Texas GOP passes bill that bans teachers from speaking on 'white supremacy'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Grio


“You can talk about race in the classroom, but you can’t talk about privilege or white supremacy," said state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat and vocal critic of the bill

Keydra Manns
May 12, 2021

Texas Republicans have passed a bill to prevent children from learning about racism.
The House bill passed by Republicans on Tuesday prohibits teachers in the state’s public schools from speaking on current news events, white supremacy and racism, but does not mention the word “ban.” It passed 79-65, per Huff Post.

“The bill is written in kind of a clever way,” said state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat and vocal critic of the bill. “You can talk about race in the classroom, but you can’t talk about privilege or white supremacy. It doesn’t outright ban talking about race, but the idea is to put in landmines so any conversation about race in the classroom would be impossible.”

According to the bill, social studies and civics teachers are not to teach “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex,” or the idea that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.”

Those teachers also “may not be compelled to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs.”



Read more: https://thegrio.com/2021/05/12/texas-gop-bill-white-supremacy/

[Lovie777]

1. They can talk about POC but not whites ...

got it.

[efhmc]

2. Not going to work.

[dalton99a]

3. "Nothing bad ever happened to nonwhites in America"

is the real title of the bill

[VMA131Marine]

4. I'm sure this will see a challenge on First Amendment grounds

It should get struck down as unconstitutional.

[ananda]

15. I should think so!

!!!

[Diamond_Dog]

5. Who in their right mind

would want to be a teacher nowadays, especially in a red state...

[Thomas Hurt]

8. christofascists seeking to convert the children and reinstall prayer in schools....oh wait...

you said right mind. Sorry about that.

[Diamond_Dog]

12. Is this their idea of "small government "?

[PerceptionManagement]

6. teachers should clearly explain the bill to their students

[BoringUsername]

7. They aren't allowed to talk about current events?

Those kids in Texas are going to be missing lot of learning opportunities. Current events is any thing in the news. It doesn't have to be controversial. If they launched a rocket and the students asked about it a science teacher in Texas would have to tell the students that Texas law forbids them from discussing current events. That's pathetic. The kids are going to notice their education is being censored.

[Diamond_Dog]

14. In my 9th grade Civics class

Everyone was required to bring in a newspaper article and present it for discussion. We did this every Monday. I can’t imagine being forbidden to discuss current events in school! How else do you teach kids about what’s going on in the world and to think for themselves? I suppose we all know the answer to that...

[exboyfil]

16. Current events are also topics in English and History

I remember writing essays in both that included a discussion of current events.

Not to mention it is the heart of policy debate which is an academic course in many high schools. Extraneous speaking on current events is also an important component of a well rounded education.

We even had essays in Jr. ROTC that touched upon current events (military involvement against Iran because the hostage crisis was an issue at the time).

[Lonestarblue]

9. Texas and other red state legislatures need to get out of the education business.

All they want kids to learn is that rapacious capitalism is great (especially for white people), that slavery was a negligent part of American History, that the Civil War was actually won by the Confederacy but they graciously agreed to stay in the Union, that all the science you need to know can be found in the Bible, that the federal government is evil and should not exist, that guns are the solution to every problem, that minorities exist to do the work white people don’t want to do, and that the only politicians one should ever vote for are Republicans. Armed with that vast amount of learning, kids will surely be ready to become fine upstanding citizens.

[rogue emissary]

10. Cancel Culture strikes again.

[moreland01]

11. Texas GOP . . . .

Keepin 'em dumb in Texas for decades!

[Grokenstein]

13. Where are the freeze peach advocates of the right?

Ha ha ha, I made a funny.

[YoshidaYui]

17. What a Crock of S...

Republicans are @$$#0{3$

[al bupp]

18. This can't possibly be enforceable, can it?

Isn't there a free speech protection here?

[Bucky]

19. That's gonna make it hard for me to talk about Hitler, the Klan, & European 19th Century colonialism

As a history teacher, white supremacy is an important part of what I'm supposed to discuss with students when covering several major components of US and World History.

What am I supposed to teach my student about Nazi ideology? "Oh, Hitler wanted to kill the Jews because... um, because they had different... chicken soup recipes.

[LonePirate]

22. How does one explain why the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were added to the Constitution?

[Bucky]

27. I teach the Amendments as a story

The Bill of Rights is a pretty thorough walk-through of how an oppressive government might harass and abuse a dissident.

The post-Civil War amendments tell the story of how Southern whites... ahem, excuse me, Texas Education Agency... how unreconciled Southern Confederacy advocates attempted to disenfranchise their fellow Southerners based on their former condition of servitude.

First they said, "Okay, we surrender, but they're still slaves"

So the Radical Republicans passed the 13th.

So they said, "Okay, they're not slaves, but they're not citizens either"

So the Radical Republicans passed the 14th.

So they said, "Okay, they're citizens, but they can't vote"

So the Radical Republicans passed the 15th.

From there you go to black codes, poll taxes, Grandfather clauses, Jim Crow, literacy tests, and whites-only primaries. This new legislation is an absurdity. It means I literally can't do parts of my job. I doubt many history teachers will observe it. It's categorically dishonest. And of course the prohibition against mentioning white supremacy is in direct conflict with other laws mandating that we teach primary sources and key historical events--some of which make no sense without discussing the role that race played in state politics.

[Imallin4Joe]

20. Why does the GOP fear teachers talking about this?

Because deep down, they know how truly evil they and their racist agenda really is.

Talking about racism and white supremacy exposes the GOP's racist agenda.

If the GOP is not guilty, then why do they act like it?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

21. Unconstitutional on its face.

That's prior restraint of speech. Slam-dunk. Will be laughed out of court.

[Bucky]

28. State education law includes provisions that give me academic freedom as an instructor.

[Comfortably_Numb]

23. Which court? The white supremacist racist Texas Supreme Court?

The Keg Boi, Handmaiden, “Racism is dead” Roberts court? I hope you are right!

[Solly Mack]

24. Right-wing History: First peoples and Black people wanted to be slaves. The End.

[HUAJIAO]

25. And they accuse US of being "Communist"

This is right out of China, North Korea and the Soviet Union.

....................................

.....................


Of course Communism in and of itself isn;t the problem, per say.....

[SunSeeker]

26. Despite their claims to the contrary, Republicans don't care about the 1st Am, nor history.

[Mawspam2]

29. Class, today we were going to talk about...

Hitler and Naziism which led to WWII, but instead we will talk about sunshine and lollypops.🍭

[barbtries]

30. jeezus this is horrifying.

i hope it's challenged.

[AZLD4Candidate]

31. The Scopes Monkey Laws of the 2020s, similiar to the Scopes Monkey Laws of 1920s

Amazing how in the decade of the 20s, the US has these inane Great Awakenings. 1720, 1820, 1920, 2020.

[rickford66]

33. There has to be a test case.

[AZLD4Candidate]

35. I volunteer myself. . .find me a lawyer that will take the case, as I am the most

unorthodox social studies teacher ever!

[SpankMe]

32. And, how is this not facism? n/t

[ZonkerHarris]

34. The Grand Orwellian Party

[CRK7376]

36. I'm guessing there will shortly be

a massive need to Social Studies Teachers in TX. Kind of hard to teach American History without talking about racism, slavery, Jim Crow, current events etc....Examples from the Trump administration and current lunatics in the GOP versus some of our previous history pop up in my NC high school classroom almost daily....NC is head down the same path TX has taken, teachers have to post their daily lesson plan on line for parents and community scrutiny, trying to make it so we can't talk about BLM, 1619 Project etc.....dumbing down the nation one state at a time....

[summer_in_TX]

37. Not quite as draconian as it started out.

Nevertheless, it's full of landmines.

I'm pretty sure that if I were teaching still and teaching that subject, I'd figure out ways to ask and not tell.

[apnu]

38. This is a clear 1A violation.

This is straight up the government censoring the speech of citizens.

[Politicub]

39. Perhaps educators could let the class know that he or she is banned from teaching

about civil rights that include race, class and gender. Then launch into a lesson about Tinker vs. Des Moines where the Supreme Court protected the right of free speech for students. Assign research into forms of speech within schools that the state has banned. Ask for their thoughts on why this may be the case.

I’m not an educator, of course, so I could be full of crap about this approach being a work around.

[Bucky]

40. That's what I did as a government and history teacher last time they pulled this stunt

About a decade ago the Lege wrote another bone-headed mandate for Texas social studies teachers. When we taught the development of legal systems that led up to the Constitution and Bill of Rights, we were supposed to add Moses and the Ten Commandments to our curriculum alongside Hammurabi, Justinian, the Magna Carta, and Blackstone. Critics called this "trying to make Moses one of the Founding Fathers." It wasn't quite doing that--among other reasons, because Moses isn't purportedly the author of the 10-C's. (You might as well tell me that the mailman is selling me my car insurance cause that's who's delivering the insurance papers to me. )

Still, it was the law, so I complied. I assigned my students to do a detailed compare and contrast essay of the 10 Commandments with the Bill of Rights, followed by a class discussion. Oddly enough, almost all my kids ended up concluding that the two were diametrically opposed and incompatible. One says "follow authority blindly" and the other says "question and defy authorities." One says "Thou shalt not" and the other says "government shalt not." One says you're here to obey; the other says you have intrinsic rights as a human being.

It's one of the lessons I'm proudest of coming up with.

[Politicub]

41. Teachers are some of the most influential people on the planet.

I loved hearing about how you taught your students.

The requirement to include the Ten Commandments is so red state, isn’t it?

I graduated from high school in NC decades ago, and remember hearing about one biology teacher who was known for teaching creationism alongside evolution. I was grateful to be placed in a class taught by someone who wasn’t a fundie.

Children are smarter than backward people running school boards give them credit for. Banned topics are the ones that draw a lot of attention. At least in my case.

[Maeve]

42. Good job, you!

[riversedge]

43. .Rep. Richard Raymond was the only Democrat to support the bill and Rep. Lyle Larson was the only Re

............Rep. Richard Raymond was the only Democrat to support the bill and Rep. Lyle Larson was the only Republican to oppose it. The nationwide controversy over “critical race theory” impacted the bill.

According to Talarico, the bill’s agenda has nothing to do with educating children. He claimed Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is eager to sign it in hopes of catering to conservatives in the state. It is rumored he will run for president in 2024.



“It’s a strange dynamic we’re seeing: Florida and Texas are trying to outcompete each other to see who can pass the most far-right Neanderthal legislation,” Talarico said. “The focus is not children. The focus is on scoring points with old, white voters who see the country slipping away from them demographically.”

The representative also challenged the bill’s author, Republican state Rep. Steve Toth, at this week’s Texas House debate on Tuesday morning to amend the bill and make it more transparent about race in America.