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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis鈥� disdain for 鈥渨oke ideology鈥� is on full display. 

At a January 2023 inaugural event, the governor  that 鈥淔lorida is where woke goes to die.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

This is more than political bluster.

In just the past month, DeSantis has stacked the board of the , a well-known liberal arts college, with , and has directed universities to report their  to his office.

So what, precisely, does Desantis鈥斺�攐辫辫辞蝉别?&苍产蝉辫;

That became clear in December 2022 when multiple DeSantis officials appeared before a  to defend the governor鈥檚 decision to suspend a local prosecutor whom DeSantis had termed a 鈥渨oke ideologue.鈥� The judge asked Ryan Newman, DeSantis鈥� general counsel, to define 鈥渨oke.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Newman answered that 鈥渨oke鈥� is 鈥渢he belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Newman added that DeSantis does not believe systemic injustices exist in the United States. 

DeSantis, for his part, has explicitly denied that systemic racism exists鈥攃haracterizing the notion as 鈥�.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

In my view as a , Newman鈥檚 explanation was a stark admission. 

By his own account, Newman placed DeSantis on the side of injustice. We might call DeSantis an 鈥渋njustice denier.鈥� Akin to climate change, there is no legitimate academic debate about the reality of systemic racism. 

滨迟鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;. 滨迟鈥檚&苍产蝉辫;. It鈥檚 unjust. No amount of denial can change that鈥攅ven if it scores political points. 

Political Campaign Against 鈥淲oke鈥�

When  and  their claim is not that schools should be value-free zones. 

Their claim is that schools .

This should surprise no one. 

In the wake of 2020鈥檚  for racial justice,  launched an open  to stigmatize modest efforts to make American classrooms more inclusive and curriculum more comprehensive.

As early as March 2021, one of the campaign鈥檚 chief architects, Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, publicly  about weaponizing critical race theory to .

Rufo further explained that maligning critical race theory through calculated caricature and distortion was an 鈥渙bvious鈥� element of a 鈥溾�� to erode faith in public schools. 

Rufo, one of DeSantis鈥� recent board appointees, has outlined the end goal: 鈥溾�� and return Americans to a pre-civil-rights social order that lacked affirmative commitments to racial inclusion.

A Long History of White Resistance

Proponents often claim that laws and policies designed to restrict classroom conversations about race are  mostly white students from .

Yet over two years into an open disinformation campaign and hundreds of laws designed to suppress 鈥渨oke鈥� viewpoints, many in the mainstream media still frame anti-racism and anti-anti-racism as competing sides in an educational culture war. 

In my view, the culture war framing is odd. 

It exaggerates disagreement among typical Americans鈥攎ost of whom  and . It  a top-down political project as a grassroots uprising. And it minimizes the  on students, parents, and educators. 

The 鈥渃ulture war鈥� frame also implies Americans are fighting over values, yet rarely makes explicit those competing values. 

One thing is clear. 

There is little new about this culture war.

It is hard to miss the parallels in rhetoric and tactics between 21st-century anti-anti-racism and 20th-century , when segregationists openly defied federal court orders to integrate public schools.

Past generations have invoked 鈥�,鈥� 鈥�,鈥� and 鈥溾�� to defend the prevailing social order, defund public schools, and discredit efforts to redistribute racial power.

In my view, many of today鈥檚 anti-anti-racists rehearse the same old rhetoric for similar ends.

Past generations harnessed state power to penalize educators who dared to teach about injustice.

Historian  one example from 1956 South Carolina.

Two years after , South Carolina鈥檚  enacted 14 laws designed to stymie civil rights. 

This included a law that required all teachers to swear an anti-NAACP oath鈥攁 law designed to target Black educators and 鈥渄estabilize the civil rights movement,鈥� as Cunningham explains. 

Impact on Cultural Literacy

A revival of such measures has occurred since 2020. 

In at least 15 states, GOP officials have passed 鈥溾�� to chill classroom conversations about race, racism, and related topics. This includes Florida鈥檚 鈥淪top WOKE Act,鈥� a portion of which  in November 2022. 

Given the laws鈥� design and effect, University of Florida law professor Katheryn Russell-Brown has likened this legislation to . 

According to free speech advocacy group PEN America, 2022 saw a 250% jump in such , which became more punitive and more likely to target higher education and LGBTQ identities. 

Similar policies have accelerated at the local level across the country. 

As of December 2022, UCLA鈥檚 CRT Forward Tracking Project  over 130 school district policies that target anti-racist pedagogy and curriculum.

A related study from  found that state and local anti-literacy laws affected over 900 districts, accounting for 35% of America鈥檚 K-12 students. 

Given that 2022 saw , that number is no doubt higher now.

Academic Freedom Under State Review

Many of the same GOP officials pushing anti-literacy laws are also actively eroding key safeguards that shield public universities and professors from political interference. 

Not surprisingly, DeSantis is a  of such efforts to curb university independence. 

In Texas, the lieutenant governor  after the University of Texas鈥� faculty leadership reaffirmed the value of academic freedom and the right to teach about race and gender justice.

Right-wing groups also have fueled  against school leaders, teachers, and librarians.

Many of the same groups have spearheaded an unprecedented wave of book bans. 

 tallied over 2,500 individual bans from July 2021 to June 2022. 

This includes books like When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball, which explores how an  to win medals in the 1956 and 1960 Olympics.

Experts have attributed the extreme rhetoric accompanying book bans and anti-literacy laws to a rise in . This includes nearly 鈥攁 twelvefold increase over 2020鈥攁nd bomb threats  and other entities . 

Against this backdrop, it is notable that the midterm elections revealed the . 

But those limitations seem unlikely to alter GOP talking points or the broader assault on public education. 

The incoming GOP House leadership has already renewed its pledge to purge schools of critical race theory and 鈥渨oke ideology.鈥�

To borrow a phrase from the late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, one might conclude that anti-anti-racism embodies a 鈥�.鈥�

This article was originally published by . It has been republished here with permission.