his Republican colleagues as recounted Florida’s past of racial massacres. “Florida is the South, but I can tell you this, we are not there no more, just in case you didn’t know it,” he said.
Under the initial draft of the bill released in January, Florida schools and businesses would have been barred from mandating that students or employees attend diversity trainings that cause any individual to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any form of psychological distress.” The bill was later amended to clarify those feelings must be linked to lessons or diversity trainings that imply someone is responsible for actions “committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex or national origin.”
“It’s not about the feel. We can’t control how a person feels about a topic,” said Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., a Republican from Miami-Dade who shepherd the proposal through the Senate. “But what we can control is to have a teacher not go to a student … and impose on male student that they are sexist simply because they are a considered a male.”
Diaz, a Cuban American, spoke of how his ancestors fled to Florida because they wanted a free and open education system. “Don’t…
Read More News: Florida Legislature passes bill that limits how schools and workplaces teach about
