There is never a shortage of leftist virtue signaling and divisive political rhetoric at award shows, but this week actress Denee Benton took all the headlines with her comments characterizing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as the “grand wizard” of the Ku Klux Klan.

When presenting the Tony Award for excellence in theater education to a high school theater director from South Plantation, Florida, Benton said she is “certain that the current grand wizard — I’m sorry; excuse me, governor — of my home state of Florida” will change the name of the theater director’s town “immediately.”

To nobody’s surprise, these comments were met with resounding applause from the most privileged and wealthy elitists in show business, completely out of touch with reality and the issues everyday people care about. As a result, this award became more about a D-list actress than the recipient who earned it.

What a lazy, contrived, and deliberately dishonest narrative espoused by those such as Benton who lack the wherewithal to formulate a substantive argument as to why they disagree with DeSantis’s policies. Love him or hate him, DeSantis has made it his mission to ensure that public schools in the state of Florida do not teach that there is something inherently evil or good about someone based on their race and that people should be judged on the content of their character as opposed to the color of their skin — the antithesis of critical race theory.

Critical race theory posits that every interaction should be looked at from a racial power dynamic standpoint, where white people and people exhibiting “whiteness” are the oppressors and nonwhites are the oppressed. Further, “colorblindness,” or the “belief that one should treat all persons equally, without regard to their race,” is denounced as racist.

Even as race relations have improved over the years, according to critical race theory, every improvement can be attributed to “white self-interest,” thus stripping white champions for civil rights of the merit in their actions and instead attributing their motivations to selfishness, opportunism, and convenience.

Over the years, I have documented countless examples of this and far worse being taught in higher education in my time at Campus Reform. The DeSantis administration’s opposition to these ideas has earned the governor a lot of enemies on the far Left who can’t argue for why these things should be taught in school and instead rely on ad hominem attacks and accusations of racism to silence their opponents.

Aside from his stance against critical race theory, DeSantis’s policies have resulted in some of the lowest unemployment rates for black and Hispanic people in the country, and his success as governor even earned him a majority of the Hispanic vote in his reelection campaign.

DeSantis would be the most ironic and out-of-place grand wizard in KKK history. He’s an Italian, a group historically reviled by the klan, who preaches a message of racial equality and has never given people an actual reason to call him a racist. The award for the most ironic group of klansmen of all time would have to go to the 58% of Floridian Hispanics who voted for him.

The klan used to mass-murder and publicly execute people. Florida has a governor who is making his state a better place for everyone, including minorities. Only in 2023 would that earn him the moniker “grand wizard” instead of “champion for freedom and equal opportunity.”

Peter Cordi ( @PeterCordi ) is a contributor for the Washington Examiner.