SO I GUESS IT'S OKAY TO MAKE WHITE PEOPLE IN FLORIDA FEEL BAD ABOUT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST A GROUP REPUBLICANS THINK MIGHT VOTE FOR THEM

I approve of this, but if I didn't understand it, I'd be surprised at the Republican hypocrisy:

As part of a broad education curriculum bill signed this week by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, educators in the state will be required to teach Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) history.

Florida joins Illinois and New Jersey among states that include AAPI history as part of their curriculum....

An analysis of the bill says the lessons "must include the history of Japanese internment camps and the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during World War II; the immigration, citizenship, civil rights, identity, and culture of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; and the contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to American society."

Before reaching DeSantis' desk, the bill got strong bipartisan support, getting unanimous 40-0 approval in the Senate before getting approval in the House by a 112-3 margin.

It's not surprising that Democrats would vote for this. Democrats believe in the honest teaching of history, including the history of legalized discrimination in America. But DeSantis and other Republicans proudly support Florida's Stop WOKE Act, which requires teachers to avoid the possibility of inculcating "guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions ... committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin." How do you teach about Japanese internment without running that risk?

I guess you teach the kids that the internment camps were all the fault of Democrat Franklin Roosevelt, the evil Democrat hero of Democrat Party members everywhere. (Did I mention that FDR was a Democrat?) Or maybe it's okay to blame white people in this case, because unlike Black people, Asian Americans seem as if they might start voting GOP in significant numbers under the right circumstances.

Republicans are very interested in a pair of cases currently before the Supreme Court in which the plaintiffs argue that college affirmative action programs (at Harvard and the University of North Carolina) discriminate against Asian American students. You know this is an important issue to the right when this top conservative thinker weighs in:

For a *very* long time, US media was racist against non-white people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians.

Same thing happened with elite colleges & high schools in America.

Maybe they can try not being racist.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2023

I'm sure the Florida bill is also intended to reassure Asian Americans that the relentless attacks on China by DeSantis and his ideological allies aren't a problem for them. DeSantis is just starting to ramp up his presidential campaign, so he'll be attacking China a lot, as will Donald Trump and most of the other GOP presidential candidates. The GOP's effort to blame China for every problem in America that isn't caused by wokeness -- surely there can't be any third culprit! -- is likely to have consequences.

It's good that AAPI history will be taught in Florida -- but GOP support for this bill is cynical and shameless.