It is unfortunate that there are Legislative and Congressional Districts carved out where fringe figures can fester and thrive representing Arizona and other states in state legislatures and Congress.
Paul Gosar is one of those recipients.
So is Mark Finchem.
And so is Legislative District (LD) 16’s State Senator Kelly Townsend.
Townsend, the Arizona Donna Trump, attacked critical race theory as an anti-white program because the National Education Association (N.E.A.) will join Black Lives Matter and the Zinn Education Project to dedicate George Floyd’s birthday, October 14, “as a national day of action to teach lessons about structural racism and oppression.”
In her post, Ms. Townsend said:
“Don’t send your children to school on October 14-15. The National Education Association wants to still push Critical Race Theory, an anti-white program to your children despite our new laws. Better yet, pull them out of public school, now.”
Senator Townsend has a history of following the Trump Zone-Fox Island-ultra-right political spectrum. She was against Coronavirus safety measures, promoted the big lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 Presidential election, and has been an outspoken advocate against sex education in public schools.
Some of the LD 16 Senator’s followers on Facebook have taken the bait and given their own fringe perspectives to this posting.
One person wrote: “Isn’t it tragic that we have reached the point where we have to keep our children from school to protect their minds?”
Another person posted: “Thank you for exposing their filthy agenda!”
Other comments included: “Problem is all of the major textbook companies (Pearson nka Savis etc) embed it in the syllabus and their products…You should have a fact-finding hearing and invite the textbook companies”
“How about not send your kids to public school ever again and really teach them a lesson.”
“Any teacher that teaches this crap should lose their license and be on a database to keep them away from children.”
“Didn’t we just outlaw CRT in AZ? If we have, and this still happens, should we not be holding schools accountable?”
“This is quickly becoming the new civil war, brought to you by the minions of the communist party. They are alive and well and flourishing in every part of our culture and society.
If we value our freedom and care about preserving equal justice and liberty for all in our country, they must be fought by any means necessary.”
“I have never been more glad to not have children in the education system anymore!”
Not anti-white
What Ms. Townsend is doing in composing postings like this is very sad, ignorant, and divisive.
To begin with, Critical Race Theory is not anti-white.
It is also not a new way to teach history. For decades, teachers in American schools have been giving a more in-depth examination of this country’s history including relaying both its greatest achievements and its most dubious sins.
Unfortunately, the protest against teaching a well-rounded version of American History is not new either. It predates Kelly Townsend and Donald Trump. It just has a new Twenty-First Century flavor to it and gullible innocents are subscribing to its poison.
In its announcement on promoting Critical Race Theory and the day of activism on George Floyd’s birthday, the National Education Association (N.E.A.) stated:
The NEA will, with guidance on implementation from the NEA president and chairs of the Ethnic Minority Affairs Caucuses:
- Share and publicize, through existing channels, information already available on critical race theory (CRT) — what it is and what it is not; have a team of staffers for members who want to learn more and fight back against anti-CRT rhetoric, and share information with other NEA members as well as their community members.
- Provide an already-created, in-depth, study that critiques empire, white supremacy, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, patriarchy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, ableism, anthropocentrism, and other forms of power and oppression at the intersections of our society, and that we oppose attempts to ban critical race theory and/or The 1619 Project.
- Publicly (through existing media) convey its support for the accurate and honest teaching of social studies topics, including truthful and age-appropriate accountings of unpleasant aspects of American history, such as slavery, and the oppression and discrimination of Indigenous, Black, Brown, and other peoples of color, as well as the continued impact this history, has on our current society. The Association will further convey that in teaching these topics, it is reasonable and appropriate for the curriculum to be informed by academic frameworks for understanding and interpreting the impact of the past on current society, including critical race theory.
- Join with Black Lives Matter at School and the Zinn Education Project to call for a rally this year on October 14—George Floyd’s birthday—as a national day of action to teach lessons about structural racism and oppression. Followed by one day of action that recognizes and honor lives taken such as Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, and others. The National Education Association shall publicize these National Days of Action to all its members, including in NEA Today.
- Conduct a virtual listening tour that will educate members on the tools and resources needed to defend honesty in education including but not limited to tools like CRT.
- Commit President Becky Pringle to make public statements across all lines of media that support racial honesty in education including but not limited to critical race theory.
With the exception of enlisting the aid of Black Lives Matter and the Zinn Education Project, I challenge any person to find fault with any portion of the above NEA posting.
How is anything mentioned above Anti-White or embrace a dishonest approach to history education?
It does not.
The truth is the people that are offering a racist, whitewashed sanitized, and highly inaccurate version of history education are Ms. Townsend and her like-minded collaborators.
These are some of the same collaborators (Lesko, Biggs, and Gosar) who want to keep the statues of Confederate traitors and racists on display in the halls of Congress.
Everything should be done to stop this war on truth from the fringe right personified by Ms. Townsend and others.
Children can not become fully productive citizens if they do not receive a history education that has warts as well as roses.
It is time for Kelly Townsend and her friends to stop spreading this sad, ignorant, and divisive venomous nonsense and shut up.
Postscript: We did reach out to Senator Townsend to comment on her post on the evening of July 6, 2021. She has not responded.