The first step to solving a problem is admitting there is a problem to be solved – Pete Seeger
Two bills (Senate Bill 2202 and HB 3979) circulating in the Texas Legislature recently aim to ban the teaching of controversial subjects such as racial injustice and social inequality in public schools and colleges. These bills appear to be a knee-jerk reaction against increasing conversations about BLM, police brutality, and racial/gender bias in the US. Critical race theory and the 1619 project are two such examples that have been scorned by GOP lawmakers in Texas, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, and South Dakota. These states have proposed bills that would cut funding for schools and colleges using material from the 1619 project and any discussion of critical race theory. Just last week, Idaho was the first state to officially bar the teaching of critical race theory from public schools and colleges.
The central tenet of critical race theory is that the social construction of race and the perpetuation of institutionalized racism has created a caste system in this country that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers. Critical race theory also states that LGBTQ+ and non-binary individuals are placed in this bottom caste as well. The 1619 project (developed by the New York Times Magazine) is an educational initiative that seeks to educate students in public schools regarding the consequences of slavery, as well as to note the contributions of African Americans to US culture and society.
Republicans, from Tim Scott to Nikki Haley have publicly stated that the US is not a racist country and that racism is not a problem. Denying the existence of racism is not helpful.
Texas Lt Gov. Dan Patrick stated this week that “Texans reject critical race theory and other so-called ‘woke’ philosophies that maintain that one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex or that any individual, by his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive.” He went on to add, “These divisive concepts have been inserted into curriculums around the state, but they have no place in Texas schools.” To add insult to injury, the Texas legislation would go further by repressing students in Texas classrooms from even discussing controversial social and political issues altogether. It’s obvious that Mr. Patrick does not understand the purpose of critical race theory: To bring to light the fact that social inequality and racism have been woven into the very fabric of American society.
Several Texas teachers’ organizations, as well as education advocacy groups, oppose both bills, and the Texas Civic Education Coalition opposes the bills because they curtail the teaching of civics in classrooms. “These bills try to ignore or downplay the racism, sexism and other injustices in our state’s and nation’s history, but students must be encouraged to fully explore and understand those injustices if Texas is to provide an equitable future for a rapidly diversifying population,” stated Clay Robison, a public affairs specialist for the Texas State Teacher’s Association.
Jonathan Feinstein, the Texas state director of The Education Trust, stated in an interview, “Not talking about racism and other forms of injustice won’t make them go away.” He went on to as, “This unnecessary bill — like others introduced across the country — prevents schools from proactively addressing harmful acts of discrimination, ties the hands of teachers rather than supporting them, and seeks to hold students back from grappling with and helping to solve real challenges facing our society.”
State Sen. Brandon Creighton’s (R-Conroe) comments to The Texas Tribune reveal the actual intent behind the Texas bills and others that seek to white-wash (an unintended pun) US history. Creighton defended Texas bill 2202 by arguing that Texas schools should emphasize “traditional history, focusing on the ideas that make our country great and the story of how our country has risen to meet those ideals.”
Creighton’s statement brings to mind the book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong, by James W. Loewen. This book won the 1996 American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship. Lowen takes the reader through an amazing journey of our nation’s history that is not covered in classrooms. He covers the 28th President of the US, President Woodrow Wilson, who was portrayed as a progressive leader but was a white supremacist who personally vetoed a clause on racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations. The author also cites that Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon went to Florida to capture Native Americans as slaves, and not really to discover the fountain of youth. Loewen also provides a chapter on the Pilgrims and points out that the first Thanksgiving is a myth invented by the pilgrims and their descendants to justify European expansion into North America. Loewen concluded that most history books are littered with a combination of blind patriotism, misinformation, mindless optimism, and blatant lies.
So if we go back to Sen. Creighton’s comments that history taught in public schools and colleges should focus on “traditional history” and “ideas that make our country great,” he must have been referring to those traditional textbooks and lesson plans that Loewen so astutely criticizes in his book.
Racism and inequality do exist in our nation, and they have caused hundreds of years of suffering and pain for minorities, people of color, and those who do not fit the mold of the “white American way.” Simply ignoring the problem, and banning civics discussions of inequality in classrooms is doing our youth a massive disservice, and we will never grow as a nation if we do not admit, and face the ugly truth.