DeSantis' war on 'woke' wants to keep us asleep. We must wake up and learn from our history.

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor and presidential candidate, is obsessed with the word “woke.” He rails against his twisted definition of the word anytime there is a microphone or a camera within eye or earshot of him. Don’t get between him and a bank of microphones. You might get trampled. This obsession of the governor begs exploration of what is behind his addiction to the word woke.

Where does 'woke' come from?

According to Kiara Alfonseca, a race and culture reporter for ABC News, “One of (woke’s) earliest uses was in a historical recording of the protest song 'Scottsboro Boys' by Lead Belly,” an American blues singer. “In that recording, it was used as a term about staying aware of the potential for racist violence as a Black person in America.”

For those who don’t recall or never knew, the Scottsboro Boys were nine Black teenagers accused of and arrested for allegedly raping two white women on a freight train near Scottsboro, Alabama. The charges were false. But in the heart of the Confederacy in 1931, they were convicted by a jury – not of their peers – and sentenced to be executed. Through multiple appeals, they were spared from execution but languished in prison, the last three being released in 1946.

Think you know where 'woke' comes from? Inside the word's musical history – and influence.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “woke” as African American slang for being “aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues,” especially racial, gender and social equality issues. By this definition, American history is strewn with woke and historical figures, such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony and Cesar Chavez.

By being anti-woke, DeSantis does disservice to American history

This begs the question: Why would DeSantis rail against people following in the footsteps of these American giants?

It seems presidential candidate DeSantis, who trails the twice-impeached, convicted-of-defamation ex-president who now faces a 37-count indictment in his home state by 30 points, is searching for oxygen anywhere he can find air to breathe. He has declared war on American history for any grievance to stake his candidacy.

If you believe it is a step too far, consider the war on books in school libraries across his state: “The Bluest Eye” by Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize for literature winner Toni Morrison; “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin, winner of several national and international awards; and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson.

In DeSantis’ fiefdom, even the biographies of sports stars Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron have been banned. One school even restricted a book made out of American poet Amanda Gorman’s poem, ”The Hill We Climb,” delivered at President Joe Biden’s inauguration because one parent – one parent – complained, depriving potentially thousands of students of the right and privilege of reading Gorman’s acclaimed work.

DeSantis is wrong. Book bans in Florida schools and in other states aren't a 'hoax.'

The quintessential American dream

To ban the stories, American stories, of individuals struggling to overcome racism and gender biases – something quintessential to the American dream – is a gross disservice to the citizens of Florida, especially young Floridians, because DeSantis wants them to be ignorant of American history, unable to think critically. And he wants to visit this travesty upon the United States.

Our nation needs to know where we have been on issues of race, gender equality and societal justice. If we are ignorant of our history, we have little appreciation of how far we have come in righting the past, and we have no idea of what needs to be done to create a “more perfect Union.” Our nation cries out for a well-educated class of future leaders who understand where we have been, where we are and where we are going.

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DeSantis’ plan to keep us asleep to our past sins of racial bigotry, misogyny and transgender bias, under penalty of law, smacks of an ideology foreign to our shores.

Many of us shun the thought of uncomfortable conversations when the topics are racism, sexuality and gender bias or misogyny. I have a friend who recoils when the word “racist” is used. He lives in a fantasy world where racism does not reside. Welcome to the world where people not of Western European ancestry dwell. Walk a mile in the shoes of those individuals, then tell us the sharp rock inside your shoe does not hurt or exist.

Theotis Robinson Jr. is a freelance writer, former Knoxville City Council member and retired vice president of equity and diversity at the University of Tennessee. This column first published at the Knoxville News Sentinel.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: DeSantis' war on 'woke' closes us off from important US history