Criminalizing books? In the U.S.?

DeSantis’s anti-Woke warriors don’t want students to know.

by Tom Maertens

Ron DeSantis’s “Stop Woke Act” in Florida prohibits teaching eight specific subjects or issues, including slavery or systemic racism. It also bans books, mostly by Black authors, about past actions that might cause distress, guilt or anguish to other students.

Over 100 books have been banned statewide, including by such authors as Nobel Prize/Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison. No book can be in a classroom that is not on the state-approved list and reviewed by a “certified media specialist” — Ron DeSantis’s thought police.

To comply with those restrictions, a publisher removed references to Rosa Parks’ race in a draft of its textbook, The New York Times reported, and removed references to race in a lesson on the Civil War. Slavery? What’s that?

And what about “separate but equal” schools which were the subject of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling? What was Jim Crow, and why were the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts enacted? And why was six-year-old Ruby Bridges escorted into New Orleans’ all-white William Franz grammar school under federal protection?

There was an Underground Railroad heading south long before there was one heading north. That’s because slavery was abolished in Florida in 1693 by the Spanish, which made it a haven for runaway slaves.

In 1738, those fugitives established Fort Mose near St. Augustine, the site of the first free Black community in what became the United States; it is now a state park. They fought on the tribesmen’s side during the three Seminole Wars against the white settlers and their slaveholder allies.

Among the 566 Native American tribes recognized by the United States government, the Seminoles are the only tribe which was never conquered, never surrendered and never signed a peace treaty.

In 1815, the British-formed Corps of Colonial Marines, comprised largely of fugitive slaves, established a fort overlooking the Apalachicola River, variously referred to as “Negro Fort,” “African Fort,” and other names. It is now in the National Register of Historic Places as Prospect Bluff Historic Site, part of Apalachicola National Forest.

DeSantis’s anti-Woke warriors don’t want students to know.

In January, Florida banned the teaching of AP African American studies because it dealt with several topics on DeSantis’s banned list.

The Washington Post reported that two school districts in Florida have warned teachers to hide all books to avoid felony charges until they know how DeSantis’s new book ban will be enforced. A spokeswoman from the Florida Department of Education told the Post that a teacher could face up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for distributing “harmful materials” to minors.

An addition to the “Don’t Say Gay” bill would require immediate removal of any books targeted for objection; one objection is sufficient to ban a book.

Vero Beach just banned Anne Frank’s illustrated diary. One member of the right-wing “Moms for Liberty” orchestrated the removal of 20 Jodi Picoult novels from school libraries in Martin County.

In Clay County, 102 books have been removed at the request of one individual. That same person said that he had a list of 3,600 additional titles of concern. In an ironic turnabout, someone objected to DeSantis’s new book.

Recently a Tallahassee principal was forced to resign after parents complained that Michelangelo’s statue of David is ‘pornographic’ and shouldn’t have been shown to a sixth grade art history class.

Meanwhile, the Orlando Sentinel reports that DeSantis is expanding the “Don’t Say Gay” law to prohibit classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity up to grade 12.

DeSantis wants to change libel laws so that jurors have a “presumption of malice” against journalists he claims have printed inaccurate information based on anonymous sources.

He and his Brown Shirts now want to make it a felony, punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment, for anyone to have an undocumented immigrant in their home or vehicle, according to The New Republic.

In April 2021, DeSantis got an “anti-riot bill” passed that grants civil immunity to people who drive their cars into protesters blocking a road. That bill also makes it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison to destroy historical monuments, such as Confederate statutes. He has also signed a permitless concealed carry law, apparently thinking Florida needs to thin the herd.

Republicans are criminalizing education: only in Florida is a teacher in danger of being charged with a felony for possession of a schoolbook; as The Guardian expressed it, “Banning ideas and authors is not a ‘culture war’ — it’s fascism.”

Tom Maertens taught at the high school and college levels in Ethiopia and Minnesota.