Rising tension between Republican states, like Florida, and marginalized communities is becoming more frightening for some Americans.
Black people and those who identify as LGBTQ+ have a long and complicated history in the U.S. While civil rights and social movements helped make progress for these minoritized communities in recent decades, many argue that talking points most commonly shared by right-wing politicians are pushing the nation toward laws that discriminate, create dangerous environments and disrupt progress.
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Many conservative lawmakers -- including Michigan politicians state Sen. Lana Theis, state Rep. Andrew Beeler, and others -- have spread false information about Black history and fields of study like critical race theory. As a result, 75% of Republican Michiganders believe false information about CRT, and 79% of all Michiganders have heard at least one false statement about CRT, according to a research team from Michigan State.
The NAACP recently issued a travel advisory for Florida, calling the state “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.” The Human Rights Campaign in June also declared a state of emergency this month for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. for the first time in their history.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also running for president in 2024, is among such politicians who critics say have been working to limit knowledge and expression in schools, libraries, and more in an effort to divide the people further and disenfranchise affected communities.
DeSantis limits education on Black history
DeSantis and his administration are working to limit education on Black history in Florida schools. One approach DeSantis and other Republican-led states are taking is to attack a field of study called critical race theory.
In January, DeSantis’ administration blocked an Advanced Placement class on African American studies from being taught in Florida high schools, claiming the material violated Florida laws and was “historically inaccurate,” according to the Associated Press. DeSantis also signed Florida House Bill 7 in April in an effort to refute Black history by falsely calling the AP course “indoctrination.” The administration calls the legislation the first of its kind to take on critical race theory.
CRT has been hotly debated recently, but many people don’t really know what CRT is.
According to Sam Srauy, a race and racism scholar and associate professor of communication at Oakland University, CRT is a field of study taught primarily in law schools that acknowledges how Americans benefit from a legal system that punishes Black people more than others. However, CRT also teaches that these inequalities were compounded over time, and therefore not the fault of a particular person.
CRT has been incorrectly presented in the media, particularly by politicians, who make it seem as though the teachings are intended to punish and guilt white students. With so much false information about CRT, proponents are trying to clarify what the teachings actually are.
“[DeSantis] has no idea what critical race theory is,” Srauy said. “The argument, through Governor DeSantis’ own words, is that critical race theory makes white children ashamed for being white. But the reality is actually the opposite.
“If I was a white law student reading critical race theory … I would think, ‘Oh man, look at these horrible things that have been ingrained into law. I’m glad I didn’t do that,’” Srauy said.
DeSantis visited Michigan in April and spoke to a crowd about policy differences between education in Michigan and Florida. He claims that his policies have “freed” the state of Florida, though his critics believe that he is actively preventing any teachings that go against his platform.
In 2021, DeSantis called CRT “crap” and vowed to fight it. Those who disagree with DeSantis and his far-right rhetoric are worried about the impact of his words and actions nationwide, especially if he advances in the presidential election.
Florida House Bill 7 in action
In a February letter to the College Board, the Florida Department of Education said the board should review a proposed AP African American studies course, arguing that the course “could not be approved as written” because the topics conflicted with Florida law. The education department also asked the College Board to revisit Florida House Bill 7, which doesn’t allow certain curricula that the state deems “inconsistent with certain principles or state academic standards.”
The education department falsely claims the course is indoctrinating students and that the course’s material is inaccurate. Despite these claims, experts maintain the teachings are historically accurate, as they provide a broader, more complete perspective than traditional history-focused courses that emphasize mostly white history. Experts like Srauy say that those blocking these classes and attempting to refute Black history are pushing their own agenda.
“If you look at the AP African American studies class that Florida tinkered with and manipulated with, it is clear that the board of education is the one that’s pushing a narrative that isn’t consistent with what the historical record has,” Srauy said. “Advocates of the DeSantis administration may argue things, [saying] ‘that’s a matter of opinion,’ but that’s not how knowledge works; that’s not how academia works.”
Areas of study like CRT aren’t only found in law school. Srauy said there is a vast number of disciplines across many fields that found evidence supporting the same ideas -- for example, how income inequality has a strong racial component tied to slavery, redlining and more.
Because of these disciplines and their extensive research, Srauy says it is “befuddling” that DeSantis and other critics claim CRT is “indoctrination” rather than simply educational.
“Are you claiming that all of these various disciplines who happen to be looking at the same thing, happen to -- over decades -- come to the same or similar conclusions, and that’s some sort of vast conspiracy that’s been going on for over 100 years?” he said. “Or, maybe, this is just what the evidence shows.”
The larger effect, Srauy said, is corporations like the College Board may be more likely to change the class for every state to meet Florida’s requirements in the hopes that the class outline will meet every state’s standards, rather than adjust the class just for Florida.
“California does the same thing with automobile emissions,” Srauy said. “California says, ‘We believe this should be the case.’ California says, ‘We’re going to make really stringent air quality laws, and all of these [car manufacturers are] going to make cars to meet our more stringent demand.’ [Manufacturers are] just not going to make two versions of the same car. That’s what Florida is betting on.”
Then, in April, the College Board announced that changes will be made to the course to “ensure that those students who do take this course will get the most holistic possible introduction to African American studies.”
Even amid ongoing efforts to restrict educational topics, DeSantis continues to falsely claim that African American history instruction has ‘only expanded’ under his administration.
DeSantis approves ‘silencing’ voting laws
DeSantis approved Florida Senate Bill 90 in May, which limits the time when a voter can request to vote absentee, and drop off their mail-in ballot. Republicans defended the bill as a way to limit voter fraud, but the president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, called the bill a “blatant and calculated attack on the right to vote,” NBC reported in May.
Florida isn’t the first or only state to restrict voting rights for its residents. Many Republican-led states have publicly expressed concern about voter fraud, despite government and election officials finding zero evidence of widespread fraud in recent elections.
Former President Donald Trump made false claims that voter fraud was rampant following the 2020 presidential election, when he lost the race to now-President Joe Biden. Similar claims have been made since, which Republican lawmakers have used to push for stricter voting laws.
“The problem is that by passing laws like that, you are able to act as if [voter fraud] is true even if it is not,” Srauy said. “The phenomenon of voter fraud in the United States is not an issue, full stop. It has never been an issue, full stop.”
Trump supporters like Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo, who lost the 2022 election for Michigan secretary of state, have also pushed allegations of voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 election. In 2022, Karamo filed a lawsuit claiming election violations occurred in Detroit. A judge has called that lawsuit “frivolous,” and has ordered Karamo and others to pay $58,000 in legal fees.
Republican politicians have particularly criticized mail-in ballots -- a voting option widely used, especially among Democratic voters. Politicians falsely claim that absentee voting leads to fraud, but the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has said committing fraud with mail-in ballots “would be highly difficult to do.” An Associated Press review of every potential case of voter fraud in the six states disputed by former President Trump in 2020 found fewer than 475 cases of voter fraud in total.
Trump’s own attorney general investigated the 2020 presidential election, and declared that no widespread voter fraud was found.
Without Florida Senate Bill 90, Floridians are already required to provide identification and the last four digits of their social security number, and more, to vote.
“[When] we get stuck on the conversation about how this is unfair to certain marginalized populations … we ignore [if] there is even a purpose for this in the first place,” Srauy said of Florida’s restrictive voting laws. “And if there is no purpose, what was really the reason why this was done?”
A letter to DeSantis signed by over 20 civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, said the new bill silences Black and brown voters because they “work longer hours and live in larger households” than other voters -- so any additional restrictions only make it that much harder for them to vote.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported in May that compared to white voters, a higher percentage of registered Black voters did not vote due to conflicting work and school schedules, or because they were too busy. Asian, Hispanic, and other non-Hispanic races voted less compared to registered white voters for the same reasons.
The same report also found that registered white voters were less likely to vote by mail compared to Asian, Hispanic, and other non-Hispanic voters. Because minoritized communities vote absentee in higher numbers, and largely for Democratic candidates, critics say that governments working to reduce mail-in ballots are attempting to reduce votes from these communities.
How does this impact the rest of the country?
If elected U.S. president, DeSantis said he will use Florida as a blueprint for the nation, including eliminating CRT and using Florida as a model for election restrictions. For many who disagree with DeSantis’ platform, the prospect of banning people from accessing certain information and making it harder for them to vote feels un-American.
Here in Michigan, state Sen. Theis has encouraged parents to support bills that would ban CRT, while falsely claiming the theory brainwashes children against America. Eighteen other states have passed laws banning or limiting classroom discussion of CRT. Eight Republican presidential candidates oppose CRT, with some spreading the same false claims as DeSantis.
Ten other states -- including Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming -- have passed restrictive voting laws similar to those in Florida. The different laws include shortened early voting periods, prohibiting the use of student ID cards as voting identification, removing people from voting records if they haven’t voted for a certain period of time, and more.
Minoritized communities are concerned DeSantis and his supporters will push the nation backward with a focus on laws that discriminate and disrupt progress for marginalized communities -- the very progress that civil rights and social movements have spent decades fighting against.