Whitewashing History
Terry H. Schwadron
May 25, 2021
While there’s been a lot of public turmoil about community policing changes, threats to maintaining voting rights and continued propaganda about non- believable election fraud, also been a steady attack underway about how we teach American history.
These are increasingly absurd debates at various Republican-majority state houses and an increasing number of school boards about which reality prevails.
The fight over fear — fear from racial and demographic changes, fear from conspiracist “replacement” theories or plain old conservative fear of change altogether — is manifesting itself in challenges to how we portray slavery, civil rights, race in America
The sides here are easy to identify. One side believes in critical thinking about our institutions and institutionalized ways of deciding on how we as a society handle, or don’t, difference. The other wants to whitewash history to preserve a positive outlook on our American democracy.
After all, if there is nothing wrong, nothing needs fixing, whether in housing, banking, jobs, income inequity or community policing techniques.
“History education has been in the spotlight this year, from parents and students demanding more diverse content to legislators in some states banning topics in the classroom. Starting next year, Tennessee teachers will have to restrict their instruction on race and racism under recently passed legislation that Gov. Bill Lee is expected to sign into law, “ reports Chalkbeat.org.
The legislation allows the state education commissioner to withhold funds from schools and districts where teachers promote elements of “critical race theory” that uses data and storytelling to raise student awareness about how racism and bias affect individuals and society.
Tennessee is not alone, of course. Similar moves are underway in Texas, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, New Hampshire, Utah, and Arkansas, among others. Republican congressmen are taking note, and coordinating their repetition in preparation towards the 2022 elections. The idea is to feature such cultural divides as a choice for the country, pitting unfair depictions of Black Lives Matter street violence against teaching good old patriotic visions of the country.
Selling an American Dream
Indeed, Donald Trump’s discredited and discarded 1776 Commission drafting conservative educators and thinkers to sway school boards to exactly this kind of loaded, partisan view of history and current events is active once again, even without its formal status.
The New York Times recently described the Texas aggressive efforts to control the teaching of history. “A flurry of proposed measures that could soon become law would promote even greater loyalty to Texas in the state’s classrooms and public spaces, as Republican lawmakers try to reframe Texas history lessons and play down references to slavery and anti-Mexican discrimination that are part of the state’s founding.” The goal is to ban or limit how the role of slavery and pervasive effects of racism can be taught.
“One measure that recently passed the Texas House, largely along party lines, would limit teacher-led discussions of current events; prohibit course credit for political activism or lobbying, which could include students who volunteer for civil rights groups; and ban teaching of The 1619 Project, an initiative by The New York Times that says it aims to reframe U.S. history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of the national narrative.
”The bill would also limit how teachers in Texas classrooms can discuss the ways in which racism influenced the legal system in the state, long a segregationist bastion, and the rest of the country. Another bill that sailed through the Texas House would create a committee to “promote patriotic education” about the state’s secession from Mexico in 1836, largely by men who were fighting to expand slavery. And a third bill would block exhibits at San Antonio’s Alamo complex from explaining that major figures in the Texas Revolution were slave owners.”
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a similar bill. “As governor, I firmly believe that not one cent of taxpayer money should be used to define and divide young Oklahomans about their race or sex.” This is the same state having trouble getting recognition for the Tulsa Racial Massacre centennial.
In Florida, a proposed Department of Education rule would require Florida teachers to stick to the principles of the Declaration of Independence in teaching history and civics. The rule explicitly prohibits Florida K-12 teachers from “indoctrinating” public school students by espousing “critical race theory,” It reads, “Instruction on the required topics must be factual and objective and may not suppress or distort significant historical events, such as the Holocaust, and may not define American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”
Hmm. What do they want to do with the “all men are created equal” clause, omitting women, slaves or, say, the Bill of Rights.
Same Culture Wars
In last year’s version of culture wars, we saw a number of Republican-leaning states move to block efforts to revisit whether statues honoring Confederate heroes should remain.
This is different in location, but not in tone. The idea is that there’s nothing wrong with a country that has institutionalized mortgage red zones, maintained discriminatory hiring and promotion strategies, advanced housing and education opportunities for whites over Black and Brown communities, and on and on.
If you acknowledge a problem, it raises the pesky question of what to do about it. So, logic says, keep the questions from arising.
The Atlantic Magazine offers this analysis. “The concept of anti-racist teaching is being fiercely debated right now. Its advocates insist that students learn about the roots of racial inequality, that they be encouraged to name and challenge it explicitly. Critics suggest that anti-racist teaching is dogmatic, unpatriotic, and an impediment to critical thinking. They have, in recent weeks, irresponsibly clumped together anti-racist teaching, critical race theory, ethnic studies, and anything else involving the systematic study of race and racism, painting them as one heap of race-talk mumbo jumbo.”
The author, a Harvard assistant professor of education, argues that “lost in the discourse on both sides, however, is the acknowledgment that Black teachers, as early as the 19th century, have been deeply engaged in the work of challenging racial domination in American schools.”
During all those years in school, what I came away with most was the prized idea that the ability to think critically was the point of the whole exercise. Next time we hear Republicans criticizing Islamic madrassahs for incubating young terrorists, perhaps we should ask for another look at critical thinking.
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