The Ultimate Snowflakes

Mary Hall-Rayford
5 min readJan 30, 2022

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A bill pushed by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that would prohibit public schools and private businesses from making white people feel “discomfort” when they teach students or train employees about discrimination in the nation’s past received its first approval Tuesday.

The Senate Education Committee approved the bill that takes aim at critical race theory — though it doesn’t mention it explicitly — on party lines, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed.

Democrats argued the bill isn’t needed, would lead to frivolous lawsuits and said it would amount to censorship in schools. They asked, without success, for real-life examples of teachers or businesses telling students or employees that they are racist because of their race.

“This bill’s not for Blacks, this bill was not for any other race. This was directed to make whites not feel bad about what happened years ago,” said state Sen. Shevrin Jones, who is Black. “At no point did anyone say white people should be held responsible for what happened, but what I would ask my white counterparts is, are you an enabler of what happened or are you going to say we must talk about history?”

Does anyone remember when Republicans loved calling Democrats, “Snowflakes” after the 2016 election? I do! Now, it would appear that the FL GOP lawmakers are the ultimate snowflakes — fearful of what truth could do to their “precious children” and businesses. Give me a break!

They don’t want white people to feel “discomforted” with truth is discussed. Really? Discussion makes people discomforted? How about living with discomfort?

During Jim Crow laws — when, well you know, black people couldn’t drink at the nearest water fountain and had to seek the “colored fountain,” wherever it might have been residing. How about feeing discomfort when having to use the bathroom when travelling and there was no bathroom accessible because they all had signs saying, “whites only!” And let’s not forget, black folks getting hungry on the road…

Mary Hall-Rayford

Unfolding life perspectives as an educator, wife, mother, grandmother, political activist and community advocate- mary.hallrayford@gmail.com