In the 1920s, a series of greed-based, racially charged murders of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation occurred in Oklahoma. (The linked article is a gift 🎁 link, so anyone can read the entire article, even if they do not subscribe to The New York Times.)

The article's authors, Jim Gray and David Grann, also point out how legislatures in red states like Oklahoma have created laws that are being used to prevent the teaching of significant racist incidents in American history for fear that it could be implied that students are being taught that they "'should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress' on account of their race or sex." Consequently, teaching about the Reign of Terror against the Osage Nation is being stifled in some Oklahoma schools.

Here is a video about the murders.

.Below are some excerpts from the article:

During the early 20th century, members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma were systematically murdered by white settlers. Yet outside the Osage Nation, the history of this racial injustice — one of the worst in American history — was distorted and then largely erased from memory. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” a film directed by Martin Scorsese, shines an extraordinary light on these events and provides a long overdue opportunity to restore them in our consciousness. But ironically, at the same time that the film is being released, there is a new attempt to suppress the teaching of this very history in the state where it took place. In 2021 the Oklahoma Legislature passed a bill prohibiting teachers in public school from instructing several concepts, including that “any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” on account of their race or sex. The vagueness of the law has caused teachers to censor themselves, for fear of losing their licenses or their school’s accreditation. In a high school classroom in Dewey, Okla., copies of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the nonfiction book behind the film, were left unread because the teacher worried about running afoul of the law. Another teacher confessed that she was uncertain if she could refer to the settlers who murdered the Osage as white. At stake in these fights is not only factual accuracy. It is also how new generations will be taught to record and remember the past — both the good and the bad — so that they can learn to make their own history. The story of what’s now called the Osage Reign of Terror is essential to understanding America’s past. After vast oil deposits were discovered under their lands, the Osage were suddenly, by the 1920s, among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. In the year 1923 alone, the roughly 2,000 Osage on the tribal roll received a total of more than $30 million, the equivalent today of more than $400 million. As their wealth increased, though, it unleashed an insidious backlash across the country. The U.S. government passed legislation requiring many Osage to have white guardians to manage their fortunes — a system that was both abhorrently racist and widely corrupt. Then the Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances: There were shootings, poisonings and even a bombing. [color emphasis added]

I encourage you to read the entire article. It is tragic that red states are so afraid of their racist past that they are making it extremely difficult for children in those states to learn about the racist underbelly of American history, and how that history continues to reverberate in our society.

_______________ Video source for gif (before edits/caption) Originally posted 10.21.23; last edited 01.20.24

Being a Black Christian in this nation often means pushing back against attempts from white evangelicals and fundamentalists to speak for all Christians, or to shroud their harm in scripture. In the words of Psalm 106:3, I speak out for those students who have gone on to adulthood, still wounded by an institution that proclaimed Christ while rejecting those that were made in His image:  "Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!" 

i looked up the current candidates for the 2024 presidential election in the usa and it is. really fucking bleak.

democrats:

joe biden - current president. doing...ok. he's pro trans rights and has been doing some good stuff to fight climate change, but he's like a hundred years old and

robert f kennedy jr - seems to have decent opinions on a lot of policy, but thinks that chemicals in the water are making kids transgender and has suggested that covid is a conspiracy by ashkenazi jews and chinese people

marianne williamson - anti vaxxer apparently, also i guess thinks love is the only thing that will defeat trump

republicans:

ryan binkley - conservative pastor that thinks marriage is "between one man and one woman", anti choice, wants to Build A Wall

doug burgum - republican governor that has actively passed anti trans legislation, anti regulation (unless what you're regulating is trans people ig????)

chris christie - is apparently opposed to bans on gender affirming care, but vetoed a bill allowing trans people to change their gender marker, anti choice

ron desantis - i feel like i don't need to explain

larry elder - denies systemic racism and wants police to be harder on crime, anti crt and dei, pretty solidly anti trans

nikki haley - anti choice, extremely anti trans, anti immigrant, supports israel while also having an evangelical pastor who has a history of antisemitism and racism and queerphobia open for one of her events

will hurd - doesn't seem too horrendous, not noticeably anti trans, but supports 15 week abortion ban

asa hutchinson - great value brand trump

perry johnson - was republican candidate for governor of michigan but was disqualified due to fraudulent ballot signatures

mike pence - yeah

vivek ramaswamy - "anti wokeism", would pass a law requiring teachers to disclose to parents if they found out their kid is trans, supports bans on gender affirming care, wants to end sanctuary cities and address mental health through "faith based approaches", hedge fund bro

tim scott - said that america is not a racist country and the biggest problem facing black people is "fatherlessness incentivized by welfare", opposes same sex marriage and gender affirming care and thinks democrats are using school to "indoctrinate children"

corey stapleton - montana secretary of state, couldn't find much abt him

donald trump - donald trump

independent

cornel west (green party) - seems really cool actually but two party system will fuck him over

i hate the two party system so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also congrats to the dems for yet another milquetoast kennedy, and congrats to the republicans for having the most racially diverse list of racist and transphobic candidates!!!

Transphobes lost big in the recent American elections

The recent elections in the US confirms earlier trends: The right wing extremism of the Republican Party – old fashioned gender roles and transphobia included – is not supported by the majority of American voters.

Nine LGBTQ+ candidates won state legislature seats in Virginia alone.

Erin Reed writes:

Another narrative began to emerge, though: the overwhelming defeat of [transphobic organization] Moms For Liberty and anti-trans school board candidates across the country, including pivotal districts like Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and Loudoun County, Virginia—areas critical to the 2024 election landscape. After championing a significant anti-trans agenda in 2023 and proposing more legislation against the LGBTQ+ community than the past decade, Republicans running on that platform faced unexpected and widespread defeats.

Erin quotes Senator Claire McCaskill, who said:

“This issue about transgender rights, the Republicans think they have this big winner… People voted for [pro-trans Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky] last night over the Trump-backed candidate in a big way. So these issues, they think banning all abortions and transgender rights, they think these are winners? They need to check again with the suburbs of America, because they are not winners in the suburbs.”

Read the whole article here.

Post from Elisabeht Anne on Bluesky:

GOP: the globalists are trying to transgender all your kids to death with crt because of the intergalactic lizard devil Voters: none of that is real. we just want healthcare and rights, you weird bozos GOP: see…this is why we shouldn’t have elections

Illustration photo: pointstudio

Florida has blocked the College Board from testing a pilot Advanced Placement African American Studies (APAAS) curriculum in the state under Governor Ron DeSantis’ “Stop WOKE” Act. According to a letter obtained by National Review, Florida’s Department of Education’s Office of Articulation said the curriculum “is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

The pilot course, which has been tested at 60 schools across the United States, aims to expand the advanced coursework offered by the College Board into the study of the African diaspora in the U.S. The course has run afoul of DeSantis’ widespread ban on teaching “critical race theory” (CRT) in K-12 classrooms. CRT is an analytical framework that seeks to dissect the manner in which racism has shaped American legal theory and institutions. The concept has been co-opted in recent years by right-wing reactionaries to fearmonger about any and all discussions of race and discrimination.

The “Stop Woke” act, signed into law by DeSantis in 2022, essentially prohibits instruction on race relations or diversity that imply a person’s “status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, national origin, or sex.” The bill also bans both schools and workplaces from “subjecting any student or employee to training or instruction that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individuals to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin.”

In November, U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker issued a temporary injunction on a portion of the law that attempted to place similar restrictions on higher education. Despite several challenges to the law on grounds of First Amendment rights, Florida has continued to lead the charge against comprehensive education on the racial history of the U.S. Several other states have passed similar legislation, including Texas, Idaho, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Oklahoma.

DeSantis has centered his administration around governance through culture war grievances. The governor passed a similar law last year, known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill that granted the state broad powers to implement prohibitions on instruction on issues of gender and sexuality in Florida schools. Under the guise of his anti-CRT crusade, the Governor is reshaping Florida education in the image of the far right, recently announcing a plan to forcibly overhaul the New College of Florida, and transform it into a conservative institution. With increasing pressure on teachers and professors to avoid topics like race and gender lest they face the wrath of the state government, that transformation is effectively taking place though government-enforced censorship.

Arkansas appears to be trying to compete against Florida and Texas in the White and Fragile Red State Olympics, and, specifically, the sport of stifling Black history.

Earlier this month, we reported that the Arkansas Department of Education just up and decided two days before classes started that it would not recognize a new Advanced Placement course on African American history for course credit for the 2023-24 school year. Now, the department is demanding that every K-12 school in a six-district radius turn over all of their African American studies materials so they can be scanned for violations of the state’s anti-critical race theory law.

MORE: The Importance Of African American Studies

Related Stories

Here’s another way to put that: Arkansas and its governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, are out here confiscating Black history because it might violate anti-CRT standards they propagandized into anti-CRT legislation. It’s basically iron sharpening iron if both blades of iron are actually white supremacy.

But seriously, is government officials using anti-“woke” propaganda as a green light to invade places of learning and demand educational materials be turned over for inspection not exactly the kind of thing that links right-wingers to fascism? Please tell me the same people who boast that the government would have to pry their guns from their “cold dead hands”—despite no notable effort by government officials to confiscate citizens’ guns anywhere in America—are not going to stand for history books being taken by way of government overreach. (Yes, I understand that they’re public schools. No, that doesn’t make the optics any less Orwellian, not to mention racist AF.)

Ok, but let’s be fair here. After all, maybe the department has some reason to believe dangerous messages are being spread to indoctrinated school students. Perhaps schools are teaching step-by-step “kill whitey” instructions or, as conservatives often suggest, teaching Black kids to hate America and white kids ot hate themselves.

Let’s just take a look at what they’re so concerned about.

“Given some of the themes included in the pilot, including ‘intersections of identity’ and ‘resistance and resilience,’ the Department is concerned the pilot may not comply with Arkansas law, which does not permit teaching that would indoctrinate students with ideologies, such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), (See Ark. Code Ann. § 6-16-156, as amended by Section 16 of the LEARNS Act),” the letter sent out to the superintendents of the districts reads.

“To assist public school employees, representatives, and guest speakers at your district in complying with the law, please submit all materials, including but not limited to the syllabus, textbooks, teacher resources, student resources, rubrics, and training materials, to the Department by 12:00 pm on September 8, 2023, along with your statement of assurance that the teaching of these materials will not violate Arkansas law or rule. Items can be scanned and emailed to [email protected].”

Well, there you have it, good people. The Arkansas Department of Education has important work to do here! The school districts in this great state simply cannot be left to their own devices lest the children—the precious, impressionable children—be insidiously indoctrinated by horrific lessons on—God, I can hardly even say it—”intersections of identity” and “resistance and resilience.”

Again, Arkansas wants to be Florida so bad. The Sunshine (or sundown) state is requiring lessons about enslaved people benefiting from slavery, and accepting “educational” materials from PragerU, a demonstrably racist organization that teaches children that Frederick Douglass would agree slavery was a necessary evil to preserve America. Now, Arkansas is picking up the white nationalist indoctrination tiki torch by eliminating Black studies materials that teach about the “resistance” and the “resilience” of oppressed people.

This is white supremacy at work. This is exactly what critical race theory was created to examine.

SEE ALSO:

Florida Approves Teaching Students That Slaves Benefited From Slavery

Florida’s New Black History Curriculum Whitewashes Slavery, Victim-Shames African Americans, Critics Say

By: Sara Higdon

Published: Apr 8, 2023

We have seen an uptick in violent incidents from the “Trans” activist community. Kellie-Jay Keen was attacked by a mob in New Zealand, Billboard Chris was assaulted at a protest in Vancouver, Alex Stein had hot coffee poured on him in San Francisco, and most recently also in San Francisco, at San Francisco State University Riley Gaines was assaulted and essentially kidnaped by protestors.

This is on top of the number of state capitals that have been stormed in protest of trans related legislation. However, when I see these protests I am noticing that most of the activists don't appear to be trans themselves. They are using the Trans community as a vehicle to push their ideology with zero regard for the backlash that it brings upon actual trans people.

In the video of Riley Gaines' attack, it only appears that one in ten may have identified as such. We can tell this because progressive transgender people don’t try to fit in or blend in, they want you to know they are “trans.” Historically the “T” in LGBT stood for Transsexual. Which was used for those whose goal it is to “pass” and assimilate into society and not bring attention to the fact that we are the opposite sex as we present.

Progressives have been able to change the meaning of the “T”, to commandeer a community that just wants to live their lives in peace, to force their ideology on the world.

Around 2013, the “T” was changed to mean “Transgender.” With the change came a shift from the binary into the world of queer theory. Transexuals live in a binary world, they have gender dysphoria and take the steps to blend into the world as the opposite sex. Transgender is an “umbrella” term that ushered in the notion of non-binary and postmodern theory into an otherwise binary world. The postmodern aspect allowed progressives to then co-opt the “trans” moniker. They can now self-identify into an “oppressed” community, so that officials are afraid to do anything against it, for fear of being called bigots. 

Progressives tried to do the same thing with Black Lives Matter (BLM) in the summer of 2020. The issue was that this required convincing the black population to buy into their ideology and do their bidding. When you see the riot videos, a large portion of the assailants were white Antifa members. At the time, they were able to use the fight against Critical Race Theory (CRT) as their recruitment tool. They claimed it was “just teaching history.” The world woke up to their lies, and they had to go a different route; ushering in the push for Queer Theory. 

Queer theory and CRT are two sides of the same coin. Both are based in  postmodern neomarxist ideology and follow the same tenets. When the “Q” community was able to make “trans/non-binary” something that you can self-ID into, they were able to do the work themselves that they couldn’t convince the black community to do.

Progressives are able to push their ideology through violence, which then gets justified by politicians and mainstream media on the left. With headlines like "Anti-Lia Thomas activist escorted by police amid protest at SFSU," They have somehow convinced these people that it's ok for a male to hit a female as long as that male identifies as a woman, and blame the victim of the assault. They will continue with this strategy until it is no longer working, then they will move on to the next “oppressed minority” to destroy their standing in society.

Further proof that progressives don’t care about the “trans'' community is that they try to silence anyone that doesn't follow their ideology. I have had Antifa try to shut down three events I have taken part in. The last one was a few weeks ago in Pennsylvania. The venue that Chloe Cole (a detransitioner) and I (a transexual woman) were supposed to speak at got accidentally leaked the day prior, and immediately the hotel got phone calls and the local police said they didn’t have the manpower to be able to protect us if they showed up. The venue canceled, but thankfully a church 30 mins away stepped up and hosted with no issues.

Finally, everyone has the right to free speech, whether you disagree with that speech or not. Violence is never justified because you dislike what a person is saying. The only reason a person resorts to violence is because they have no meaningful counter argument.

I happen to agree with Riley Gaines on a lot of issues, and the areas we disagree, are areas where we can work together to come up with reasonable solutions. Violence shuts down the ability to create meaningful change, and only creates division. Prior to the progressive infiltration of the trans community, there were 1.4 million trans people in the United States. Demonizing this entire group because of the actions of the Marxist colonizers is playing into their hands. Those who physically assault others need to be charged. All of those who kidnapped Riley Gaines should be expelled and charged as well. Violence in the name of trans rights should never be tolerated—yet it is advocated for by the progressive left.

==

This is precisely the reason the canard "words are violence" was created. What it means is, I don't like what you have to say, so I'm entitled to physically assault you, and then we're even. Because your words and my violence are the same.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Sara's use of the word "progressive." I prefer the term "illiberal left."

It's not "progressive" to rehabilitate 1950s stereotypes as "gender identity," or invert MLK Jr's dream of a colorblind society into one that's color-conscious color-obsessed, or medicalize gay kids "straight," or deny both biology and evolution, or lie about the health impacts of obesity, or teaching people they're oppressed and everything is out to get you, or they're oppressors and the world is set up to benefit them at everyone else's expense, or reinstituting segregation, or manipulating words to try and engineer thought, or destroying people's lives for failing to conform to the sensibilities of the ruling class. It's mind-bogglingly regressive.

And it sure isn't "progressive" to abandon the most reliably disadvantaged people - those in abject poverty - in order to conduct identity politics which mostly benefit privileged elites, while looking down on their former base: the working class.

About Book Banning of LGBTQ+ and BIPOC Works, For Students Who May Be Restricted:

The resurgence of censorship of books which detail the experiences of queer and BIPOC voices in the US is alarming. The legality of such actions is murky-to-nonexistent, at best, but that won't stop groups like No Left Turn in Education, Moms for Liberty, and Parents Defending Education from doing everything in their power to further alienate and stigmatize LGBTQ+ and POC youth and age-appropriate narratives. None of this is okay.

It's been a long time since I was ever in school, but I've scrounged up some resources for those who may not have access to legal/policy documents at home or at school due to banned keyword searches, etc. It is public-access, educational content to assist in the fight against censorship of minority voices.

I'm putting the links here so that students don't have to make an active search for it online, in case their school or home has keyword scanning and/or key-logging software installed to prohibit/flag the search and consumption of queer-friendly and CRT topics, articles, and content.

[REMINDER: One-click links may assist in bypassing restrictions made by unsafe authorities when it comes to keyword-specific triggers, but not software which may log tracking data related to cookies and website addresses, themselves. Proceed with caution if you think you might be tracked by search history, and DO NOT interact if doing so risks your privacy and/or personal safety.]

Get informed. LAMBDA Legal has a pretty good pamphlet on the illegality of "viewpoint discrimination" against LGBT+ books, First Amendment protections for LGBTQ+ aligned books as observed in certain states (though its wording seems to make a blanket case for states on the whole--which isn't always acknowledged in states like TX, FL, or NC), and regional legal help-desks than you can reach out to.

https://www.lambdalegal.org/sites/default/files/publications/downloads/fs_preventing-censorship-of-lgbt-information-in-pubilc-school-libraries_1.pdf

(For LGBTQ+ students and allies in private school settings, you may want to get in touch with Lambda's own legal help-desk in order to answer questions about what protections are offered to you, by state, as a general rule. Their number is 1-866-542-833 .)

ACLU (The American Civil Liberties Union) has a page on ten of the most commonly-banned books in school across the US as of this posting, which I will reference here in this image:

(For those unable to see the image due to poor/throttled loading speeds/capacities, I'll list it here):

"The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

"Heather Has Two Mommies" by Leslea Newman

"All Boys Aren't Blue" by George M. Johnson

"Gender Queer: A Memoir" by Maia Kobabe

"Melissa" by Alex Gino

"Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You" by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds

"All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

"Lawn Boy" by Jonathan Evison

"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas

"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Banned Books Book Club maintains a program where teachers/parents/students/librarians/others can request banned books to be shipped to them. I would suggest a trusted individual or set of individuals keep a stock of your preferred books on-hand to lend to other students, teachers, and clubs.

The link will be given here:

Fore those that want to take the route of writing to their local legislatures, in addition to forming coalitions within their own student bodies and libraries, I have a little bit a extra information you might find useful.

The American Library Association has a number of essays which detail the rights that librarians, teachers, and students have to defend their access to frequently-challenged information. Some of these resources are either behind a paywall, restricted to inter-library access via WorldCat, or from a version of the ALA policy manual which I'm not sure has been updated. That said, I will list these resources here, as I'm able to find them:

In terms of general information, the last I can point to currently is a wonderful article from LDF which not only talks about the anti-Critical Race Theory sentiment which drives book banning on racially-diverse perspectives in the US as of late, but provides an up-to-date, interactive infographic on what laws have been set in place to hamper or ban progressive teaching points by state:

Please read, use the information to inform those around you if you can, stay alert, and stay safe! If this helps even one person become better-informed, my job will be done.

For the past three summers, teachers rallied across the country to speak out against anti-history education bills and to make public their pledge to teach the truth. The teacher-led rallies received national media attention, providing a valuable counter narrative to the oversized coverage of the well-funded anti-CRT movement. Once again, we invite educators, students, parents, and community members to rally across the country and pledge to #TeachTruth and defend LGBTQ+ rights on June 8, 2024. The situation is urgent. Lawmakers in at least 44 states have introduced legislation or pursued other measures that attempt to require educators to lie to students about the role of racism, sexism, heterosexism, transphobia, and other forms of oppression throughout U.S. history. These laws and restrictions have been imposed in at least 18 states. The Right has declared war on teaching the truth about structural racism and sexism and on LGBTQ+ youth.

…

Although bills and budget resolutions are being proposed (and in some cases passed) in specific states, the threat to teaching — and the need for solidarity — is everywhere. We invite people to participate from all over the United States. You can plan a virtual event or gathering at a bookstore, library, farmers’ market, historic marker, or other public location. From our freedom to vote, to our children’s freedom to learn, to everyone’s freedom from gun violence, certain politicians want to overturn the will of the people and block the policies we need for our students, families, and communities to thrive. By coming together, we can rewrite the rules to ensure safe, affirming, and welcoming schools and the freedom to learn for our children — across race, place, and gender identities — no exceptions.

Make no mistake about this. This is a white nationalist attack not only on any sort of affirmative action (even for low income people of ANY race or ethnicity) but also an attempt to prohibit discussions of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. on university campuses. The United Daughters of the Confederacy who pushed the “Lost Cause” whitewash of the Civil War in textbooks in the early 1900s would be thrilled at the kind of legislation that DeSantis has been able to pass in Florida. What is truly frightening is if he makes it to the White House, he will try to pass the same kind of legislation nationally.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

Florida’s new law prohibits public colleges from spending state or federal money on DEI efforts. These programs often assist colleges in increasing student and faculty diversity, which can apply to race and ethnicity, as well as sexual orientation, religion and socioeconomic status.

The law also forbids public colleges from offering general education courses — those that are part of a required curriculum for all college students — that “distort significant historical events,” teach “identity politics,” or are “based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, or privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, or economic inequities.”

The Florida legislation has been met with backlash at both the state and national level, where higher education experts and First Amendment advocates say the state is trampling on academic freedom. “It’s basically state-mandated censorship, which has no place in a democracy,” Irene Mulvey, president of the American Association of University Professors, said in a recent interview with The Washington Post.

[emphasis added]

Anti-trans propaganda in the right-wing media has been the main focus of this website, so regular readers won’t have to be told that at the height of the anti-trans moral panic conservative websites were running dozens of stories on trans issues a week. These ranged from outright falsehoods, like the claims that in Loudoun, VA a boy who raped his classmate in a girls’ bathroom was a trans girl, or the claim that young adult saw the penis of a trans woman who had no such organ in a locker room in CA. It also included a huge range of distortions, half truths, and empty pontificating, some of which were taken up by the mainstream media as conservatives relentlessly touted this issue above all else. The hyperfocus on trans issues, and only trans issues, was so intense and overriding on the right that conservative groups who had been formed in response to the previous moral panic over “CRT” cracked up under the pressure to retool themselves to focus on gender instead.  Slightly behind the media obsession came the legislative obsession with passing anti-trans laws in red states, an effort that is in its second January of being the number one priority of state legislatures dominated by the GOP. Why was this focus on the trans community so sudden, all-consuming, and intense? While reporting has focused on the activists pushing anti-trans laws, it doesn’t really explain why the right blew up a niche issue, beloved mainly by religious crackpots. Why did Republicans want this to be the center of their messaging and policy strategy nationwide? For that, you need to understand that DeSantis was supposed to be the guy.

Opinion: The Mis-Education Of Black Students: Teaching The Truth In A Time Of Oppression

Fresh off a series of electoral repudiations of various efforts to acknowledge in meaningful terms the impact of systemic racism on our children, our schools and society, and a general gnashing of teeth from white conservatives, there is a moment of possibility in the air for alt-right demagogues and would-be heirs to the MAGA trash throne.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is heir apparent. While a federal judge once again blocked its implementation earlier this month, DeSantis was able to pass into law last year his Stop WOKE Act, which prohibits the teaching and mention of systemic racism in schools and workplaces; was able to water down the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course and is now going after the state’s social studies textbooks, getting one publisher to omit references to race, including in the story of Rosa Parks’s arrest.

And while I laud the efforts of those who are fighting back — including three Florida high school students, represented by civil rights attorney Benjamin Crum, who said they planned to sue DeSantis over trying to kill the AP African American Studies course —the Florida governor’s actions are harbingers of more to come from his ilk as anti-CRT legislation is being passed from coast to coast.

White America’s power and position are so deeply entrenched in the very fabric of American schooling and society, the notion that it can be dislodged or undermined by the modicum of diversity, equity and inclusion work now being done in our public schools would be laughable if it didn’t have consequences for Black and brown children.

From how we finance public schools to how we assign our children to them, the prevailing structure of traditional public education is inexorably tilted against Black and brown students. The form and function of our traditional public school systems are a direct reflection of historical political power dynamics produced by racial and economic inequity. -(source: by Sharif El-Mekki / the 74)

DNA America

“it’s what we know, not what you want us to believe.”

#dna #dnaamerica #news #politics

EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Introduce Anti-CRT Bill Requiring School Districts To Publicly Post Curriculum#EXCLUSIVE #House #Republicans #Introduce #AntiCRT #Bill #Requiring #School #Districts #Publicly #Post #Curriculum

EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Introduce Anti-CRT Bill Requiring School Districts To Publicly Post Curriculum#EXCLUSIVE #House #Republicans #Introduce #AntiCRT #Bill #Requiring #School #Districts #Publicly #Post #Curriculum

A group of House Republicans, led by Wisconsin Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, introduced legislation Wednesday that would require school districts to publicly post their curriculums online. The Daily Caller first obtained the legislation, titled Curriculum Review of Teachings (CRT) Transparency Act, would require local school districts to post the curriculum for each grade of their elementary and…

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I'm kind of sympathetic to the motivation behind Critical Race Theory, but every time I look into it even a little bit, I'm like ... repelled by the thinking and argumentation you find under the label. One prominent example is how CRT explains that "structural racism" is the cause of the destitution of so many black people in Western society. Is that really the best explanation?

Let's start with three assumptions which I think pretty much all CRT scholars and even most critics of CRT will agree with:

Historically, black people started from nothing, if not less than nothing. With the abolishment of slavery, they were not distributed evenly within the stratified society, they started at the very bottom.

Our society has pretty low social mobility. Maybe more social mobility than under feudalism, but still not a lot.

A not insignificant number of powerful people are prejudiced against black people.

Now, it seems to me like it would be very easy to explain the economical problems black people face today from these three assumptions. Why add nebulously defined "structural racism" or "racism that is hard-coded into our institutions" or whatever as a fourth assumption? Or are these three assumptions already this "structural racism"? I don't think they deserve that label.

I guess theoretically you could argue that these three assumptions explain part of the problem, just not all of it, but in order to justify that, you would have to put numbers on how strong these effects are, which I haven't really seen anyone do.

This is not idle rumination, it has profound impact on how we should go about making people's lives better. If the three assumptions are a sufficient explanation, then: (1) can't really be changed sadly, (2) is the focus of pretty much all leftwing politics already (both increasing social mobility and reducing the stratification in general), and (3) is adressed by plain old liberal anti-discrimination legislation and maybe like, better education about the value of equality. What the people informed by CRT seem to be arguing for though, is something more than just working on (2) and (3), and seems in some cases even, as second-order-effect, to reverse the conventional work on (2) and (3) (but pointing out that last bit gets you labeled a liberal or worse).

Institutional racism, or as it is also known, systematic racism, is those types of racial inequalities that are embedded in the laws and regulations of any society or country. As a result, it perpetuates unequal practices officially. Institutional racism can be addressed by making anti-discriminatory laws and striking down all those legislations that are inherently discriminatory. Voters can make those politicians who make promises to end systematic racism but do nothing after coming to power accountable. The role of the judiciary is critical in ending this racism. Ending Institutional Racism in the Criminal Justice System Many politicians acknowledge the presence of institutional racism in the criminal justice sector of America; however, not all of them strive to end it. Some politicians cannot even admit racial disparity in the justice sector. Recently, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, committed to moving the condemned murder criminals of the state to normal prison facilities, noting that a person is more likely to get the death penalty based on their color or wealth. He was spot on, as incarceration data suggests the same. When Democrats named the police reform bill after the name of George Floyd, that was not just a symbolic measure but indicated the deep-rooted institutional racism in the criminal justice sector of America. So, institutional racism in the criminal justice sector can only be eliminated if the police are trained well enough for the use of weapons in their hands. Similarly, any unlawful detention made in the country should be countered by rigorous legislation by punishing the perpetrators involved. Otherwise, the likes of Kevin Strickland, a black man who was released from prison after spending more than 40 years for a crime he never committed, would still be found one century down the line.  Addressing Institutional Racism in Education Whether or not to teach Critical Race Theory (CRT) in American schools is always a hot-button issue. Banning CRT itself is an example of institutional racism, as it promotes inequality in the long run. Not long ago, schools in America used to be segregated, but with the passage of time and social justice efforts, that curse was ultimately eliminated. While there may not be many laws today directly reducing the learning opportunities for minorities, the curriculum is easily used to promote racist frenzies in the educational sector of the country. Florida governor Ron DeSantis unveiled a bill last year allowing parents to sue school districts that teach CRT. Virginia’s newly elected governor has already vowed to ban the theory and bring so-called normalcy back to the state. Many governors have claimed that teaching CRT makes white students look bad. All of these are surely examples of institutional racism in education. Obviously, shaping the curriculum in new ways can help reduce this inequality. For instance, woke mathematics is a way forward to create awareness about racist practices, which can help address the racist education sector.   Combating Systematic Racism in the Healthcare Sector of America Addressing institutional racism in the healthcare sector of America is also an immediate need of the country as it disproportionately impacts Black Americans. Whether it is about racist algorithms that determine healthcare priorities or the number of deaths in hospitals, the data is in against racial minorities. Black Americans disproportionately died due to COVID, and the primary reason for this disparity is the presence of racist hospitalization doctrines. Revamping all the existing healthcare algorithms by incorporating the historical factors in them can help the country in combating systemic racism in the sector. Housing Sector and Systematic Racism in America Gentrification is one of the ways through which institutional racism makes its ground in the housing sector of America. While Joe Biden pro

mised to end gentrification and preached to do it by doing controlled urban revitalization, the improvements are nowhere to be seen as yet. While governments find a tough time in ending this racist practice, enacting laws in this arena is something doable. Governments have to place checks and balances on wealthy landlords so they can not buy cheap lands in bulk in underdeveloped areas and increase the cost of living in those localities. Institutional racism is also prevalent in the voting sector. While the voting rights act may suggest that no voter can be disenfranchised based on race or color, rigorous Jim Crow legislation and aggressive gerrymandering have allowed many states to promote systemic racism in voting. Ending this practice needs political consensus, especially in the bifurcated Senate, which can only be done by adopting the culture of tolerance in American politics, which seems absent these days.

An interactive database that tracks legislative, regulatory and administrative efforts aimed at blocking alleged critical race theory teaching was recently created at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. “Many of these efforts to influence K-12 curriculum development have used the term ‘critical race theory’ incorrectly and have affected plans to include ethnic studies more broadly for students before they get to college,” according to an Aug. 2 press release. The CRT Forward Tracking Project was created by the law school’s Critical Race Studies Program. It includes media articles dating back to August 2021, and the database can be viewed here. According to the press release, findings include: • Forty-nine states have proposed or enacted “anti-CRT activity.” • More than 20% of the anti-critical race theory measures involve local school boards. • The most common enforcement mechanisms involve withholding funds or issuing fines. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg2hn6LP6ab/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=