麻豆影视

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Forty to fifty advocates stood on the steps of Florida’s Old Capitol building in Tallahassee this past Monday, weathering a cold, rainy rally against legislation that could chill certain conversations about race and gender, or both.

The issues surround public schools and workplaces and a bill moving in the Legislature called HB 7.

Critics fear that the bill will whitewash history, oppression and slavery in America while shielding students and employees from discomfort.

Ranika Ashcroft, an advocacy group named Dream Defenders, has been attending legislative committee meetings and speaking against the bill.

She said on the evening of the rally that supporters of the bill, and others like it nationally, are pushing it 鈥渟imply out of fear.鈥�

鈥淏ecause the worst thing you can do is educate a person, because if you educate them, you can鈥檛 take that back. Knowledge is power,鈥� Ashcroft said.

State Rep. Angie Nixon, along with other Democratic lawmakers, criticized the legislation at the rally. Nixon referred to the bill as the 鈥淪top Learning Act鈥� and said that the legislation is 鈥渄esigned to destroy public education and safe working environments in the state of Florida.鈥�

鈥淚n the Florida Legislature, we are afraid of all the wrong things and it鈥檚 dangerous for folks who look like me,鈥� Nixon said at the rally. She is a Black lawmaker who represents part of Duval County.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 just wash my skin and no longer be Black, as a young boy once told me to do. I don鈥檛 get to just walk away from these issues when I鈥檓 tired of them,鈥� she said.

Speaking on the education front, Nixon said that Florida teachers have 鈥渁lways done their best to help our children thrive.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檝e trusted teachers to be on the front lines of a pandemic and deal with gun violence in our schools, so we can trust them to have these necessary conversations and prepare our kids for the real world,鈥� she said.

While much of the debate on the bill reflects similar motions that Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed to limit how race is discussed, particularly in schools, members of Florida鈥檚 transgender community and advocates say that HB 7 will limit how gender is discussed too.

Delilah Pierre, an activist with a grassroots racial justice organization called the Tallahassee Community Action Committee, said that the DeSantis administration should be focused on other concerns, such as overcrowded classrooms, instead of 鈥渁ttacking queer and trans people鈥� and 鈥渢rying to make us non-existent.鈥�

鈥淲e need to get rid of this ignorance that exists within our state that prevents people from truly understanding and learning what our history is, learning how to fight back against the system that oppress them,鈥� Pierre said.

She continued: 鈥淗e (Gov. Ron DeSantis) doesn鈥檛 want to teach about Black history because he knows by teaching Black history, it empowers Black children. He doesn鈥檛 want to history about trans people, because if you don鈥檛 know about the history of trans people, he makes one more trans kid stay in the closet鈥�

Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is campaigning for the Democratic nominee in the 2022 gubernatorial election, said that legislation such as HB 7 is 鈥減olitical theater.鈥�

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 care about you, they don鈥檛 care about any of us. They care about one thing and one thing only, and that鈥檚 power,鈥� Fried said. 鈥淎nd how they can have power is by intimidation, by scare tactics. By trying to make people feel that they are inferior.鈥�

鈥淎s somebody who is a member of the Jewish community, what I am seeing in our state makes me so (much) more angry to keep fighting this, to stand up,鈥� Fried said. 鈥淏ecause we see what hatred does to a society, and we cannot stand back and let that happen here in Florida and across the country.鈥�

The bill includes concepts that teachers and students, or employees, should not be subjected to:

•  鈥淢embers of one race, color, national origin, or sex are morally superior to members of another race, color, national origin, or sex.鈥�
• 鈥淎n individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.鈥�
• 鈥淎n individual鈥檚 moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.鈥�

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