Civil rights advocates are pushing back against Gov. Ron DeSantis' war on "woke" ideology, and part of that struggle is reclaiming the word.
"A lot of people are using the term ‘stay woke’ because a lot of people fell asleep during the last election," said Rev. Don Tolliver, an associate pastor at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Tallahassee.
The "Stay Woke Rolling Protest," a 15-city bus tour across Florida, wrapped up on Friday. The tour kicked off on Juneteenth in North Florida, with stops in Jacksonville and Tallahassee, where a planned rally and press conference outside the State Capitol was moved to Bethel.
About 50 out-of-state activists with the Transformative Justice Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for racial justice, traveled on a bus across the state this week to meet with local community organizers and speak out against recent policies affecting education, health care and voting.
“Isn’t it amazing that they’re telling ya’ll to don’t be woke?Aren’t you glad the Lord woke you up this morning? Don’t you know we serve a woke Lord?" Rev. R.B. Holmes of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church told organizers gathered downstairs in a fellowship hall. "The opposite of woke is sleep, and once you start sleeping you will give in to these policies.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis has championed new laws that restrict the way race, gender identity and sexual orientation are taught in school.
Last year, state lawmakers passed the “Stop Woke Act,” which restricts the way race is taught in college and university classrooms. A federal judge partially blocked the new law, describing it as "positively dystopian," in a ruling last year.
This year, lawmakers also expanded the state's "Parental Rights in Education Law," dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics, barring classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in 4th-12th grade. Last year, lawmakers banned such instruction in grades K-3.
Advocates are also speaking out against other measures DeSantis has signed into law this year, including a pending ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and stricter rules and tougher penalties for voter registration groups.
African American community leaders say the weaponization of the term "woke" is offensive
The Transformative Justice Coalition organized the 15-city bus tour after news of book bans in Florida began circulating, before DeSantis' declared his candidacy for president, explained Barbara Arnwine, the coalition's founder.
"When we made our decision to come here, he had not declared," she said. "We were just mad that people were normalizing his behavior."
DeSantis has expressed support for recent book bans in school districts across the state, claiming most of the books that were removed from classroom and library shelves were pornographic or inappropriate for children.
And DeSantis has repeatedly used the term "woke" to attack those on the left. "It's nothing but anti-Black rhetoric," Arnwine said. The term "stay woke" has long been used among African Americans as a reminder to stay alert to injustice, she explained.
The bus tour's purpose was to motivate organizers to get to work ahead of 2024
The Stay Woke Rolling Protest was "more than a protest" and a "press conference," Tallahassee NAACP President Mutaqee Akbar told out-of-state organizers. He explained that it was primarily a "call to action," to motivate people to get more involved in the political process.
“When this fifteen-city tour is over with, go into the community," Akbar said. "We have to start today because October and November is going to be here before we know it, and we have just started.”
Rain pouring down on the Capitol Monday kept most local residents who might’ve attended the event away, but a stop in Tampa on Tuesday didn’t appear to generate a high community turnout either, based on a video of the event posted by the Hillsborough County NAACP on Facebook.
Weissert says it’s not surprising for these kinds of rallies to struggle with turnout. “It’s very tough for this kind of an event, which I call a counter-punch event," she said. "They’re trying to punch back at the initial punch which is this whole kind of ‘woke’ attack that the governor has been doing.”
DeSantis and other conservatives have been attacking "woke" ideology for a while, which can make it more difficult for those who oppose the governor's policies and rhetoric to generate much enthusiasm for their cause. “If the intention is to explain or fight against something that’s already been out there, it’s really hard to get people excited."
Community leaders will continue to work to keep people informed beyond the protest, explained Rev. Don Tolliver. "Keeping things in the eye of the Florida public, so that they know things are continuing to happen.”
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