A bill backed by Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis that would ban public schools and businesses from making white people feel "discomfort" during teaching or training about the nation's history of discrimination is moving forward in the state senate, reports CBS News.
The Florida state Senate Education Committee on Tuesday approved the bill — along party lines.
Democrats have argued the bill isn't needed, would lead to frivolous lawsuits and amount to censorship in schools, the news outlet reported.
"This bill's not for Blacks; this bill was not for any other race. This was directed to make whites not feel bad about what happened years ago," said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, who is Black, the news outlet reported.
"At no point did anyone say white people should be held responsible for what happened, but what I would ask my white counterparts is, are you an enabler of what happened or are you going to say we must talk about history?"
DeSantis held a news conference last month calling critical race theory "crap," and said he’d seek legislation to let parents and workers sue if forced to learn it.
According to CBS News, the legislation reads in part: "An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, does not bear responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex. An individual should not be made to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race."
The bill is sponsored by GOP state Sen. Manny Diaz Jr., who told the news outlet the measure isn’t about ignoring the "dark" parts of American history, but rather ensuring people are not blamed for sins of the past.
"No individual is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely by the virtue of his or her race or sex," Diaz told CBS News. "No race is inherently superior to another race."
Jones argued that DeSantis is playing to his conservative base by pushing the legislation.
"The governor will continue to go across the country with his racist rhetoric on critical race theory ... it's a problem that doesn't exist," Jones said, the news outlet reported. "I think the governor's policies that he continues to push are racist."
A spokeswoman for DeSantis reiterated his previous comments that referred to the late civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.
"You think about what MLK stood for,” DeSantis has said, the news outlet reported. “He said he didn't want people judged on the color of their skin but on the content of their character. You listen to some of these people nowadays, they don't talk about that.”