A redaction of progress toward racial healing is afoot in Florida. That bothers me.

Born Black in Florida in the late 50s, living through Jim Crow, seeing the civil rights movement play out in real time, remembering the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – and the reaction of adults to it – know firsthand how far we’ve come. So, seeing attacks today on a commitment to equality and racial progress in America is akin to seeing the late Gov. George Wallace standing at the schoolhouse doors in 2023.

After the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, white Americans formed lines to Black-owned bookstores eager to learn more about our collective history. This idea that our youth are too squeamish to learn about all of America’s s history is not true. Does my son and daughter whose mother is white and of Scotch-Irish background need to be shielded from learning about African American history that tells them a bit more about their father’s and his ancestors’ history because they may feel uncomfortable?

Are we to eliminate the football teams of the University of Florida, Florida State University, and others in the state university system because programs of equity and inclusion over the years have allowed them to recruit and retain Black athletes who have earned them national titles with monetary awards that followed?

It is disingenuous to decry DEI and the so-called threat by minority scholarships and diversity programs at a university while diversity programs there continue to generate profit from the contributions of those same Black and brown bodies, generating revenue for the schools and local economies. The Seminole brand alone generates money. Are we also erasing the fact that slaves helped erect buildings at FSU, a fact uncovered by research done by its President’s Council on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion?

Bringing Dr King’s dream to fruition, today’s private and public sectors have developed programs to help us overcome hundreds of years of inequality in America. Are we a free state while simultaneously taking books out of schools, telling history and literature scholars they can’t tell the truth about history or literature in their classrooms while preparing our next generation of thinkers?

Allowing students the opportunity to learn to think critically and trusting them to do so is critical for our workforce as we compete globally. We must continue to embrace the strength of our diversity.

I pray the damage this redaction of racial history and progress is doing along with the anxiety it is causing our larger society is considered before it’s too late.

Michael Dobson is a third generation Floridian, longtime Tallahassee lobbyist, president/CEO of the Dream Foundation, Inc. and founder of Dobson, Craig and Associates. Reach him at Michael@dobsonandcraig.com.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: A redaction of progress toward racial healing is afoot in Florida. That bothers me.