Former United States President Donald Trump spoke for a little under an hour on Saturday night where he urged his supporters to "lay down their very lives" to fight Critical Race Theory (CRT) and have it removed from schools, calling the situation a "matter of national survival."
The academic practice aims to explore how the United States' history of racism and discrimination continues to impact people in the region until today. During his speech, Trump said that the fate of the nation is ultimately dependent on the willingness of the citizens to lay down their lives for their country.
Fight Against Critical Race Theory
The Republican businessman said that there will be no one left to defend the country's flag and protect the people's freedom if they allow the Marxists, communists, and socialists to hate America. Trump's team did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Sunday morning.
Since the proposal of the CRT, Republican lawmakers across the region have fiercely campaigned against the academic practice. More often than not, they distort its actual meaning to favor their stance. Several experts said last year that the GOP campaign was part of a bigger plan to stifle or invalidate conversations on the pervasiveness of racism in U.S. history, as per Business Insider.
A history professor at Illinois State University, Andrew Hartman, said during an interview in June 2021 that Republican lawmakers and conservative media are obsessed with the issue and how best to translate the situation into future votes. He said that the GOP was also looking into how to translate it into donations and ratings in the meantime.
The Florida Senate passed a bill on Thursday that will limit race-related discussions in classrooms and workplaces in the region. The move marked a significant win for Republicans who continue to oppose CRT teaching in schools nationwide.
According to Yahoo News, the bill, which is known as the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, or shortened to the Stop WOKE Act, will be heading over towards Gov. Ron DeSantis' desk. The Republican lawmakers will sign the bill, which will take effect in July.
White People Are Bad?
Many believe that conservatives are using CRT to fan the flames of another culture war by stoking fears that the academic process will teach kids that all White people are bad. In reality, the CRT is not required to be included in lesson plans.
Trump's speech comes as CRT proponents are not engaging in any physical or violent acts in order to advocate for the academic practice. The former president's remarks suggest that he wants his supporters to resort to violence to get CRT out of American classrooms.
Florida's bill comes against the backdrop of uninformed parents taking over school board meetings in order to protest the mere idea that systemic racism is real. The myriad of circumstances have made this time not such a great moment for the former president to tell these people that they should resort to violence to save the United States from education, Vanity Fair reported.
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