Carrying The CRT Legacy in Perilous Times: Research and Practice in the Social Sciences Under Florida’s Stop WOKE Act

Abstract

Florida’s House Bill 7, also known as the Stop Woke Act, is one of the most controversial legal measures in educational history, increasing the supervision of teaching and learning about antiblack racism in social studies education. Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, has legally banned the teaching of CRT (critical race theory) from K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. In this paper, I analyze specific points from Florida’s House Bill 7 (2022), unpacking its legal divisiveness that upholds white supremacy in the social sciences. This blatant denial of America’s tragic racial history has intensified a hostile and superficial learning environment for teachers of social studies education. As a Black woman, educator, and researcher; there is an added layer of betrayal teaching about race under intense legal scrutiny. In this article, I intend to unpack my experience as one of the last groups of doctoral students to learn CRT at a Florida public university; revisiting the political shift against CRT and how it has impacted my research and practice.