Publisher deleted references to racism in Rosa Parks story to appease Florida regulators

The New York Times has reviewed some proposed changes that publisher Studies Weekly made to its course materials and found that it erased references to racism in its books telling the story of Rosa Parks.

According to the Times, the publisher made the changes in "an attempt to cater to Florida," which has adopted stricter guidelines on so-called "woke" textbooks under the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Under the publisher's current version of the Rosa Parks lesson, which is intended for first graders, the book states that Parks deliberately defied a law that said "African Americans had to give up their seats on the bus if a white person wanted to sit down."

However, in the most recent proposed revision to the book, the text only states that Parks "was told to move to a different seat" without any explanation as to why.

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The Florida Department of Education tells the Times that it is entirely permissible to talk about racial discrimination when discussing the civil rights movement and that it did not mandate the proposed revisions to Studies Weekly's text.

Even so, the publisher says that it felt the need to make the changes thanks to the Stop W.O.K.E. Act that DeSantis has touted as a model for reforming education nationwide.