In our days, one of the effects of the republican culture war consists of the attempt to suppress what is known as the culture woke. The term, first used in the fight for civil rights in the 1960s, and which I will translate as “awakening”, designates the fact of incorporating/raising awareness of the idea that there are systemic injustices in society and, concomitantly, the need to recognize them, address them and deal with them. It is a kind of “I have a dream” of our times. Dictionary webster defines it as “being informed, educated and aware of social injustice and racial inequality.”
The word had a second explosion during the Black Lives Matter movement, with the murders by the police of African-Americans Michael Brown, first, and Eric Gerner, Tamir Rice and George Floyd, later. they comment two analysts:
woke upwhich has a long history in black culture, was propelled to the mainstream in 2014 by activists protesting after Michael Brown, a black teenager, was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri. “Stay Awake” was a warning to be vigilant as the Black Lives Matter protests were met with a sizable police force. It evolved to encapsulate a broader social justice mantra: being “awake” is defined as being aware of racial and social injustices.
And later:
Among the conservatives, woke it has been adopted as a term of derision for those who hold progressive views about social justice. In particular, the right-wing connotation of the word implies that an “awakened” person or entity is being performative or false. The point is directly related to language like “political correctness” and to “cancel” culture, which is also at the forefront of conservative messaging.
The above has a number of correlates. One of the most important is the attempt by Republican governors and spokespersons—including figures such as Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Kari Lake, Marco Rubio, and Mehmet Oz—to legally erase content related to racism in public education, and Especially African American history.
According to a report from Education WeekSince January 2021, forty-four states have passed bills or taken action to restrict the teaching of critical race theory or limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism in their classrooms. .
The trend continued in 2022, when state legislators—Republicans, of course—continued to expand the new crusade by passing related legislation in Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi. On April 22, 2022, for example, Governor DeSantis signed into law known as the Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees (“Stop WOKE Act“), a pompous and paternalistic acronym meaning “Put an End to the [que es] Wrong for Our Children and Employees.”
In the absence of certain concurrences and reactions that will be detailed later, the legislation would have put into practice the wettest dreams of the governor and his rednecks. The anti-actionswoke They functioned and still function in those mentalities as an obsession, to the point of demonizing/equating the word itself with Marxism, as De Santis himself does so as not to stay behind the everlasting national ideological circus.
“What we see now with the rise of this ideology of woke it is an attempt to delegitimize our history and delegitimize our institutions; he woke it is a form of cultural Marxism. They really want to tear at the fabric of our society,” he said in a December 2021 speech. The night he was re-elected he was even more emphatic: “We reject the ideology of woke. We will never give in to your agenda. People have come here because of our policies.”
His law has several implications. The first and most important is to prohibit public school students from enrolling in an advanced course in African American studies on the grounds that it “lacks educational value.” It is about deleting any content related to racism, the central point of the culture wars on issues such as LGBTQ and minority rights, among others.
The reactions were swift. According to Florida Senator Bobby Powell Jr., “Not only is this ban discriminatory, it goes against old Florida law… Nearly thirty years ago, Florida legislators passed a law requiring students from Public schools are taught the history of African Americans, including slavery, abolition, and the contributions of blacks to society. Banning this advanced course that incorporates these very topics not only whitewashes history, but tramples on a lauded state law that guided our state into the 21st century. And it exposes our governor’s racial bias.”
He added: “In his campaign to crush basic freedom of thought and expression in Florida, the Governor has turned a course designed to enrich our understanding of American history and celebrate the pioneering achievements of African Americans into a tool for propaganda and political ambitions.
For their part, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Florida, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and the lawyer Ballard Spahr filed a lawsuit: they argued that STOP WOKE violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution by imposing viewpoint-based restrictions on teachers and students. They also argued that it went against the Equal Protection Clause because it was enacted for a racially discriminatory purpose. And because it would have a disparate impact on black educators and students.
Last November came the ruling of a judge federal. In a major victory for educators, Judge Mark Walker ruled that STOP WOKEIn effect, it violated the First and fourteenth amendments and prevented their application in Florida public institutions of higher education. And he concluded with a rather heretical judgment:
The law officially prohibits professors from expressing unfavorable views in college classrooms while allowing unrestricted expression of opposing views. The defendants argue that, under this law, professors enjoy ‘academic freedom’ as long as they express only those views that the State approves. This is dystopian. It goes without saying that ‘if freedom means anything, it means the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear’.
“This is a great victory for anyone who values academic freedom and recognizes the value of inclusive education,” he said. Emerson Sykes, ACLU attorney. “The First Amendment broadly protects our right to share information and ideas, and this includes the right of educators and students to learn, discuss, and debate issues related to systemic racism and sexism. This preliminary injunction is a big step in the right direction, and we look forward to the court striking down this discriminatory censorship in classrooms bill once and for all.”
“Today, the court sided with the right of Florida educators and students to teach and learn without censorship or discrimination,” he said. Jerry Edwardsfrom the ACLU of Florida. “The ability to have honest and open discussions about our history and its impact on Black and Latino communities is crucial to our democracy. When we better understand our country’s past and failures, we give ourselves the chance to pave a brighter future for all.”
Its implementation in colleges and universities has then been temporarily blocked. However, basic, secondary, and upper secondary education are still affected by this round and round censorship.
The case is still disputed in court. And the protests continue.
