Florida's fight against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Get the Point!

Earlier this week, Florida State Rep. Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola), filed HB 999, a measure that would codify the next wave of Gov. Ron Desantis' push to overhaul the state's education system by scrapping diversity, equity, and inclusion as goals in hiring and course offerings. 

Specifically, the Bill provides in pertinent part that Florida schools "may not suppress or distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, such as Critical Race Theory, or defines American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”

 The Bill further provides that, “Whenever applicable...courses should promote the philosophical underpinnings of Western civilization and include studies of this nation’s historical documents, including the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments there to, and the Federalist Papers.”

So, as one who has worn the hats of historian and legal scholar during my career, please allow me a few paragraphs to analyze what this Bill is—and is not—in real time!

On its face, the Bill blends objective and subjective academic concepts in a way that sets the purported goals in opposition. Meaning, one cannot claim to support the teaching of America's founding documents like the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution in accurate form without offending the very MAGA Republicans who claim that lessons or lectures that highlight the low points in American history with regards to race and systemic racism serve to offend the descendants of those pilgrims, early immigrants, and Founding Fathers who were, well, racists to their very core!

Seriously, when you consider the lofty ideals written by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence that "we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal," what would the student of those words learn if the teacher is prevented by law from reminding that outside of the very home office at Monticello where Jefferson inscribed those words, that 350 Black men, women, and children—including several that he fathered with his half-Black sister in law and paramour Sally Hemings—were deemed unequal, enslaved, and totally not free to ponder "life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness?"

When you consider the Constitution and its Bill of Rights, what would the student of that document learn about the contentious 1787 Constitutional Convention if the teacher is prevented by law from highlighting the role that enslaved Blacks in the South played in fashioning federalism and the role of the central government? Those lessons would be incomplete if teachers can't teach that the infamous 3/5ths Clause, the one that counted Blacks as 3/5ths of a whole white person for census purposes, was added so that states in the South which had more enslaved Blacks than free white people could be on a more "equal" footing with Northern states that had outlawed slavery long before the first shot was fired in the Revolutionary War!

Until the 14th Amendment became law in 1868, three years after the Civil War ended, enslaved Blacks were counted as 3/5ths of a whole white person…

Simply stated, true academicians know that when it comes to subjects like history and Western Civilization, or any civilization for that matter, one cannot cherry pick the good fruit while leaving the spoiled to rot in anonymity. 

As one who actually took several courses at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in what was still considered the relatively new concept of "Critical Race Theory" back in the 90’s, I remember quite well that I supported capital punishment. You see, I was 17-years and a high school senior when serial killer Ted Bundy was executed at Florida State Prison in 1989, and there was a part of me from that point forward which believed quite fervently that some crimes were so heinous, so atrocious, and so cruel that "justice" seemingly required "an eye for an eye."

But Professor Kenneth Nunn, a brilliant Black man who was not much older than me when I took his "Race and Relations" class back in '97, asked me to stop by his office one afternoon after I had given an impassioned defense of capital punishment during a class session. Nunn handed me a book off of his shelf that analyzed capital punishment not with "feelings," speculation or conjecture, but with hard core data; the book had names, dates, and the racial designations of men, women, and yes, children who had been lynched by mobs from the 1880's to the 1980's—along with the names, dates, and racial designations of men, women, and yes, children who had been executed by state, federal, or military officials from the 1880's to the 1980's.

With my mentor turned friend and colleague, Professor Ken Nunn, during the Rosewood Massacre centennial commemoration at the University of Florida College of Law last month.

When I finished the book, I was humble enough to circle back to Prof. Nunn's office and admit that he had opened my eyes as to how very similar government executions were to lynch mobs, and how disproportionate both of those forms of killing were against Blacks and other people of color; I have been an ardent and vocal death penalty opponent ever since!

While I surely benefited from the wise counsel of gifted educators like Prof. Nunn during my youth, today, I am keenly aware that MAGA Republicans aren't all that interested in developing young minds so that they can think critically once they leave the halls of academia. No, those MAGA’s are more interested in fostering a type of group-think that eventually leads to a form of nationalism, one in which the motives of those in power today is rarely questioned—because the motives of those in power from ages past is never questioned.

Curiously, the same MAGA minions who find diversity, equity, and inclusion distasteful on the academic side of university life in Florida make one notable exception—which is allowing those Black athletes (not all, but most) who would struggle to gain admission to UF, the #5 public school in America according to U.S. News & World Report behind only Cal-Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan and Virginia, if they couldn't play revenue earning sports like football and basketball…

While I seriously doubt that HB 999, if signed into law, will be deemed constitutional due to one of the better parts of the Constitution's Bill of Rights—the First Amendment and it's proscribing government acts that would chill free speech and the dissemination of ideas, I still find it sad and deplorable that MAGA Republicans are so bent on making America look and feel like the 1950’s—back when white men dominated everything, white women were seen and seldom heard; Blacks were second class "invisible" citizens, Latinos were far fewer, and the LGBTQ community was deep in the closet. 

Lest we forget—and let us continue to resist the tyranny of the MAGA minions across these United States!