DeSantis Cuts Black History Program Funding Before Juneteenth

Supply: Win McNamee / Getty

In in the present day’s episode of If Ron DeSantis Isn’t A White Supremacist, His Legislative Pen Definitely Is, the great governor of Florida slashed his state’s authorized funds on Thursday, though he apparently didn’t must, and—shock, shock—the casualties of his veto pen included hundreds of thousands in funding for Black historical past initiatives and gun violence prevention packages.

In line with Tampa Bay Instances, DeSantis minimize about $510 million type of a $117 billion funds, which was authorized unanimously by the state Legislature. Finally, what he minimize concerning Black historical past packages was solely a tiny fraction, however that does beg the query: Why minimize it in any respect?

From the Instances:

The governor eradicated $160,000 in funding for a Black Historical past Month celebration in Orlando known as the 1619 Fest, whose theme this 12 months was to carry consciousness to the well being disparities Black individuals face in America. DeSantis additionally minimize $200,000 in funding for Florida’s Black Music Legacy, a venture designed to spotlight the state’s contributions to Black music.

Final 12 months, DeSantis vetoed $1 million for Valencia School to create a characteristic movie concerning the 1920 Ocoee Election Day Bloodbath, through which a white mob attacked and killed dozens of Black voters within the nation’s worst occasion of Election Day violence.

Ahhh—effectively, that actually clears issues up.

In fact, the governor, who has proved quite a few occasions that he’ll declare conflict on any initiatives that get his anti-woke whitey-spidey senses tingling, minimize funding for an occasion that features “1619” in its identify, regardless of the theme of stated occasion not apparently having something to do with Nikole Hannah-Jone’s Pulitzer Prize-winning work, The 1619 Venture. (Which is principally the satan’s bible to conservatives who like their historical past whitewashed and white fragility-soothing.)

It’s additionally not terribly stunning that DeSantis would minimize funding to primary Black Historical past training similar to packages celebrating Black music and movies about massacres of Black individuals by racist white individuals. Regardless of DeSantis’ declare that he’s not in opposition to Black historical past basically, solely in opposition to no matter he considers “divisive,” the reality is Black individuals actually can’t inform our tales in any respect with out making white conservatives really feel uncomfortable, as a result of it merely isn’t a historical past that may be divorced from pro-white oppression. In different phrases: Black historical past is “woke” by default.

Anyway, DeSantis additionally vetoed $5 million in funding that had been secured by state democrats for teams working to stop neighborhood gun violence whereas “GOP lawmakers pushed ahead a regulation permitting gun house owners to carry hid weapons with no allow,” in keeping with the Instances.

In truth, DeSantis seems to have elevated spending on numerous conservative initiatives whereas slicing spending on issues that don’t move the right-winger-approved odor check.

Extra from the Instances:

However the funds additionally injects hundreds of thousands into shoring up conservative ideology in Florida’s faculties and universities — and hundreds of thousands extra for DeSantis’ priorities as he runs for president.

There’s $30 million for the brand new Hamilton Middle for Classical and Civic Schooling, a conservative assume tank affiliated with the College of Florida. The funds contains greater than $34 million to remake New School of Florida right into a bastion of conservative beliefs, just like Hillsdale School, a personal Christian faculty in Michigan.

Thoughts you, DeSantis didn’t want to chop something in any respect from the state’s funds because the Instances reported that “booming tax revenues and billions of {dollars} in federal support have allowed lawmakers and DeSantis to spend freely whereas assigning a document $15.3 billion to reserves.”

So, if DeSantis goes out of his technique to minimize funding for Black historical past and anti-gun violence packages whereas beefing up spending for conservative-approved training, it’s fairly clear that DeSantis, like most Republicans, doesn’t thoughts spending cash on ideological indoctrination in faculties and universities so long as it’s the correct of “indoctrination” (emphasis on “proper”).