FL Democrat on MSNBC Says DeSantis Wants ‘More People to Live in Their Bigoted Extremisms Like He Has Been Doing’
Florida Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick told MSNBC’s Al Sharpton that Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s education policies are designed for the express purpose of encouraging “bigoted extremisms” by removing programs that “help us step toward a more perfect union.”
On Saturday’s Politics Nation on MSNBC, Sharpton asked Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick about changes in her state’s education system, to include the much-discussed challenge to some content in an AP African American Studies curriculum. He asked the congresswoman for her reaction to an “escalation” this week, with a bill in the state legislature that would grant more power to the board of governors in overseeing content at state universities.
Cherfilus-McCormick said that situation is “infuriating” and a “continuation of his attack on minorities and people of different backgrounds and gender.”
“We have to address our past. And that’s what he’s trying to attack,” she said. “Because once we can erode those standards and that information, it allows him to pass, and more people to live in their bigoted extremist extremism like he has been doing.”
SHARPTON: What is your reaction to this week’s escalation?
CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK: Well, it’s infuriating because this is a continuation of his attack on minorities and people of different backgrounds and gender. And what we’re seeing him doing with this bill at this point is really removing the funding and putting all of the power into the GOP-appointed people to ensure that they are now screening any information that our children and our college students need to know. And at the end of the day, we see that at the heart of his attack is really removing all the diversity, equality, and inclusion programs that actually help us step towards being a more perfect union.
He attacks the educational system, African-American AP studies so people wouldn’t understand why we even develop these programs. It really is rooted in our history of inequalities. These inequalities still persist today. We’re still seeing inequality, inequal numbers of participation in certain job fields. We’re still seeing minority students who are going to state colleges and actually being accepted not equal to our counterparts. And we’re still feeling the effects even when it comes to pay. And we have to address our past.
And that’s what he’s trying to attack. Because once we can erode those standards and that information, it allows him to pass, and more people to live in their bigoted extremist extremism like he has been doing.
Watch the clip above, via MSNBC.
