Axios: GOP-led states are going after critical race theory in schools

[Morrison71]

Republicans in 9 states launch blitz against critical race theory in public schools

A year after George Floyd was killed, questions over whether — and how — to teach kids about systemic racism have become a new cultural and political fault line

www.axios.com

Republicans in at least nine states are moving to limit students' exposure to critical race theory — a concept that links racial discrimination to the nation's foundations and legal system.

Why it matters: A year after George Floyd's killing, how systemic racism is — or is not — taught in public schools has become a new fault line in the culture wars, with implications for how the next generation of Americans understands U.S. history.

• Conservative activists are pressing for less talk about racism and more talk about patriotism.
• Civil rights advocates and some educators say banning critical race theory from schools constrains academic freedom and suppresses the experiences of people of color

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill this week banning the teaching of critical race theory in public schools — over the objections from Black Democrats in the county where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in 1968, WHBQ-TV reported.

• Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt recently signed similar bans, and lawmakers in Oregon, Arkansas, Utah, Missouri and Arizona are crafting their own versions.
• Stitt was kicked off a commission marking the100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre after he signed the bill banning critical race theory from schools.
• In Texas last week, the state Senate approved a bill to ban critical race theory in public and open-enrollment charter schools and eliminate requirements to study writings by women and people of color.

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Critical race theory is a framework developed in the 1970s, by legal scholars including Derrick Bell and Richard Delgado, that argues white supremacy maintains power through the law and other legal systems.

• Critical race theorists — also known as crits — dismiss the notion that racism stems from acts of individuals, saying it comes from how the nation formed. Only through attacking routine practices and institutions through color-conscious efforts will racism be dismantled, they say.

 

[z_ape]

History won't look fondly upon this variant of CRT

 

[BioHawk]

It's not like that hasn't been obvious for the last year or so. Anything to gin up anger in the base because there just aren't any policy ideas that they have to run on. The whole tax hustle they have run on the last 40 years isn't bringing in the new voters they need.

Now, I don't know if I agree with every aspect of this curriculum, particularly the parts that seem designed to anger people into wanting revenge (probably too strong a word but I can't think of a better one right now) as I don't see how that makes things better. But to pretend that race had nothing to do with the formation and policies of this country throughout its entire history is being dishonest with yourself as well.

 

[HotelAlphaWilcoKilo]

Only through attacking routine practices and institutions through color-conscious efforts will racism be dismantled, they say.

"The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination."

Gonna dismantle that racism right outta our society with more discrimination. Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

good

 

[goldmom]

"The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination."

Gonna dismantle that racism right outta our society with more discrimination. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Yep. There are paychecks to race hustlers on the line. Must keep it going.

 

[abby97]

BLM doesn't seek the elimination of racism, they seek revenge.

 

[Rudolph]

Yep. There are paychecks to race hustlers on the line. Must keep it going.

I love the consistency of your cynicism. Lol.

 

[ATLNole1]

good

 

[Tom Paris]

BLM doesn't seek the elimination of racism, they seek revenge.

You really don't care to learn do you? You truly have zero desire to understand what BLM is all about.

 

[sober_teacher]

Honset question: whether you disagree with this or not, how does this stand up to a 1st amendment challenge?

 

[goldmom]

Honset question: whether you disagree with this or not, how does this stand up to a 1st amendment challenge?

Are you saying that CRT is a function of free speech? I suppose that could be argued, as long as they could show that it’s only an opinion espoused by some and not a hard set of facts.

 

[Nole Lou]

It's not like that hasn't been obvious for the last year or so. Anything to gin up anger in the base because there just aren't any policy ideas that they have to run on. The whole tax hustle they have run on the last 40 years isn't bringing in the new voters they need.

Now, I don't know if I agree with every aspect of this curriculum, particularly the parts that seem designed to anger people into wanting revenge (probably too strong a word but I can't think of a better one right now) as I don't see how that makes things better. But to pretend that race had nothing to do with the formation and policies of this country throughout its entire history is being dishonest with yourself as well.

Nobody is insisting that the history of race and racism in this country not be taught. The Texas anti-CRT law actually MANDATES that racism and the history of white supremacy be taught.

Here is what people are pushing back against, from the mouth of a proponent. Is it shocking that that people don't want their second graders being taught that they're racist? That their "whiteness" should be hated?



This is an absolute losing issue for Democrats, you're never going to get enough white people to agree that teaching children that all whites are racist and discrimination against whites is imperative, and black people and other minorities don't support the tenets of CRT anywhere near the numbers they would have to for it to even remotely be worth it. This is a perfect example of Democrats leaning into Twitter activists and the Very Online progressives at the expense of good policy or even good politics.

There's a very real reckoning to be done with real issues around policing, structural racism and even white privilege. The CRT/anti-racism movement has grafted itself onto that important conversation, with some very unpopular and dangerous ideas.

 

[sober_teacher]

Are you saying that CRT is a function of free speech? I suppose that could be argued, as long as they could show that it’s only an opinion espoused by some and not a hard set of facts.

Im just asking whether the government can legally bar an academic theory from being taught in school. I don’t pretend to know enough about it to argue it hear, nor do I really feel like it right now, but I do feel like it’s something at least worthy of debate.

At the very least it feels like it could be an interesting legal question.

 

[BlackNGoldBleeder]

Im just asking whether the government can legally bar an academic theory from being taught in school. I don’t pretend to know enough about it to argue it hear, nor do I really feel like it right now, but I do feel like it’s something at least worthy of debate.

At the very least it feels like it could be an interesting legal question.

I don't know the answer to that, but CRT needs a serious overhaul, especially in New York.

 

[BioHawk]

Nobody is insisting that the history of race and racism in this country not be taught. The Texas anti-CRT law actually MANDATES that racism and the history of white supremacy be taught.

Here is what people are pushing back against, from the mouth of a proponent. Is it shocking that that people don't want their second graders being taught that they're racist? That their "whiteness" should be hated?

View embedded media

This is an absolute losing issue for Democrats, you're never going to get enough white people to agree that teaching children that all whites are racist and discrimination against whites is imperative, and black people and other minorities don't support the tenets of CRT anywhere near the numbers they would have to for it to even remotely be worth it. This is a perfect example of Democrats leaning into Twitter activists and the Very Online progressives at the expense of good policy or even good politics.

There's a very real reckoning to be done with real issues around policing, structural racism and even white privilege. The CRT/anti-racism movement has grafted itself onto that important conversation, with some very unpopular and dangerous ideas.

As I said, I don't agree with all of the parts of it. I do think you have provided a decent analysis of the issue here though.

 

[gonegolfing]

So GOP supporting America again? Good work GOP.

 

[abby97]

You really don't care to learn do you? You truly have zero desire to understand what BLM is all about.

No I don't. Nor do I care what antifa believes

 

[abby97]

You really don't care to learn do you? You truly have zero desire to understand what BLM is all about.

I've seen their website have you?

 

[lucas80]

One of the goals is to intimidate teachers. Watch for the Karen’s and Northern’a of the US to start filing charges against teachers for mentioning slavery.
It’s never about what they say it’s about, and it never ends with the first law.

 

[binsfeldcyhawk2]

One of the goals is to intimidate teachers. Watch for the Karen’s and Northern’a of the US to start filing charges against teachers for mentioning slavery.
It’s never about what they say it’s about, and it never ends with the first law.

It’s not about mentioning slavery...they’ve been teaching about slavery for decades and there hasn’t been any issues.

Critical race theory is toxic...

 

[ICWestfan]

One of the goals is to intimidate teachers. Watch for the Karen’s and Northern’a of the US to start filing charges against teachers for mentioning slavery.
It’s never about what they say it’s about, and it never ends with the first law.

Are you okay with teaching our children that in 1619 the country that the puritans came to was because they wanted to create or enable slavery? Thats how America was founded? Thats what you want your children, or grand children, to be taught?

 

[Bulldogs1974]

Read: another well reasoned article.

 

[z_ape]

Why are we pulling up old CRT threads? I posted a CRT with plenty to get people going and it's getting no attention.

 

[Chishawk1425]