Florida's Stop W.O.K.E. Act leads textbook company to strip mentions of race out of Rosa Parks story

[BarryLaverty]

Sigh. An intended consequence coming true...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/16/2158573/-Florida-s-Stop-W-O-K-E-Act-leads-textbook-company-to-strip-mentions-of-race-out-of-Rosa-Parks-story

Florida's Stop W.O.K.E. Act leads textbook company to strip mentions of race out of Rosa Parks story

 

Laura Clawson

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday March 16, 2023 · 10:31 AM CDT

 

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51 Comments 51 New

 

 

Rosa Parks.

 

 

Florida rejected 42 math textbooks last year because they supposedly “incorporate[d] prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies.” Math textbooks. Now imagine that same state review process being applied to social studies textbooks.

It’s happening now—Florida is reviewing potential social studies textbooks in a process that not only includes expert reviewers but draws on volunteers from conservative groups—and it’s as bad as you might expect from a state that rejected dozens of math textbooks for containing critical race theory or social emotional learning (the latter including stuff like advice on how to “disagree respectfully” when solving math problems). And as we’ve seen again and again, even aside from the overt censorship of the DeSantis administration, fear of the process causes self-censorship.

 

 

A New York Times review found a publisher that had removed all mention of race from its account of the arrest of Rosa Parks. Really. 

A current publication from Studies Weekly explains, “The law said African Americans had to give up their seats on the bus if a white person wanted to sit down.” But according to a new version created for this textbook review process, “She was told to move to a different seat because of the color of her skin,” while another version—the Times could not learn which of these was officially submitted for review—says only, “She was told to move to a different seat.”

The same publisher removed direct mentions of race from other discussions of segregation law, shifting from an explanation that “laws made it a crime for African American men to be unemployed” to saying, “They even made it a crime for men of certain groups to be unemployed.”

According to a statement from the Florida Department of Education, a textbook that “avoids the topic of race when teaching the Civil Rights movement, slavery, segregation, etc. would not be adhering to Florida law,” but this is how vague, overbroad Republican bans on things work: They create enough uncertainty and an atmosphere of threat to make people or companies or organizations so afraid of running afoul of the law that they do things like strip mentions of race out of the Rosa Parks story. Or hospitals refuse to authorize medical care in cases of miscarriage or threat to the mother’s health because someone somewhere might decide it was an elective abortion. 

When Florida rejected math textbooks for critical race theory, of course social studies textbook publishers looked at how they were writing up the histories of slavery and segregation and the civil rights movement and got real paranoid. That’s the whole point. And it’s equally part of the point that, when a publisher goes all the way to removing race from its recounting of how a civil rights activist was arrested for intentionally violating a Jim Crow law, just as when a woman ends up in the ICU for days with sepsis after being denied an abortion, the people who promoted the laws that produced those results go, “Whoa, we didn’t mean for that to happen. But it’s not our law! It’s just people misreading it.”

Maybe Studies Weekly went beyond where it needed to go to get past the Florida textbook review. But maybe it didn’t. One conservative group involved in the review has called on the state to reject 28 of 38 books its volunteers looked at. Objections included a book that mentioned slavery 189 times within a few chapters, or a book that focused on the “negative side” of how colonists treated Indigenous people without giving more attention to incidents where Natives killed colonists. Florida is also doubtless affected by the mindset that led “Moms for Liberty” in Tennessee to object to a children’s book about Ruby Bridges because, among other things, it shows photos of the signs white segregationists held up in opposition to Bridges going to first grade at a segregated white school. Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act isn’t so different from the Iowa law that led a school superintendent to tell a social studies teacher he couldn't say slavery was wrong.

The whole point is creating that atmosphere of fear that means DeSantis doesn’t need to write into law, in so many words, “Don’t even think about mentioning race at all,” because textbook publishers and teachers and school administrators get the message

[Monte1076]

It's amusing to me, Barry, that you believe every action that Republicans take is somehow nefarious, and everything Democrats do is good for us all, done with the best of intentions, for our own good, and pure as the driven snow.

It's amusing that you believe this.

Of course, that's to be expected of a guy who believes Democrats can do absolutely no wrong.

I guess you're not the skeptic and cynic I am.

Edited March 16, 2023 by Monte1076

[gamewatcher63]

8 minutes ago, Monte1076 said:

It's amusing to me, Barry, that you believe every action that Republicans take is somehow nefarious, and everything Democrats do is good for us all, done with the best of intentions, for our own good, and pure as the driven snow.

It's amusing that you believe this.

Of course, that's to be expected of a guy who believes Democrats can do absolutely no wrong.

I guess you're not the skeptic and cynic I am.

Barry is a DNC troll….trying to win over weak minded Smoaky people’s with buffoonish inane rhetoric….moronic dribble 

[BarryLaverty]

22 minutes ago, Monte1076 said:

believe every action that Republicans take is somehow nefarious

This is some truth. And, if you think not, then you are purposely obtuse on a number of issues. 

The other part, maybe so, maybe no. It depends. 

[Monte1076]

Just now, BarryLaverty said:

And, if you think not, then you are purposely obtuse on a number of issues. 

You're opinion. You're certainly entitled to it. I'll defend your right to be wrong.

But how about the Democrats intentions? Let's discuss those now. "It depends", on what?

So let me put it out there again:

Quote

You believe everything Democrats do is good for us all, done with the best of intentions, for our own good, and pure as the driven snow.

You believes Democrats can do absolutely no wrong.

Show me where (and provide examples) of where you believe the contrary of these two statements.

See, that's what separates ME from YOU. I'm skeptical of both parties. Which is why I don't consider myself Republican or Democrat.

[BarryLaverty]

1 hour ago, Monte1076 said:

Which is why I don't consider myself Republican or Democrat.

[JBizzle]

2 hours ago, BarryLaverty said:

Sigh. An intended consequence coming true...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/16/2158573/-Florida-s-Stop-W-O-K-E-Act-leads-textbook-company-to-strip-mentions-of-race-out-of-Rosa-Parks-story

Florida's Stop W.O.K.E. Act leads textbook company to strip mentions of race out of Rosa Parks story

 

Laura Clawson

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday March 16, 2023 · 10:31 AM CDT

 

 Recommend 68

  Share  Tweet

51 Comments 51 New

 

 

Rosa Parks.

 

 

Florida rejected 42 math textbooks last year because they supposedly “incorporate[d] prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies.” Math textbooks. Now imagine that same state review process being applied to social studies textbooks.

It’s happening now—Florida is reviewing potential social studies textbooks in a process that not only includes expert reviewers but draws on volunteers from conservative groups—and it’s as bad as you might expect from a state that rejected dozens of math textbooks for containing critical race theory or social emotional learning (the latter including stuff like advice on how to “disagree respectfully” when solving math problems). And as we’ve seen again and again, even aside from the overt censorship of the DeSantis administration, fear of the process causes self-censorship.

 

 

A New York Times review found a publisher that had removed all mention of race from its account of the arrest of Rosa Parks. Really. 

A current publication from Studies Weekly explains, “The law said African Americans had to give up their seats on the bus if a white person wanted to sit down.” But according to a new version created for this textbook review process, “She was told to move to a different seat because of the color of her skin,” while another version—the Times could not learn which of these was officially submitted for review—says only, “She was told to move to a different seat.”

The same publisher removed direct mentions of race from other discussions of segregation law, shifting from an explanation that “laws made it a crime for African American men to be unemployed” to saying, “They even made it a crime for men of certain groups to be unemployed.”

According to a statement from the Florida Department of Education, a textbook that “avoids the topic of race when teaching the Civil Rights movement, slavery, segregation, etc. would not be adhering to Florida law,” but this is how vague, overbroad Republican bans on things work: They create enough uncertainty and an atmosphere of threat to make people or companies or organizations so afraid of running afoul of the law that they do things like strip mentions of race out of the Rosa Parks story. Or hospitals refuse to authorize medical care in cases of miscarriage or threat to the mother’s health because someone somewhere might decide it was an elective abortion. 

When Florida rejected math textbooks for critical race theory, of course social studies textbook publishers looked at how they were writing up the histories of slavery and segregation and the civil rights movement and got real paranoid. That’s the whole point. And it’s equally part of the point that, when a publisher goes all the way to removing race from its recounting of how a civil rights activist was arrested for intentionally violating a Jim Crow law, just as when a woman ends up in the ICU for days with sepsis after being denied an abortion, the people who promoted the laws that produced those results go, “Whoa, we didn’t mean for that to happen. But it’s not our law! It’s just people misreading it.”

Maybe Studies Weekly went beyond where it needed to go to get past the Florida textbook review. But maybe it didn’t. One conservative group involved in the review has called on the state to reject 28 of 38 books its volunteers looked at. Objections included a book that mentioned slavery 189 times within a few chapters, or a book that focused on the “negative side” of how colonists treated Indigenous people without giving more attention to incidents where Natives killed colonists. Florida is also doubtless affected by the mindset that led “Moms for Liberty” in Tennessee to object to a children’s book about Ruby Bridges because, among other things, it shows photos of the signs white segregationists held up in opposition to Bridges going to first grade at a segregated white school. Florida’s Stop W.O.K.E. Act isn’t so different from the Iowa law that led a school superintendent to tell a social studies teacher he couldn't say slavery was wrong.

The whole point is creating that atmosphere of fear that means DeSantis doesn’t need to write into law, in so many words, “Don’t even think about mentioning race at all,” because textbook publishers and teachers and school administrators get the message

This is complete and total BS.  This is not what the law states.  Just like the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill.  It's crap and you know it.  There's not a single thing in the bill to stop the input of factual information about history regardless of how it looks on anyone.  It's being used as a scapegoat.

[Monte1076]

10 minutes ago, JBizzle said:

This is complete and total BS.  This is not what the law states.  Just like the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill.  It's crap and you know it. 

It's because he, a lot of Democrats, and many in the media didn't actually read the bill.

[Monte1076]

12 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said:

Laugh all you want, Barry. You've yet to note flaws that you see in Democrats. And "they're not going far enough" doesn't count. 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Monte1076

[BarryLaverty]

Weasels are going to weasel, and that is what is going on in Florida and Texas and any other red state, as these kinds of bills are carefully crafted to do what they do. Playing along is your job. Keep up the good work! 

[Monte1076]

3 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said:

Weasels are going to weasel, and that is what is going on in Florida and Texas and any other red state, as these kinds of bills are carefully crafted to do what they do. Playing along is your job. Keep up the good work! 

I can at least say I've read the bills.

[RETIREDFAN1]

38 minutes ago, Monte1076 said:

I can at least say I've read the bills.

Larry obviously worked for Pravda at one time in his life.......

[BarryLaverty]

57 minutes ago, Monte1076 said:

I can at least say I've read the bills.

Big whoop! Been telling you the plan was to obliterate any semblance of an actual historic accounting since you dribbled out the CRT ##### a long time ago. Man up and be honest that it was the root intent from the very beginning? 

[Youngcoach123]

Did this article say it took the race of Rosa parks out of math books? Lol I’m sure the race had a huge part in teaching math. 

[ObiOne]

7 minutes ago, Youngcoach123 said:

Did this article say it took the race of Rosa parks out of math books? Lol I’m sure the race had a huge part in teaching math. 

Three white dudes walk into a bar….

[Monte1076]

1 hour ago, BarryLaverty said:

Big whoop! Been telling you the plan was to obliterate any semblance of an actual historic accounting since you dribbled out the CRT ##### a long time ago. Man up and be honest that it was the root intent from the very beginning? 

That's certainly your opinion. And I defend your right to be wrong.

[Monte1076]

14 minutes ago, ObiOne said:

Three white dudes walk into a bar….

You'd think one of them would have seen it.

[DaveTV1]

As for the math books eliminating race, I don't have a problem with that.  Give them a math problem to solve, and see how their mind works.  As for History it should be recounted for it's accuracy, and never muted.  Books that were written during time periods that people used slang towards other of color including whites should be included to show that those words are inaccurate, but how people perceived others of color during those time periods.  

[BarryLaverty]

4 hours ago, Youngcoach123 said:

Did this article say it took the race of Rosa parks out of math books? Lol I’m sure the race had a huge part in teaching math. 

 

4 hours ago, ObiOne said:

Three white dudes walk into a bar….

No, dunces, a social studies textbook. 

[Youngcoach123]

4 minutes ago, BarryLaverty said:

 

No, dunces, a social studies textbook. 

Florida rejected 42 math textbooks last year because they supposedly “incorporate[d] prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies.”

“It’s happening now—Florida is reviewing potential social studies textbooks”

the rejected math books but are reviewing social studies books. The ones they rejected (math) were talking about non math related indoctrination material. This is a good thing. 
I’ve read this article twice and it’s just blabbering fear porn. It even quotes someone in the admin saying that isn’t what the law is doing and removing race from the civil rights lesson isn’t right. Yet you are still touting this as some big bad republican conspiracy. CRT and SEL shouldn’t be in Math books. Or in any books. Nothing wrong with getting rid of your Marxist propaganda from the school system. 

[Youngcoach123]

2 hours ago, DaveTV1 said:

As for the math books eliminating race, I don't have a problem with that.  Give them a math problem to solve, and see how their mind works.  As for History it should be recounted for it's accuracy, and never muted.  Books that were written during time periods that people used slang towards other of color including whites should be included to show that those words are inaccurate, but how people perceived others of color during those time periods.  

It’s not, the author claims the publishers are. No real accounting for the claim.

[ObiOne]

10 hours ago, BarryLaverty said:

 

No, dunces, a social studies textbook. 

 

10 hours ago, Youngcoach123 said:

Florida rejected 42 math textbooks last year because they supposedly “incorporate[d] prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies.”

“It’s happening now—Florida is reviewing potential social studies textbooks”

the rejected math books but are reviewing social studies books. The ones they rejected (math) were talking about non math related indoctrination material. This is a good thing. 
I’ve read this article twice and it’s just blabbering fear porn. It even quotes someone in the admin saying that isn’t what the law is doing and removing race from the civil rights lesson isn’t right. Yet you are still touting this as some big bad republican conspiracy. CRT and SEL shouldn’t be in Math books. Or in any books. Nothing wrong with getting rid of your Marxist propaganda from the school system. 

Reading is fundamental 

[Wild74]

I guess parents will just have to teach about Rosa Parks, I think those left wing loons try to use a good story as an excuse to place a bunch of woke gibberish into the text books. Good job Florida keep up the good work

[RETIREDFAN1]

[BarryLaverty]

2 hours ago, ObiOne said:

 

Reading is fundamental 

And then? Keep reading.