What is being promoted as an effort to stop Critical Race Theory (CRT) from indoctrinating K-12 students is actually a push to censure truthful information about American history. A new "teacher loyalty" bill introduced in New Hampshire would, among other things, prohibit "teaching that the United States was founded on racism."
The Three-Fifths Compromise was an attempt to end slavery in the same way the Trail of Tears was a nice getaway package from the United States government. This coordinated effort to whitewash American history is deeply disturbing to me.
Well said. My own feeling is that the genocide of Indigenous Americans, first by the Spanish and then the American colonists, is even more salient evidence of US racist foundations than the enslavement of Africans or 3/5 rule. How about the 0/5ths rule applied to those whose existence we destroyed AND CONTINUE TO DESTROY through “treaties” and armed violence?
I think of my teaching days in the 1970s and later in the 1990s. I taught about the Holocaust and how it came about because a class from college that stays with me today taught fully about the Holocaust. No one stopped me. I taught it to a full 6th grade class and then a multiage gifted class. Both were before my own understanding of white privilege or systemic racism. But, it didn't matter. It was about how a country could go from being educated, advanced and modern to killing a whole group of people and thinking they could get away with it. I found children's literature on the subject and taught about the Resistance, about how people let a new leader come to power slowly and over time. Anyway, you are writing about something so important, Judd, and I am angry about these people who want to rewrite actual history and get teachers sanctioned for not going along with it. Thank you.
I have degree in history. I am from the South. Throughout the 20th Century we were never taught that even the White House was built on the backs of enslaved people nor did I know Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, had a family with Sally Hemmings his slave. As for the Civil War, we were held in awe of statues to the glorious past of the Lost Cause.
AMERICAN History texts were carefully crafted to toot the horn of White America.
Other than hatred of Japan, Japanese were held in concentration camps during WWII so it wasn't just Colonial and Civil War history.
Civil Rights Activists brought about change, but did it change the hearts and minds of those who promoted racism. NO. Many white folk wanted the same old standards of inequality.
They have re-emerged like a plague of locusts funded by dark money and GOP wrath. Makes me sick to my stomach.
Good reporting. Thank you but what will change? I fear it will get worse rather than better.
Judd, keep up your work to hold these history erasers feet to the fire. These actions are exactly like what has continued to happen since WWII. Racists, White Supremacists, Nazis and their sympathizers push the narrative that the holocaust never actually happened. It did. Just like Slavery and the atrocities that came from it. It happened, it ALL happened.
It still boggles my mind as to how they successfully created a narrative that is completely false and are now pushing legislation for this nonexistent issue!
That this was allowed to happen without a large enough outcry from those with national voices who know the truth & with the participation of mass media who report w/o ever addressing the lie it’s built upon, is unbelievable!
No one is trying to push CRT into K-12. But here we are with all of these new bills being introduced (& turning into law) to make teachers jobs even harder, which is going to ultimately mean even more teachers walking away from the profession which certainly means an even dumber America in the near future.
I didn't follow the Virginia Governor's race closely, but I did hear Youngkin speak once. He promulgated two big lies: 1) Virginia students were at the bottom in several school performance categories, and 2) Dems advocated teaching CRT for grades K-12.
Youngkin's referred to performance criteria established by a previous Republican Governor, but not actual student performance. The CRT assertion came from another Republican's false claim:
The entire educational farce Youngkin presented should have been soundly refuted by the Dem candidate, including the problems associated with Youngkin's solution of "Charter Schools which demonstrate their share of issues, including undermining the financing of Virginia exemplary public school system.
Absolutely agree. They want to keep a cherry-picked view of America & instill pride based on lies, at the expense of all who were trampled by the powerful; power obtained largely by theft & deceit, violence, omission & submission.
There IS an American story worth being proud of & celebrating - we’ve done amazing things but it can’t be done honestly if we don’t know the good & the bad, the right & the wrong.
I am a Virginian. Terry McAullife stepped in manure up to his hips with his remark that parents shouldn't have a say in their child's education. YOUNGKIN took that and ran ads ad naseum. Plenty of folks didnt like current Gov.Northam (denier of his black face photos in his med school yearbook) nor McAullife. Poor choice for a candidate.
Then much to my damn dismay, 34% of VA Democrats didnt bother to vote.
So now we are going to become a DeSantis style Florida for the next four years.
Dems wimped out and doing it nationally, too. Shut my mouth before I say, too much.
The context of out of touch with what was going on around him applied to McAullife. He didn't know and obviously his staffers didnt either or they smuggly thought all of the big pops were going to him in NoCA an Tidewater. Youngkin came out to SW VA ate ham at Republican Dinners. Bet he did the same in every county, large or small. I do not look forward to January.
Historical facts such as restrictive covenants and redlining are part of law school real property curricula. Anyone who attended law school in this country must be confused by the attempt to pretend these things didn’t happen. They are part of the historical record, and unless the anti-CRT movement plans to add book burning to its tactics (which wouldn’t surprise me, actually), at least some of these deluded students will find out the truth, eventually. But as offensive as this legislation is, it seems unlikely to be effective, in the long run, because school is only one of many places where students learn. They will continue to learn about the sad legacy of slavery and racial discrimination in this country because it is part of everyone’s lived experience. And if there is a disconnect between what students live, and what they are taught, the credibility of the entire education system will suffer.
When I was in elementary school, we were taught that China didn’t exist because the US didn’t recognize it (or at least that’s what I heard). I remember looking at the world map and thinking that China was awfully big to just pretend it wasn’t there. Slavery was too big to pretend it wasn’t there, so it seems inevitable that the long-term effect of these laws will be to undermine confidence in public education. And we thought we got rid of Betsy DeVoss…
Excellent article. Coincidentally I read an article this morning in WaPo covering the dismissal of a White (male) high school teacher in Kingsport TN, allegedly for not fostering debate in his current events classroom (or maybe for accidentally fomenting it in his personal finance classroom, hard to tell), which transgressed TN law. It’s particularly painful for this (White, retired woman) lawyer to see such legislation proposed in “live-free-or-die” New Hampshire. At the same time it’s curious to me that no one sees fit to bar discussion of (what used to be called “White”) sex slavery, or even wage slavery, both arguably more relevant in Northern high school classrooms these days than this continual relitigation of the American Civil War. —maybe there’s another way to rehabilitate Marxism?
Your writing takes as many twists and turns as Cleaver's disjointed life. I must ask why you chose to equate the teaching of the history of slavery in the U.S, in schools with Cleaver and Newton, and then only by referring to their most contemptuous behavior? Wouldn't Reverend King be a more noteworthy advocate of the contemporary Black struggle against the structural consequences of slavery? Further, did you know Cleaver ended up as a conservative Republican?
Little history education occurs in grades K-12 based upon my experience. Even history education less occurs from K-8. CRT is offered as an elected course only at the college level. The dearth of history and civics teaching occuring between K-12 is a critical issue in our society, especially since most students end their formal education after high school. Even those students who go to college don't necessarily elect to study history. This makes the American electorate vulnerable to demagogues, who capitalize on the ignorance or low information of their prey.
The Three-Fifths Compromise was an attempt to end slavery in the same way the Trail of Tears was a nice getaway package from the United States government. This coordinated effort to whitewash American history is deeply disturbing to me.
Well said. My own feeling is that the genocide of Indigenous Americans, first by the Spanish and then the American colonists, is even more salient evidence of US racist foundations than the enslavement of Africans or 3/5 rule. How about the 0/5ths rule applied to those whose existence we destroyed AND CONTINUE TO DESTROY through “treaties” and armed violence?
I think of my teaching days in the 1970s and later in the 1990s. I taught about the Holocaust and how it came about because a class from college that stays with me today taught fully about the Holocaust. No one stopped me. I taught it to a full 6th grade class and then a multiage gifted class. Both were before my own understanding of white privilege or systemic racism. But, it didn't matter. It was about how a country could go from being educated, advanced and modern to killing a whole group of people and thinking they could get away with it. I found children's literature on the subject and taught about the Resistance, about how people let a new leader come to power slowly and over time. Anyway, you are writing about something so important, Judd, and I am angry about these people who want to rewrite actual history and get teachers sanctioned for not going along with it. Thank you.
I have degree in history. I am from the South. Throughout the 20th Century we were never taught that even the White House was built on the backs of enslaved people nor did I know Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, had a family with Sally Hemmings his slave. As for the Civil War, we were held in awe of statues to the glorious past of the Lost Cause.
AMERICAN History texts were carefully crafted to toot the horn of White America.
Other than hatred of Japan, Japanese were held in concentration camps during WWII so it wasn't just Colonial and Civil War history.
Civil Rights Activists brought about change, but did it change the hearts and minds of those who promoted racism. NO. Many white folk wanted the same old standards of inequality.
They have re-emerged like a plague of locusts funded by dark money and GOP wrath. Makes me sick to my stomach.
Good reporting. Thank you but what will change? I fear it will get worse rather than better.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant”—right? So grateful to you, Cathy b, for your frank testimonies on this sub stack.
Thanks. I am pretty much the same in person. Scary. LoL.
yeah, me too
Judd, keep up your work to hold these history erasers feet to the fire. These actions are exactly like what has continued to happen since WWII. Racists, White Supremacists, Nazis and their sympathizers push the narrative that the holocaust never actually happened. It did. Just like Slavery and the atrocities that came from it. It happened, it ALL happened.
It still boggles my mind as to how they successfully created a narrative that is completely false and are now pushing legislation for this nonexistent issue!
That this was allowed to happen without a large enough outcry from those with national voices who know the truth & with the participation of mass media who report w/o ever addressing the lie it’s built upon, is unbelievable!
No one is trying to push CRT into K-12. But here we are with all of these new bills being introduced (& turning into law) to make teachers jobs even harder, which is going to ultimately mean even more teachers walking away from the profession which certainly means an even dumber America in the near future.
I didn't follow the Virginia Governor's race closely, but I did hear Youngkin speak once. He promulgated two big lies: 1) Virginia students were at the bottom in several school performance categories, and 2) Dems advocated teaching CRT for grades K-12.
Youngkin's referred to performance criteria established by a previous Republican Governor, but not actual student performance. The CRT assertion came from another Republican's false claim:
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/oct/20/glenn-youngkin/are-virginias-school-standards-lowest-nation-young/
The entire educational farce Youngkin presented should have been soundly refuted by the Dem candidate, including the problems associated with Youngkin's solution of "Charter Schools which demonstrate their share of issues, including undermining the financing of Virginia exemplary public school system.
Absolutely agree. They want to keep a cherry-picked view of America & instill pride based on lies, at the expense of all who were trampled by the powerful; power obtained largely by theft & deceit, violence, omission & submission.
There IS an American story worth being proud of & celebrating - we’ve done amazing things but it can’t be done honestly if we don’t know the good & the bad, the right & the wrong.
I am a Virginian. Terry McAullife stepped in manure up to his hips with his remark that parents shouldn't have a say in their child's education. YOUNGKIN took that and ran ads ad naseum. Plenty of folks didnt like current Gov.Northam (denier of his black face photos in his med school yearbook) nor McAullife. Poor choice for a candidate.
Then much to my damn dismay, 34% of VA Democrats didnt bother to vote.
So now we are going to become a DeSantis style Florida for the next four years.
Dems wimped out and doing it nationally, too. Shut my mouth before I say, too much.
McAullife was a poor candidate & ran a tepid campaign against a loud mouthed, attention-getting opponent.
Now Repubs are looking at the Youngkin campaign as a blueprint to mimic.
The context of out of touch with what was going on around him applied to McAullife. He didn't know and obviously his staffers didnt either or they smuggly thought all of the big pops were going to him in NoCA an Tidewater. Youngkin came out to SW VA ate ham at Republican Dinners. Bet he did the same in every county, large or small. I do not look forward to January.
It will make my bile rise.
NoVA
(Or, as some have written, the outright destruction of the public school system that serves all without regard to race/religion/national origin)
Historical facts such as restrictive covenants and redlining are part of law school real property curricula. Anyone who attended law school in this country must be confused by the attempt to pretend these things didn’t happen. They are part of the historical record, and unless the anti-CRT movement plans to add book burning to its tactics (which wouldn’t surprise me, actually), at least some of these deluded students will find out the truth, eventually. But as offensive as this legislation is, it seems unlikely to be effective, in the long run, because school is only one of many places where students learn. They will continue to learn about the sad legacy of slavery and racial discrimination in this country because it is part of everyone’s lived experience. And if there is a disconnect between what students live, and what they are taught, the credibility of the entire education system will suffer.
When I was in elementary school, we were taught that China didn’t exist because the US didn’t recognize it (or at least that’s what I heard). I remember looking at the world map and thinking that China was awfully big to just pretend it wasn’t there. Slavery was too big to pretend it wasn’t there, so it seems inevitable that the long-term effect of these laws will be to undermine confidence in public education. And we thought we got rid of Betsy DeVoss…
Excellent article. Coincidentally I read an article this morning in WaPo covering the dismissal of a White (male) high school teacher in Kingsport TN, allegedly for not fostering debate in his current events classroom (or maybe for accidentally fomenting it in his personal finance classroom, hard to tell), which transgressed TN law. It’s particularly painful for this (White, retired woman) lawyer to see such legislation proposed in “live-free-or-die” New Hampshire. At the same time it’s curious to me that no one sees fit to bar discussion of (what used to be called “White”) sex slavery, or even wage slavery, both arguably more relevant in Northern high school classrooms these days than this continual relitigation of the American Civil War. —maybe there’s another way to rehabilitate Marxism?
Thanks Judd for another enlightening post!
https://theconversation.com/modern-day-culture-wars-are-playing-out-on-historic-tours-of-slaveholding-plantations-170617?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter%20%20December%206%202021%20-%202138621171&utm_content=Daily%20Newsletter%20%20December%206%202021%20-%202138621171+Version+B+Preview+CID_706b3f13056eb1c26b6014d79b4af96a&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=UPDATED%20Daily%20Newsletter%20%20December%206%202021%20-%202138621171&utm_content=UPDATED%20Daily%20Newsletter%20%20December%206%202021%20-%202138621171+CID_3d489c7672ad0eab90f3ff5dd913b1bd&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=are%20under%20more%20scrutiny%20to%20tell%20the%20whole%20story
Your writing takes as many twists and turns as Cleaver's disjointed life. I must ask why you chose to equate the teaching of the history of slavery in the U.S, in schools with Cleaver and Newton, and then only by referring to their most contemptuous behavior? Wouldn't Reverend King be a more noteworthy advocate of the contemporary Black struggle against the structural consequences of slavery? Further, did you know Cleaver ended up as a conservative Republican?
Little history education occurs in grades K-12 based upon my experience. Even history education less occurs from K-8. CRT is offered as an elected course only at the college level. The dearth of history and civics teaching occuring between K-12 is a critical issue in our society, especially since most students end their formal education after high school. Even those students who go to college don't necessarily elect to study history. This makes the American electorate vulnerable to demagogues, who capitalize on the ignorance or low information of their prey.
Yay! I get to skip two long diatribes today!
Totes to you. I concur