School administrators in a central Florida county canceled a seminar for history teachers on the U.S. civil rights movement, in part, because it had not been screened to make sure it was free of critical race theory, which the college professor planning the presentation says it didn't have.
Michael Butler said Monday that he had been scheduled to give a presentation over the weekend before Osceola County teachers on the history of the U.S. civil rights movement since 1896 when he was notified that the seminar was canceled. Osceola County is part of metro Orlando.
No one from school district asked to see the materials he was going to present, and the presentation had no reference to critical race theory, said Butler, a history professor at Flagler College in St. Augustine.
“I was shocked. There is a lot that bothers me about this,” Butler said in a phone interview. “I think that critical race theory is so nebulous that, for people who aren’t experts in the field, CRT is becoming a euphemism for Black history, and that is a shame. They aren't the same.”
Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. It was developed during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what scholars viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society.
Conservatives reject it, saying it is a world view derived from Marxism that divides society by defining people as oppressors and oppressed based on their race. They call it an attempt to rewrite American history and make white people believe they are inherently racist.
Last month, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis called critical race theory “crap."
“This is an elite driven phenomenon being driven by bureaucratic elites, elites in universities and elites in corporate America and they’re trying to shove it down the throats of the American people," DeSantis said in a speech.
A bill being pushed by DeSantis would prohibit public schools and private businesses from making people feel “discomfort” when they teach students or train employees about discrimination in the nation’s past.
An Osceola County school district spokesperson said Monday that the seminar was canceled since a number of teachers were out with COVID-19 but also because the district needed time to review the presentation materials “in light of the current conversations across our state and in our community about critical race theory."
“We remain committed to fully supporting the work of our educators to provide meaningful learning experiences about the facts and realities of the history of our country and our world using a guaranteed and viable curriculum," district spokesperson Dana Schafer said in an email.
The canceled history seminar was first reported by NBC News.
Butler said school teachers in Florida are scared about what they are going to be allowed to teach.
“The implications are not positive," Butler said. “When it comes to teaching topics that some may interpret as uncomfortable, those are pretty low bars."
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law new guidelines Friday involving race-based discussions in businesses and schools as part of his campaign against critical race theory, which he called “pernicious" ideology.
Passed by lawmakers earlier this year, the legislation bars instruction that says members of one race are inherently racist, and that they should feel guilt for past actions committed by others of the same race or that a person’s status as privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by their race. It also bars the notion that meritocracy is racist, or that discrimination is acceptable to achieve diversity.
“We believe in education, not indoctrination,” DeSantis said during Friday's bill signing in South Florida.
Kids holding signs against Critical Race Theory stand on stage near Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as he addresses the crowd before publicly signing HB7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "stop woke" bill during a news conference at Mater Academy Charter MiddleHigh School in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., on Friday, April 22, 2022. DeSantis also signed two other bills into laws including one regarding the "big tech" bill signed last year but set aside due to a court ruling, and the special districts bill, which relates to the Reedy Creek Improvement District. (Daniel A. VarelaMiami Herald via AP)
DeSantis said Florida students will not have oppressive ideologies imposed on them, as the bill provides “substantive protections” for students in grades K to 12. He said “pernicious ideologies” will not be allowed.
“We will not use your tax dollars to teach our kids to hate this country or hate each other,” DeSantis said.
Opponents say DeSantis doesn’t have an accurate idea of what critical race theory is, and argue that his motives are to suppress an accurate account of Black history.
A crowd listens to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before he publicly signed HB7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "stop woke" bill during a news conference at Mater Academy Charter MiddleHigh School in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., on Friday, April 22, 2022. DeSantis also signed two other bills into laws including one regarding the "big tech" bill signed last year but set aside due to a court ruling, and the special districts bill, which relates to the Reedy Creek Improvement District. (Daniel A. VarelaMiami Herald via AP)
“It’s just illustrating Gov. DeSantis’ pattern of Black attack policies led by Republican legislators. He has taken a culture war to a classic Republican battleground, which is the public schools. It’s going to hurt our children’s futures,”' said Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon, who is Black. “CRT is not taught in K-12 education here in our public schools."
DeSantis’ focus on culture war issues involving race, gender and the coronavirus have made him one of the most popular Republican politicians in the country and a likely 2024 presidential candidate.
Critical race theory centers on the idea that racism is systemic in U.S. institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society. There is little evidence that critical race theory itself is being taught to K-12 public school students, though some ideas central to it have been incorporated into teaching materials.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reacts after publicly signing HB7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "stop woke" bill during a news conference at Mater Academy Charter MiddleHigh School in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., on Friday, April 22, 2022. DeSantis also signed two other bills into laws including one regarding the "big tech" bill signed last year but set aside due to a court ruling, and the special districts bill, which relates to the Reedy Creek Improvement District. (Daniel A. VarelaMiami Herald via AP)
Black lawmakers in Florida have said they believe the legislation will have a chilling effect on how African American history is taught because teachers will fear lawsuits if students’ parents object to how they present subjects like slavery, segregation, lynchings and the continued presence of racism in the U.S.
“The governor is on his bogeyman tour of issues that are not issues,” Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones, who is Black, said in an interview. “The Republicans continuously cloak themselves in freedom, but clearly pick and choose which freedoms and for whom they support said freedoms .. They sure don’t support the freedoms of Black people.”
The new law does expand language in state law requiring classroom instruction on ”the ramifications of prejudice, racism and stereotyping on individual freedoms,” as well as study of the history of slavery, segregation and racial oppression, and of contributions by Blacks in U.S. history. But such material cannot seek to “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view” inconsistent with the law.
A crowd listens to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis before he publicly signed HB7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "stop woke" bill during a news conference at Mater Academy Charter MiddleHigh School in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., on Friday, April 22, 2022. DeSantis also signed two other bills into laws including one regarding the "big tech" bill signed last year but set aside due to a court ruling, and the special districts bill, which relates to the Reedy Creek Improvement District. (Daniel A. VarelaMiami Herald via AP)
“What are we supposed to do, just let these ideologies overtake our entire education system?” DeSantis said at a campaign-style event Friday to sign the bill in the South Florida city of Hialeah. The gathered crowd responded, ’Noooo.'
“This is an ideology that was taking hold in a lot of elite institutions, the media, corporate America, the bureaucracy, the education establishment. Most Americans don’t want anything to do with this stuff,” DeSantis said.
Associated Press writer David Fischer contributed to this report from Miami.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis publicly signs HB7, "individual freedom," also dubbed the "stop woke" bill during a news conference at Mater Academy Charter MiddleHigh School in Hialeah Gardens, Fla., on Friday, April 22, 2022. (Daniel A. VarelaMiami Herald via AP)
