Ron DeSantis Would Ban My Textbook

and other reasons you should read it

(Source: Gonzalo Garcia used under statement “free to use and share commercially”)

I’ve taught philosophy, politics, and religion to university students for 21 years in three different countries. I’ve learned a lot through teaching and speaking with students. Frustrated by the low quality and high price of the corporate textbooks, I put what I learned to good use and wrote my own philosophy textbook: How We Are and How We Got Here.

Based on everything I know about Ron DeSantis’s crusade against his imaginary dragon of “wokeism” in higher education, he would seek to ban my textbook.

Why? Because my book mentions facts DeSantis doesn’t want mentioned and invites discussion on issues that DeSantis doesn’t want discussed. My book mentions:

• The trans-Atlantic slave trade and the institution of slavery and how philosophers responded to these historical facts.
• Racism and philosophical explanations for it, including (gasp) a short subsection on critical race theory.
• American progressive political philosophies that advocated for the expansion of political and economic rights.
• Feminist philosophy and critiques of gender ideology.
• Nonheteronormative philosophy, including queer theory.
• Postcolonial theory — how…