The Far-Right War On History, Education & Thinking

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Wed May 12, 2021, 07:40 PM - Edit history (1)

'The Far-Right War On History, Education, & Thinking.' Knowing the real history of the U.S. is essential to advancing struggles of today. Common Dreams, May 11, 2021. - Ed.

-- The goal, Goldberg added, is also "to rewrite history in its effort to neoliberalize racism: to reduce it to a matter of personal beliefs and interpersonal prejudice" rather than the ongoing legacy of centuries of structural racism. --

Anyone wondering why critical race theory (CRT) has prompted a mad dash among rightwing legislators and school boards to extinguish it need only look at similar obsessions that have made U.S. democracy an endangered species. Texas, predictably, is jumping on the bandwagon with the hard right Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick claiming in a rant that Texas (yes, apparently all state residents) "rejects critical race theory and other so called ‘woke’ philosophies that maintain one race or sex is superior to another race or sex…"—a contrived fantasy bearing no relation to what CRT teaches.
Hardly to be outdone, in the past few weeks, Republican dominated states have been in a frantic rush to pass bills outlawing CRT in Arkansas, Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah. Bills are also on the docket in Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and other states.




- U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) holds a "Stop the Steal" mask while speaking with fellow 1st-term GOP members of Congress, U.S. Capitol, Wash., D.C., Jan. 4, 2021.

Upon signing Idaho's bill, Gov. Brad Little disingenuously said it would bar teachers from "indoctrinating" students from claiming that members of any race, sex, religion, ethnicity or national origin are inferior or superior to other groups—again a dishonest demonization of what they are attacking. The fanatical drive to eradicate a deeper analysis of U.S. history and the ability to engage in critical thinking stems from the same ideology that is at the heart of a similar flurry of extremist legislation from coast to coast to restrict the right to vote, criminalize public protest, block the ability of local jurisdictions to reduce the disproportionate funding of policing, and many other public policies.

It's the surest sign of both the depth of structural racism that stains every segment of our society, and how much the dangerous, toxic legacy of 4 years of Trump and Trumpism has inflamed, abetted, and legitimized white supremacist ideology, and increasingly dominates the behavior of the Republican Party, rightwing media, and its most devoted base. While the current obsession with CRT and this wave of legislation corresponds with Trump's push last year to ban "spending related to any training on critical race theory," the rightwing reaction has a familiar strain. There's a direct link to the fights over ethnic studies programs that emerged across the U.S. starting in the late 1960s, inspired by the Civil Rights Movement and liberation struggles, that included the largest student strike in U.S. history of 1968-69 to establish an Ethnic Studies Department at San Francisco State University. That movement led to the spread of programs not only in colleges and universities across the U.S, but also in many K-12 curricula..

A 2010 Arizona law to ban ethnic studies illustrates the extreme fear and attacks ethnic studies have stirred. CRT, writes David Theo Goldberg in Boston Review, "functions for the right today primarily as an empty signifier for any talk of race and racism at all, a catch-all specter lumping together 'multiculturalism,' 'wokeism,' 'anti-racism,' and 'identity politics'—or indeed any suggestion that racial inequities in the U.S. are anything but fair outcomes, the result of choices made by equally positioned individuals in a free society. They are simply against any talk, discussion, mention, analysis, or intimation of race—except to say we shouldn’t talk about it."...

More,
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/05/11/far-right-war-history-education-and-thinking

[TheRealNorth]

1. They were pretty successful in rewriting the history of the Civil War

Especially in the South & Midwest. Why wouldn't they rewrite the history of everything else they don't like.

[appalachiablue]

2. Hopefully people who know the truth

will be able to fight efforts to whitewash what actually happened. The challenge of this time is to stop the move to ultra right, fascist authoritarianism and historical revisionism. It's an enormous, critical task and now or never. Showtime.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. The War Against Truth.

GOP = TWAT

[appalachiablue]

4. + 1

[heckles65]

5. To quote The Who -

The kids are alright.

They can debate how much race plays in our national makeup without the white kids getting beat up on the school bus, without everyone hating the U.S. as a result.