The Effects of the ‘Stop W.O.K.E’ Act with Jonathan Cox

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

NBCNews

News, Nbcnews, Why Is This Happening?, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Chris Hayes, Politics, Government, Society & Culture, Msnbc, Withpod

4.6 • 8.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You’ve probably heard about what Florida governor Ron DeSantis is up to. One of the most controversial things he’s done is sign the Individual Freedom Act, also known as the “Stop W.O.K.E Act,” short for Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees. The law, among many things, prohibits teaching certain concepts related to race. Although there’s currently an injunction against the law, its implementation had far-reaching consequences for students and professors alike. Jonathan Cox is an assistant sociology professor at the University of Central Florida. He faced a tough decision last fall. Cox, who is the only Black professor in his department, could either teach two courses that would explore colorblind racism, “Race and Social Media” and “Race and Ethnicity,” or cancel his classes. He had to choose the latter option of cancelling some of his courses because of DeSantis’ law banning the teaching of critical race theory. Cox joins WITHpod to discuss the circumstances that led him to change the courses he taught last semester, the importance of inclusive spaces that encourage constructive debate, the effect of anti-CRT laws on his students and more.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We want to be in a place where race doesn't matter. We want to be in a place where racism doesn't impact people's
0:06.4	Outcomes are their daily lives right the fact unfortunately is that we are not in that place yet and in order to get there
0:12.3	You got to talk about it right I challenge my students all the time like if you can tell me one problem
0:17.3	Just one that you can solve without talking about it
0:19.8	I give you a class you never have to do anything else again nobody's ever been able to do it because it's impossible
0:24.2	You got to talk about it in order to solve it. Hello and welcome to Wise is happening with me your host Chris Hayes
0:39.6	You have probably heard about what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been up to
0:45.3	Governor DeSantis is clearly
0:47.6	Angling or positioning himself to run for president in 2024 though. He has not
0:51.8	Declared yet for that but many people anticipate he will and in order to you know sort of bolster his
0:59.2	Bonafide's for
1:01.2	Republican primary voters who are the constituency that he's most concerned about if he's gonna unseat Donald Trump of the primary
1:07.6	He's engaged in a series of at times cruel in humane
1:12.2	Gross stunts to create content for Fox News and to position himself as a champion of basically Trumpist
1:20.2	Ideology after Trump
1:23.0	You could probably list some of those the stunt in which a bunch of desperate migrants were lied to about where they were going and an off book operation that included
1:31.6	Mysterious woman named Perla was paid to recruit people with lies about where they would sent and then dropped off in an island off Massachusetts
1:38.9	He had the police go out and rest at people's homes and very kind of intimidating fashion
1:43.5	Folks would voted but who under Florida law were actually eligible to vote because Florida Republicans kind of muddied the waters after
1:52.1	Voters there had passed felony re-enfranchisement and these people who were shocked to find that they were being arrested all had registered to vote and gotten
2:00.7	The okay from registrar so of course they thought it was legal to vote
2:03.8	But the point was to create the stunt to create the image of him as tough guy to pick the cultural war or fight to get on Fox News
	...

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