Civil rights leaders charge Ron DeSantis with ‘policy violence’

Ron DeSantis. Image via AP.

Civil rights activists cheered when Ron DeSantis pardoned four Black men wrongfully convicted of rape as one of his first actions as Florida’s Governor.

But four years later, as DeSantis eyes the presidency, their hope that the Republican would be an ally on racial justice has long faded.

Instead, African American leaders decry what they call a pattern of “policy violence” against people of color executed by the DeSantis administration that reached a low point after the recent release of an “anti-woke” public school curriculum on Black history. Specifically, Florida’s teachers are now required to instruct middle-school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

DeSantis has repeatedly defended the new language while insisting that his critics, who include Vice President Kamala Harris and at least one high-profile Republican congressman, are intentionally misinterpreting one line of the sweeping curriculum. Civil rights leaders who have watched DeSantis closely dismiss such explanations.

“DeSantis has perfected the art of using policy violence that we must stop,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. His organization issued a travel advisory for Florida in May warning African Americans against DeSantis’ “aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.”

Facing fierce backlash this week over the new curriculum, the 44-year-old Governor was as defiant as ever.

“We believe in true history,” DeSantis said in an interview Tuesday with conservative commentator Clay Travis. “The standards that were developed, these are Black history scholars, many of whom were African American themselves, they worked on this. It’s very, very thorough. It is every little aspect, of not just slavery, but the Black experience in America.”

DeSantis is now facing criticism from Florida teachers, civil rights leaders and the Biden White House.

Other Black conservatives have begun to speak out. Rep. Byron Donalds, one of the most powerful Black Republicans in the state, said he has a problem with the part of the curriculum that suggests enslaved people derived any benefit from their situation.

“To me, yes, that section needs some adjustments,” he told Southwest Florida’s WINK News this week.

“The talking point narrative around it, yeah, it sounds awful,” said Donalds, who, like almost every Republican in Florida’s congressional delegation, has endorsed Trump over DeSantis in the primary. “Nobody should be accepting of that. But when you read through the standards, they actually did a very good job in covering all aspects of Black history in the United States.”

Donalds said he planned to work with the State Board of Education to “bring refinement” to that topic.

The DeSantis administration later went on the attack against Donalds, a popular conservative seen as a rising star in the GOP.

The state’s education commissioner, Manny Diaz Jr., vowed on social media Wednesday not to change the teaching standards “at the behest of a woke @WhiteHouse, nor at the behest of a supposedly conservative congressman.” DeSantis’ spokesperson, Jeremy Redfern, piled on, posting that “supposed conservatives in the federal government are pushing the same false narrative that originated from the @WhiteHouse.”

Even before he was sworn in, DeSantis faced allegations of racism for saying Florida voters would not “monkey” up the election by voting for his Black Democratic opponent in 2018. But DeSantis then drew praise for opening his governorship by pardoning the Groveland Four, a group of four Black men convicted of a 1949 rape they did not commit.

The praise didn’t last.

In 2020, DeSantis pushed the Florida Legislature to approve the so-called anti-riot act, which was designed to crack down on violence associated with African American demonstrations against police violence. That’s even as he’s downplayed the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

More recently, DeSantis pushed through the Stop WOKE (Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) Act, a law that limits discussions on race in schools and by corporations. The law was intended, at least in part, to prevent white people from feeling guilty or uncomfortable about racial injustices committed by other white people.

DeSantis has also banned state universities from using state or federal money for diversity programs.

In a move that has not gained as much attention, he has declined to select individuals for the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame in four years, despite a state law that requires nominees to be submitted to him annually. He has continued to name people to the Florida Artists Hall of Fame and the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame.

DeSantis also demanded that former Democratic Rep. Al Lawson’s congressional district be redrawn to dilute the influence of Black voters in north Florida. As a result, Florida no longer has Black representation in Washington for an area stretching about 360 miles (580 kilometers) from the Alabama line to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Georgia line south to Orlando.

Still, Black Republican activist Quisha King of Jacksonville says she’s been thrilled by DeSantis’ leadership, especially on education.

King said it was “ignorant” and “simple-minded” to condemn the provision of Florida’s new education curriculum related to slavery.

“My great, great, grandfather was born a slave. He bought his freedom. How do they think he was able to buy his freedom?” she asked. “They used the skills that they had to make some money and save it up and buy their freedom.”

The Department of Education said Wednesday that it released a statement on the new Black history curriculum last week and would not comment further.

Meanwhile, state Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones, who is Black, said that painting a rosier picture of atrocities does not benefit anyone.

“Their idea is to teach history in a way to make white people not be looked at in a bad light,” Jones said. “There’s no silver bow that you can tie around the history of Black people. You can’t make lynching look good; you can’t make the raping of women look good.”

“There’s no benefit to that,” he added. “There was nothing right about that. There was nothing just about that. It was torture.”