The “Critical” War on Education: Stop W.O.K.E Act
The College Board has long provided a variety of Advanced Placement (AP) classes for students to explore their interests while simultaneously being academically challenged. In the Winter of 2022, College Board announced that there would be a new addition to the classes available for students: AP African American Studies. Observers debated whether AP African American Studies would provide students with an opportunity to learn vital context of the nation's past or perpetuate highly contested Critical Race theory. While some were merely apprehensive about taking the class, Florida's Department of Education acted in a drastic manner. At the end of January, students were informed that they would be prohibited from taking the class because it lacked "educational value and historical accuracy," according to the state's Department of Education [1]. The key argument surrounding the removal of AP African American history in Florida is that the class violates the Stop W.O.K.E Act. The Stop W.O.K.E Act bans the teaching of Critical Race Theory and the New York Times' 1619 Project, which re-introduces the story of Black history in a more accurate light. However, the propaganda used to promote the Stop W.O.K.E law as a weapon against Critical Race Theory and indoctrination is highly questionable. The careful curation of Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E Act has been used to misrepresent the use of Critical Race Theory and as a result such rhetoric and ignorance will subsequently have catastrophic effects.
While the use of Critical Race Theory remains hotly contested in the public sphere, CRT is yet to be taught in K-12 education. The Stop W.O.K.E Act is permeated with intentional language that is intended to refer to CRT but does so without expliciting naming it. The Act states that an individual can not be compelled to believe that “by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously” among other things [2]. However, the core values of CRT are not to teach children or an individual that they are inherently racist but to educate them on ways that systems have been assembled to keep some minorities inferior. Gloria Ladson-Billings, a pioneer for the adaptation of CRT in education, has spoken out about this present confusion. She describes CRT as an “explanation for racial inequality is that it is baked into the way we have organized the society”[3]. Unlike Gloria’s definition of CRT as a basic framework to better interpret the prevailing state of society, the Stop W.O.K.E Act instead suggests that the teachings of CRT have somehow infiltrated K-12 education to indoctrinate young children. Under the guise of preserving young children’s moral character, the S.T.O.P Woke Act is inevitably a wolf cry, inciting further racial and political tension surrounding the use of CRT which in fact does not exist in K-12 schools.
The implementation of laws such as Stop W.O.K.E Act are used as instruments to instill fear and chaos in susceptible populations. The utilization of CRT as an umbrella term referring to “all diversity and inclusion efforts, race-conscious policies, and education about racism, whether or not they draw from CRT” has proven to be problematic [4]. The advertisement of the Stop W.O.K.E Act as a means to “fight back against woke indoctrination” is again utilization of such law in order to create unnecessary fear in vulnerable populations [5]. Such indoctrination is not physically present but is seemingly formed by the implementation of the Stop W.O.K.E Act. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s office also highlighted the proposal of the Stop W.O.K.E Act as further building on to his efforts to ban CRT in Florida schools saying, “Stop W.O.K.E Act will be the strongest legislation of its kind in the nation and will take on both corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory.”[6] But such a bold statement simply is not true. Not only does the Stop W.O.K.E Act not mention CRT but it is crucial to note that CRT is not being taught in Florida schools. However, the Stop W.O.K.E Act does not simply stop at schools but also limits the measure of diversity training that individuals can receive in the workplace. The lack of training does not limit one’s exposure to woke ideology as the act may proclaim but instead forces minority populations to work in less inclusive and thus less safe environments. According to the findings of the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), discriminatory behaviors such as harassment have become increasingly prevalent in workplaces that lack proper diversity training [7].
In reality, the Stop W.O.K.E act is being used to censor school curriculums and anti-bias training, but it is weaponized in political discourse to say that it is fighting CRT, which it cannot do since CRT is not taught in K-12 schools. So what are the repercussions of such weaponization?
As academic content restrictions become stricter through the act, the mental safety and wellbeing of countless children has been and continues to be sacrificed. Desantis and the curators of the Stop W.O.K.E Act view CRT as “state-sanctioned racism” that corrupts the young minds of White children [8]. However, the mental and physical harm that is perpetuated against children of color as a societal result of fictitious historical education is the real dilemma.
According to a poll issued by the Gallup Center on Black Voices, 21% of Black postsecondary students account the experience of feeling discriminated against “frequently” or “occasionally.”[9] The Stop W.O.K.E Act further strips these students from equal opportunity to a safe environment as the presence of systemic racism within higher institutions can no longer be taught in the state of Florida. The Act places such a strong emphasis on combating indoctrination and woke ideology that it remains remiss of the very reasons why CRT were formed. The Stop W.O.K.E act also assumes that students will somehow be harmed by learning the privilege that they possess due to systemic racism. However, after surveying White students that were taught CRT at Vanderbilt, they found that students found it to be an enlightening experience. One student said, “It never felt like my position as a student was over here and my position as a real person was somewhere over there. They were connected.”[10] It would be ignorant to believe that all students have the same grasp of CRT but such a testimony again highlights the lack of validity that the Stop W.O.K.E Act has.
As it is currently presented the Stop W.O.K.E Act is merely a host of buzz terms stringed together in a hope to further incite racial and political tensions. As one looks through the terminology of the Stop W.O.K.E Act, it becomes evident that this Act does not refer to the teachings of CRT but to what right-ring extremists believe it to. Implementation of such laws is perilous as it crafts volatile environments for the minorities that are most affected by it. Nonetheless, it is crucial to the future of not only the state of Florida but this country that diverse perspectives within education persist. With a multitude of lived experiences and understanding before them students can for themselves explore societal means and their role to contribute to or dismantle present institutions. Legislation such as the Stop W.O.K.E Act must not be relied on as sources of workplace or academic equality, when their true purpose is to create chaos and division.
Bibliography
Pendharkar, Eesha. “Florida’s Ban on AP African American Studies, Explained.” Education Week, January 27, 2023. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/floridas-ban-on-ap-african-american-studies-explained/2023/01#:~:text=Florida%20high%20schoolers%20will%20no,and%20allegedly%20violating%20Florida%20law.
Calendar for 10/9/2023 - the florida senate. https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/148/BillText/Filed/HTML.
“The State of Critical Race Theory in Education.” Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/edcast/22/02/state-critical-race-theory-education.
“Critical Race Theory FAQ.” Legal Defense Fund, August 18, 2023. https://www.naacpldf.org/critical-race-theory-faq/.
“Governor DeSantis Announces Legislative Proposal to Stop W.O.K.E. Activism and Critical Race Theory in Schools and Corporations.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. https://www.flgov.com/2021/12/15/governor-desantis-announces-legislative-proposal-to-stop-w-o-k-e-activism-and-critical-race-theory-in-schools-and-corporations/.
“Governor DeSantis Announces Legislative Proposal to Stop W.O.K.E. Activism and Critical Race Theory in Schools and Corporations.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
“Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace.” US EEOC. https://www.eeoc.gov/select-task-force-study-harassment-workplace?renderforprint=1#_Toc453686309.
Golden, Daniel. “‘It’s Making Us More Ignorant.’” The Atlantic, January 4, 2023. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/ron-desantis-florida-critical-race-theory-professors/672507/.
Brown, Camille Lloyd and Courtney. “One in Five Black Students Report Discrimination Experiences.” Gallup.com, September 19, 2023. https://news.gallup.com/poll/469292/one-five-black-students-report-discrimination-experiences.aspx.
Ebony Omotola McGee, Devin T. White. “What White Students Say about a Critical Race Theory Course (Opinion).” Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs, 2021. https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/09/28/what-white-students-say-about-critical-race-theory-course-opinion.