White Supremacy 2.0: DeSantis’s Big Brother Assault on Higher Education
The white supremacy of 2023 looks very different than it did prior to the civil rights era. As a nation, we’ve traded Klan robes and open celebrations of segregation for more subtle, and as a result more insidious efforts to erase discussions of racism from public memory. Such is the case with the recent efforts in Florida to dismantle any lingering educational commitment to the studying racial inequality. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced that he wants a “core curriculum” for the state’s public universities. He is calling for changes that “would mandate courses in Western civilization, eliminate diversity programs and reduce the protections of tenure.” DeSantis is demanding reforms in order to challenge “woke ideology,” “from gender-neutral bathrooms to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) departments in schools,” while focusing his ire on universities. These efforts, he claims, will disrupt “ideological conformity” in the academy. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out that he’s talking about dismantling the parts of the college experience that are grounded in liberal or progressive values, and imposing rightwing values in their place, as mandated by the state. In one recent example, DeSantis reportedly targeted New College of Florida, admonishing the school for teaching critical race theory (CRT) and “gender theories.”
Photograph Source: Matt Johnson – CC BY 2.0
