UCF removes anti-racist statements from department websites

By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The University of Central Florida has removed anti-racist statements from departmental websites in the wake of the passage of a Republican-backed law that restricts how race can be taught. Religious studies professor Ann Gleig said in an email Wednesday that the anti-racist statement on the school’s philosophy department website and those of other departments have been taken down. Gleig decried it as an “infringement on academic freedom.” The philosophy department’s statement was crafted in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. Last spring, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a measure that prohibits any teaching that could make students or workers feel they bear personal responsibility for historic wrongs because of their race, color, sex or national origin.