Gov. Ron DeSantis was in Sumter County Wednesday morning to announce his plans to take critical race theory out of Florida school curriculums.

Surrounded by supporters with stop signs, the governor announced the Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees (Woke) Act.

"We want all our students to understand why was our country founded, what were some of the key ideas that made us different," DeSantis said. "For example, our founding fathers said that we are endowed by our creator with inalienable rights. The rights do not come from government."

DeSantis said starting next year, teachers who complete what he called a civics training program will be eligible for a $3,000 bonus.

The governor criticized what he called a "woke ideology" in both schools and business.

"I think what you see now with the rise of this woke ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and delegitimize our institutions," he said. "And I view the 'wokeness' as a form of cultural Marxism."

DeSantis said that earlier this year, he directed the Florida Department of Education to prohibit the teaching of critical race theory.

“I think we have an ability to draw a line in the sand and say, ‘That’s not the type of society we want here in the state of Florida. We want people treated equally, we don’t want ideology,’” DeSantis said. “They want to tear at the fabric of our society and culture, and the ability of parents to direct the upbringing of our kids.”

The governor said the "woke" behavior isn't just in schools.

"It really has become something that is being utilized by corporate America to, I think, create hostile work environments for many of their employees," DeSantis said. "We believe this corporate CRT — it's basically corporate sanctioned racism and they're trying to shove it down these employee's throats. We believe that violates the Florida civil rights laws." 

Yet, others who have studied these kinds of ideologies contend that critical race theory is not a new concept. Instead, they say it’s been talked about in law schools for decades as academic study, and a new narrative has been created about what it does — and doesn’t — assert.

“They latched onto critical race theory, which has been around for 50 years, and then started a narrative that (it) teaches people to hate their country,” said Eric Smaw, a professor of philosophy at Rollins College. “Which of course it doesn’t, no more than feminism would teach women to hate men.”

Smaw said that CRT teachings are rooted in the structural creation of the U.S., the Constitution, and how they relate to race in society.

Protests over the death of George Floyd and other civil rights injustices helped to bring the theory to the forefront, he explained, insisting that CRT is not about hating, but fostering understanding about innate inequities in society.

“They don’t look to institute shame or criticize particular people about anything," he said. "They’re only trying to highlight how the country’s been organized.

"Critical race theory in and of itself is still valuable to study, so we don’t make those mistakes in other ways and other institutions in the future.”