By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.
Governor Ron Desantis professes that Florida is where woke goes to die. He is adamant. He is passing laws to ensure that courses such as AP Black American History are not taught in schools and teachers who teach kindergarteners all the way through to college graduate students face harsh consequences for teaching anything dealing with a semblance of diversity, equity, inclusion, white privilege, white fragility or critical race theory (CRT).
Even while attempting to be cognizant of the law, HB 999 is broad enough to swoop any well-meaning person into a heap of trouble if someone wants to make it an issue of indoctrination.
A professor at the private Palm Beach Atlantic University found himself terminated from his job after more than 18 years when he taught a unit on racial injustice as a segment of his course. Interestingly, he had taught this part of the course with no challenge for over ten years. Once reported, the professor was removed from class pending the outcome of an investigation. Once concluded, university officials found that the English Professor had been “indoctrinating students” and subsequently terminated his employment. Bear in mind that these students are in college. They are adults. The main purpose of college study is for the exchange of ideas and diversity of thought among students from all walks of life.
Nova Southeastern University (NSU) just canceled a screening and panel discussion among faculty and students on a racial injustice documentary, The Poison Garden. The documentary accounts three separate lynching stories of Black men at the hands of angry White men in Fort Lauderdale. In one of the cases, the documentary details the lynching of 37-year-old, Rubin Stacey. Stacey was accused of knocking on a door to ask for a drink of water which frightened a White woman. He was later tortured and lynched by an angry mob of White men. As his body hang from a tree, onlookers including children as young as eight years old, were summoned to gather around to gawk at Stacey’s battered, bruised and lifeless body. The Poison Garden also focuses on the killings of other Black men in South Florida and the inequality in the court system that has sent hundreds of innocent Black men and women to prison.
Hear me clearly. This war on wokeness is not about Black folk having access to their history and deeply understanding diversity, equity, inclusion, white fragility, white privilege and how critical race theory plays out in the fabric of American society.
Stay Woke, People!
DeSantis’ “War on Woke” is about White people getting a clear understanding of these things.
Black wokeness is not at the forefront of Governor DeSantis’ mind, but White Wokeness is. As good, decent, well-meaning, well-intended White folk begin to deeply understand the aforementioned concepts and how the aftermath of slavery has affected the mental and economic status of a race of people, there has been a shift that the not-so-good, not-so-decent, not-so-well meaning, not-so-well-intended White folk are very uncomfortable with.
To demonstrate my point, consider how the George Floyd demonstrations evolved from the Trayvon Martin protests. The media and people took notice that there were more White protestors than there were Blacks in some of the Floyd demonstrations across the country. In one demonstration, White protesters created a human chain with their own bodies in front of Black protestors to protect them from police brutality. This has made the not-so-good, not-so-decent, not-so-well meaning, not-so-well-intended White folk concerned and angry.
Stay Woke.
The War on Woke is about keeping the truth from conscious White folk, not conscious Black folk.
This consciousness of White people has led to a sense of desperation and at this point, anything goes and anyone of any race is a target.
As conscious White people begin to speak out about the injustices, they, too, have become targets of White on White revenge. Be reminded that even Whites were beaten and killed in Selma for crossing the line over to the “dark side”. Reverend James Reeb, a White pastor and social worker traveled to Selma to participate in the Civil Rights Movement after Bloody Sunday. He was beaten on March 9, 1965 by a group of White men as he participated in protests. The father of four succumbed to his injuries two days later and died. Selma’s Bloody Sunday was televised nationally and became the turning point in the Civil Rights Movement in much of the same way that the 9 minute, 29 second knee of the neck video of George Floyd’s slow and merciless killing became the turning point of the Black Lives Matter movement. We saw White protestors beat with police batons during the George Floyd protests in the same way James Reeb was beaten. Instead of savage beatings, we are now seeing White teachers and educators being charged and losing their jobs for violating these very unjust laws aimed at undoing the progress made over the last decade to expose white privilege and encourage diversity, equity and inclusion.
I say, “Wake Up and Stay Woke”, my brothers and sisters. We are in the thick of a second Civil Rights Movement. Our Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and our Black Greek Lettered Organizations (BGLOs) are in danger of being lumped into HB999. Do not allow DeSantis to redefine wokeness with his warped agenda. When you hear “woke”, “wokeness”, “stay woke” in any venue or context it must always be about the awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans. While wokeness is about the Black agenda, it becomes a threat to some when it becomes a serious line item on the White agenda.
Stay woke!
