Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has introduced legislation with an absurd name, hoping to allow parents to sue schools for teaching critical race theory (CRT) in the classroom. He named the legislation the Stop WOKE Act, which stands for Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees, according to The Washington Post.

“We have the responsibility to stand for the truth, for what is right,” the governor said to a crowd in Wildwood, Florida, according to the Post.

After creating his own interpretation of the word "woke," a term originally created to describe people who fight for social justice, he also said taxpayer dollars would not “be used to teach our kids to hate our country or to hate each other.”

“We also have to protect our people and our kids from some very pernicious ideologies that are trying to be forced upon them all across the country,” the governor added.

DeSantis proceeded to invoke Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he tried to justify the bill.

“You think about what MLK stood for. He said he didn’t want people judged on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character,” he said at a rally on Wednesday in Wildwood, Florida. “You listen to some of these people nowadays, they don’t talk about that.”

Florida recently banned the teaching of critical race theory in public schools, a subject that aims to teach the history of systematic racism in America. Many other states have also pushed for similar legislation, as Blavity previously reported.

DeSantis' latest bill aims to impose a more strict stance on the state's ban against CRT. 

“Following the passage of the ban on critical race theory, we realized it was a great first step but that it hadn’t gone far enough,” Christina Pushaw, a spokeswoman with DeSantis’s office, said, according to the Post. “We are optimistic about this [proposal] because we do have legislative leaders who are interested in this and support legislative rights.”

Pushaw said the proposed legislation will be brought to the state legislature next month when the new legislative session begins. The spokeswoman adds that the legislation would need to be passed into law before the end of March.

The proposed Florida law is being compared to the Texas abortion bill, which allows citizens to sue anyone they believe may have been involved in helping a pregnant person who wants to get an abortion. 

Sen. Shevrin “Shev” Jones is among those who have opposed the bill.

“In all of my 38 years of living, I have never seen or heard such foolishness,” the senator tweeted after seeing the governor's rally.

Qasim Rashid, a human rights lawyer and radio personality, said the proposed bill proves that there is an urgent need to fight racism.

“Passing laws like the Stop Woke Act to ban teaching about the existence of racism literally proves a central point of critical race theory — that racism is often built in to our legal system & must be actively purged to achieve true justice,” Rashid tweeted.

At the end of Wednesday's rally, DeSantis signed white hats and gifted them to his supporters.

“And the governor has come bearing some gifts,” he said. “You guys want a hat? I’m going to fling these into the crowd.”

Critical-race-theoryRon DeSantis