Intro

Florida last month rejected an Advanced Placement African American Studies Class for its schools. As Black History Month begins, we’re digging into this fight and Florida's own history.

• Plus, a new survey takes the pulse of educator anxiety.
• And, missing monkeys are just the latest in a series of strange events at the Dallas Zoo.

Guests: Axios' Russell Contreras, Michael Mooney and Florida International University's Dr. Marvin Dunn.

Credits: Axios Today is produced by Niala Boodhoo, Alexandra Botti, Naomi Shavin, Fonda Mwangi and Alex Sugiura. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at podcasts@axios.com. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

Go Deeper:

• A Black professor defies DeSantis law restricting lessons on race
• Stop W.O.K.E Act (Florida)
• Black History Month here amid more teacher fears
• Missing monkeys latest in a string of strange events at Dallas Zoo

Statement from Gov. Ron DeSantis' office to Axios Today:

Here’s why the Stop WOKE Act (Bill name Individual Freedom Act) doesn’t prohibit speech or ideas from free exchange, but actually protects the open exchange of ideas:

The concepts cannot be forced on employees as a condition of employment, etc. meaning there is no choice but for the employee to be subjected to these concepts. Though we greatly disagree with the concepts above, no employer, etc. is prohibited from holding voluntary workshops, seminars, or trainings on them. Nor is the employer prohibited from communicating these concepts to the public. The employer simply cannot subject employees to mandatory training on these concepts where the employer attempts to impose the concepts on the employee.

The concepts are designed to force individuals to believe something. As we have seen so regularly in schools and workplaces tainted with DEI and CRT, these concepts are specifically designed and taught in a manner to convince people to adopt a certain proscribed ideology -- not to think critically about them (as they are certainly not presented with alternatives.) They are designed to influence an individual’s thoughts about themselves and society and delivered by individuals with authority or influence over others (employers over employees, teachers over students). That means this isn’t a peer-to-peer discussion or public discourse, but it is coming from someone with power over another and all of the associated leverages of their position. That said, the law does not prohibit training where the concepts are merely discussed, as opposed to espoused and inculcated. The law specifically provides that it “may not be construed to prohibit discussion of the concepts listed therein as part of a course of training or instruction, provided such training or instruction is given in an objective manner without endorsement of the concepts.”

Finally, the law is designed to prohibit forced indoctrination in these concepts because doing so is discriminatory. This is racial harassment, which is likewise prohibited both by the Florida Civil Rights Act and Title VII. Consider a scenario wherein an employer cannot take adverse employment action against an employee because of his or her race but could inundate its employee with racially hostile indoctrination. If the former conduct is prohibited, the latter should be as well.

Finally, keeping employees or students from being forced to think a certain way upon condition of employment and as directed by those with authority or influence over others (employers over employees, teachers over students) protects freedom of thought. And the concepts as specified in the bill in particular are discriminatory concepts that, if ultimately forcibly adopted by society, will inevitably invite the speech-hating collateral consequences of unbridled, hatred-fueled collectivism