Former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal critical of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the recently passed “Stop Woke Act,” he signed into law. The Stop WOKE Act prohibits classroom discussions or corporate training that make students or workers feel uneasy about their race. It is widely viewed as a pushback against the teaching of Critical Race Theory.
Bloomberg writes,” Republicans often rightly complain that college campuses are hostile to the free exchange of ideas. Speakers over the past decade have regularly been disinvited, shouted down and even physically attacked by student activists unwilling to entertain different ideas and perspectives. This behavior is anathema to a university’s mission and deeply damaging to our nation.
“Unfortunately, instead of taking a principled stand for free speech, many Republicans are now saying: “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.” Consider Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed a bill that as of July 1 bars professors from expressing any view in a classroom that “espouses, promotes, [or] advances” anything that could make students feel guilty about history, as it relates to race and gender. The bill is known as the Stop Woke Act, short for Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees, and its principal target is critical race theory, which has become a bugaboo on the right and is divisive on the left.
“Free inquiry and discourse—including professing ideas and beliefs—lie at the heart of higher education and democratic society. In both the sciences and humanities, rigorous debates based on facts, data and reason allow ideas and theories to be evaluated and amended, adopted and discarded, in ways that promote understanding, advance knowledge and teach responsible citizenship.
Desantis said, “We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other. We also have a responsibility to ensure that parents have the means to vindicate their rights when it comes to enforcing state standards,” writes Bloomberg. Read all of his Op-Ed at https://www.wsj.com/articles/republican-censors-go-for-woke-florida-ron-desantis-critical-race-theory-ban-gender-universities-businesses-training-dei-free-expression-11660595313?mod=hp_opin_pos_3#cxrecs_s
Note: A Federal Judge has ordered a preliminary injunction against implementation of this law.
