We’re all better off ‘woke’ in DeSantis’ Florida | Editorial
By ORLANDO SENTINEL AND SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL EDITORIAL BOARDS | insight@orlandosentinel.com
Have you noticed? Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t smile enough. His brand is anger, especially at anything he can ridicule as “woke.”
Disney is “woke.” Diversity is “woke.” His obsession to cleanse Florida classrooms of discussions of racism was the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act.” He took over New College of Florida because it was “woke.” He suspended Tampa State Attorney Andrew Warren because his policies were “woke.”
Florida “is where woke goes to die,” he says. This four-letter word has lost much of its punch, purely from overuse.
But it really doesn’t matter whether people have any idea of what “woke” means — just that it sounds bad.
But what does it mean, really?
‘Systemic injustices’
As good an answer as any came from DeSantis’ general counsel, under questioning from Warren’s attorney in federal court.
“The belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them,” lawyer Ryan Newman replied, adding that DeSantis doesn’t share that belief.
He doesn’t? No society is without injustices. To pretend that ours is is ludicrous.
The term “woke” originated in Black culture almost a century ago. According to the Legal Defense Fund, it became an “in-group signal urging Black people to be aware of the systems that harm and otherwise put us at a disadvantage.”
Those are precisely the systems that DeSantis pretends don’t exist, and that he doesn’t want Florida schoolchildren and college students to learn anything about. His hijacking of the word “woke” is ironic, to say the least.
Obnoxious objectives
His objectives, like that of copycat Republican politicians, are threefold. One is to cater to bigoted and resentful white voters. Donald J. Trump taught them the effectiveness of that. No. 2: Breed a generation of future voters who will have learned nothing about racism’s history or continuing consequences.
The third objective, not quite so transparent but equally pernicious, is to desensitize the nation’s courts to systemic economic and political injustices, many of which afflict poor white people just as much as Black people. The Florida Supreme Court bought into this when it purged diversity guidelines from the Florida Bar’s continuing education criteria.
There hasn’t been such a cynical disinformation campaign since the Daughters of the Confederacy set out more than a century ago to reinvent the Civil War and Reconstruction. In that distorted looking glass, slavery had nothing to do with the war; it was the South fighting for freedom and the North fighting against it. That’s how children were to be taught.
Writing in The New York Times, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. described how the Daughters suppressed textbooks to the extent of rejecting any that described slaveholders as cruel. Slavery, wrote the Daughters’ historian, “was an education that taught the negro self-control, obedience and perseverance.”
“Undertaken by apologists for the former Confederacy with an energy and alacrity that was astonishing in its vehemence and reach, in an era defined by print culture, politicians and amateur historians joined forces to police the historical profession,” Gates wrote. “The so-called Lost Cause movement was, in effect, a take-no-prisoners social media war.”
The racism didn’t go away when the South lost the war and slaves were freed. It fostered sharecropping — slavery by another means. It rationalized Jim Crow laws, lynchings, inferior schools and a denial of the right to vote that persisted until 1965. It led to federal housing policies that confined Black people to urban ghettos. It was evident when Social Security initially excluded domestic and farm workers on the fiction that it would be too difficult to collect the taxes.
It remains glaring today in the statistic that Black Americans, who account for 13% of the population, are 27% of the people shot and killed by police. It was evident when the Tennessee House of Representatives expelled two Black members over a gun violence protest in their chamber, but not the Caucasian legislator who protested with them. It is apparent in the increasing re-segregation of public schools; profound racial disparities in income, health and mortality; and the persistence of fair housing and fair employment violations.
Exposure is essential
The remedy for injustice begins with exposure. It is essential. To conceal it is to be complicit in the injustice.
To teach American history through rose-colored glasses, as DeSantis intends, is to ignore the heroism and sacrifices that every generation has made toward fulfilling the belief that “all men are created equal.” That so many Americans have risen so often to that challenge speaks well of our nation, not poorly.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked one of DeSantis’ schemes — the law allowing educators and private businesses to be sued for making students and employees feel guilty about racism — but the destruction of the schools and universities goes on.
It’s up to the voters whether that continues. It’s better to be “woke” than silent any day.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie , Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddikk. THe Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Anderson. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.
Lazlow got more sense than RondaName phonetically sounds just like the GTA 5 main character name.
Man I was looking forward to that joint too smh..Don't think these aren't related
Disney World's costly Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser to close in late September
Disney World's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is closing and will make its final voyage this September after being open for only more than a year.www.cnbc.com
@GnauzBookOfRhymes
It is Oochie Wally Wally or is it One Mic
Disney scraps plans for new Florida campus, mass employee relocation amid DeSantis feud
Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are entangled in a bitter feud centered in part around the company's special district and development plans.www.cnbc.com
If you was the contractor that won that construction bid
Don't think these aren't related
Disney World's costly Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser to close in late September
Disney World's Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is closing and will make its final voyage this September after being open for only more than a year.www.cnbc.com
When I mentioned a little bit ago that I was hoping our discussions were more nuanced and OBJECTIVE, it's shyt like this I'm talking about.
You posted this, I'm assuming, to suggest that Disney is on the offensive and that this is just the beginning of other steps it will take to punish the state generally and desantis specifically.
What I've said about the Disney issue is that Desantis has been using it to create a national buzz; that people inclined to vote for him won't care or actively support his temper tantrum and most importantly in this instance, that both sides are posturing.
This Lake Nona relocation was incredibly unpopular internally - many of the affected employees quit rather than move to Florida. It had already been delayed several times and was decided under the previous CEO, who Iger apparently hates.
Disney delays campus project bringing 2,000 workers from California to Florida
Following reports last year that The Walt Disney Company plans to move at least 2,000 workers from California to Florida, the company announced the plans would be delayed.www.clickorlando.com
Once Disney announced it was cutting thousands of white collar jobs, freezing new hiring and looking to continue to cut costs, people already had a sense the Nona project was going to be shelved. The ppl at Disney aren't stupid, they know most ppl (yourself included I guess) only read the headlines and how to time press releases for maximum effect. And you took the bait hook, line and sinker. They knew ppl who don't care enough to do their research would automatically associate it with the desantis feud.
The part of his announcement you didn't mention is that disney is going to spend $17 billion over the next 10 yrs in FL. And that's not going to change bc the theme parks represent almost half of Disney's revenue.
The galactic starcruiser was shut down bc it cost thousands of dollars per person and nobody is paying that kind of money nowadays.
If you want to argue this is bad politics etc that's understandable. I agree that it can have negative consequences.
But pls stop dumbing down the thread. It's embarrassing.
When I mentioned a little bit ago that I was hoping our discussions were more nuanced and OBJECTIVE, it's shyt like this I'm talking about.
You posted this, I'm assuming, to suggest that Disney is on the offensive and that this is just the beginning of other steps it will take to punish the state generally and desantis specifically.
What I've said about the Disney issue is that Desantis has been using it to create a national buzz; that people inclined to vote for him won't care or actively support his temper tantrum and most importantly in this instance, that both sides are posturing.
This Lake Nona relocation was incredibly unpopular internally - many of the affected employees quit rather than move to Florida. It had already been delayed several times and was decided under the previous CEO, who Iger apparently hates.
Disney delays campus project bringing 2,000 workers from California to Florida
Following reports last year that The Walt Disney Company plans to move at least 2,000 workers from California to Florida, the company announced the plans would be delayed.www.clickorlando.com
Once Disney announced it was cutting thousands of white collar jobs, freezing new hiring and looking to continue to cut costs, people already had a sense the Nona project was going to be shelved. The ppl at Disney aren't stupid, they know most ppl (yourself included I guess) only read the headlines and how to time press releases for maximum effect. And you took the bait hook, line and sinker. They knew ppl who don't care enough to do their research would automatically associate it with the desantis feud.
The part of his announcement you didn't mention is that disney is going to spend $17 billion over the next 10 yrs in FL. And that's not going to change bc the theme parks represent almost half of Disney's revenue.
The galactic starcruiser was shut down bc it cost thousands of dollars per person and nobody is paying that kind of money nowadays.
If you want to argue this is bad politics etc that's understandable. I agree that it can have negative consequences.
But pls stop dumbing down the thread. It's embarrassing.
You tried to fight the woke, ha
Thought Iger was playin, ha
Mouse went upside yo head, ha
When I mentioned a little bit ago that I was hoping our discussions were more nuanced and OBJECTIVE, it's shyt like this I'm talking about.
You posted this, I'm assuming, to suggest that Disney is on the offensive and that this is just the beginning of other steps it will take to punish the state generally and desantis specifically.
What I've said about the Disney issue is that Desantis has been using it to create a national buzz; that people inclined to vote for him won't care or actively support his temper tantrum and most importantly in this instance, that both sides are posturing.
This Lake Nona relocation was incredibly unpopular internally - many of the affected employees quit rather than move to Florida. It had already been delayed several times and was decided under the previous CEO, who Iger apparently hates.
Disney delays campus project bringing 2,000 workers from California to Florida
Following reports last year that The Walt Disney Company plans to move at least 2,000 workers from California to Florida, the company announced the plans would be delayed.www.clickorlando.com
Once Disney announced it was cutting thousands of white collar jobs, freezing new hiring and looking to continue to cut costs, people already had a sense the Nona project was going to be shelved. The ppl at Disney aren't stupid, they know most ppl (yourself included I guess) only read the headlines and how to time press releases for maximum effect. And you took the bait hook, line and sinker. They knew ppl who don't care enough to do their research would automatically associate it with the desantis feud.
The part of his announcement you didn't mention is that disney is going to spend $17 billion over the next 10 yrs in FL. And that's not going to change bc the theme parks represent almost half of Disney's revenue.
The galactic starcruiser was shut down bc it cost thousands of dollars per person and nobody is paying that kind of money nowadays.
If you want to argue this is bad politics etc that's understandable. I agree that it can have negative consequences.
But pls stop dumbing down the thread. It's embarrassing.
They literally filed in Jan 2023 (preliminary) to moved forward with the Lake Nona project. Why are you always so loud wrong?
They also had already broken ground:
Site Work Underway on New Florida Headquarters for Disney Parks Division
Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyondblogmickey.com
Man I was looking forward to that joint too smh..
All those Transplants from the NE is fukking it up for Floridians who been living there..