White “Snowflake” Republicans in the Arizona House passed their culture war bill on Thursday.
White “Snowflake” Rep. Michelle Udall’s anti-anti-racism bill passed the House on a party-line vote. House OKs anti-critical race theory bill banning ‘racially divisive’ curriculum:
Arizona Republican lawmakers are seeking to ban so-called “critical race theory” education in Arizona schools after the state Supreme Court last year struck down a law barring such education because it was unconstitutionally added to the state’s annual budget. [Lawless Republicans.]
Schools could be fined and teachers could lose their certification for teaching that people inherently bear blame or responsibility for something based on their race, ethnicity or gender under legislation that received preliminary approval Thursday from the Arizona House of Representatives.
House Bill 2112 prohibits instruction in public schools that “presents any form of blame or judgment on the basis of race, ethnicity or sex.” Schools would be barred from teaching that any person, by virtue of those factors, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, “whether consciously or unconsciously,” or that a person bears responsibility for actions committed by other members of their racial or ethnic group, or gender.
Is anyone actually teaching this? Sounds like a solution in search of a non-existent problem to me.
This is what this is really about: white “snowflakes” might feel discomfort learning about the abuses of white supremacy in American history.
And it would make it illegal for K-12 schools to teach that students should feel “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” because of those things.
Ahhh, poor babies. I grew up during the Civil Rights Movement when virulent white supremacists were beating up or killing Black Americans simply for demanding equal rights and their 15th Amendment right to vote. And it was on the nightly news every night.
Do you think this is ancient history? It is still going on today. Republican lawmakers in Missouri are trying to make murder legal for White “snowflakes” who feel threatened by Black skin to kill them without consequences if they call it self-defense. Prosecutor slams Missouri bill as ‘Make Murder Legal Act’:
Missouri senators on Tuesday debated a “stand your ground” bill that backers say will strengthen the state’s self-defense laws but that a prosecutor has dubbed the “Make Murder Legal Act” [Appropriately Missouri Senate Bill 666 – the devil’s handiwork.]
Republican Sen. Eric Burlison’s bill seeks to give shooters and other assailants the benefit of the doubt that they were acting in self-defense.
This is special legislation designed to get this pair of racists out of legal trouble. Mark McCloskey, St. Louis Lawyer Who Pointed Gun at Black Lives Matter Protesters Endorses Missouri Senate Bill 666, Dubbed the ‘Make Murder Legal Act’
If passed, it would mean that prosecutors could not bring charges against people who reasonably believed they were acting in self-defense. Police would need to find probable cause that shooters or other assailants acted unlawfully before arresting them.
Stoddard County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Oliver, who spoke on behalf of the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, called the measure the “Make Murder Legal Act.” He said the changes would “make it impossible to convict a great number of people of assault.”
“An exponential number of violent criminals who should be in prison, they’re going to walk free because of the procedural postures that this bill would put cases in,” Oliver told a Missouri Senate committee Tuesday.
A number of other Missouri law enforcement groups also spoke against the bill.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid and her guests provide a history lesson of Missouri’s racist past that is embodied in this “Make Murder Legal Act.” I’m sure that Rep. Michelle Udall would want this history lesson banned from classrooms because some little “snowflake” felt “discomfort, guilt, anguish” over learing about the lynching of Black Americans at the hands of white supremacists.
What teachers should be doing is organizing a class field trip to the National Memorial For Peace And Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, or the National Museum of African American History & Culture. That’s what exceptional teachers do.
Unfortunately, I may have alerted the white “snowflake” Republicans in the Arizona legislature to yet another racist bill they can spin as self-defense and “stand your ground” gun rights. (Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee have laws similar to the Missouri proposal that limit police from making arrests if defendants claim self-defense, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence). Nah, I’m sure they are already well aware of it. This is who they are.
UPDATE:
“The road in the background represents the road that African Americans have had to travel just to get this far, only to have our histories — our stories — potentially erased.” —Jonathan Harrishttps://t.co/fXinsszA1Q
— Brad Bo 🇺🇸 (@BradBeauregardJ) December 16, 2021
The House of Representatives approved the bill 31-28 on a party-line vote. It now goes to the Senate.
Though the legislation doesn’t use the words, HB2112 is part of the ongoing furor over “critical race theory” in schools, an issue that Republicans have taken up across the country. Technically, critical race theory is a field of academic study about the ways in which racism has become embedded in various aspects of society, such as the way racist policies in previous generations may affect contemporary housing trends.
But it has become a [batardized], catchall term for various race-related teachings, including instruction on “white privilege” and “anti-racism” curriculum. Critics argue that white students are being taught they’re inherently racist or oppressive, or that they collectively bear responsibility for racist acts of other white people.
This manufactured outrage was invented by Christopher Rufo, who is with a right-wing think tank. How a Conservative Activist Invented the Conflict Over Critical Race Theory. This is all part of the manufactured outrage that the right-wing propaganda machine uses to stir up the GQP crazy base over culture war issues.
Rep. Michelle Udall, a Mesa Republican, is running for state superintendent of public instruction. God save us from such a fate!
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As the country celebrates Black History Month, some parents in Alabama [and very likely herei n Arizona] are calling education officials to complain to schools that they believe celebrating the month is a way of practicing something else in the classroom: critical race theory.
“Black History Month is not critical race theory, Alabama educator says in response to complaints”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/02/04/alabama-black-history-month-crt-schools/
State Superintendent Eric Mackey told members of the Alabama House Education Policy Committee this week that he has received at least two calls from parents in recent days who said they consider celebrating Black History Month a way of educating students on critical race theory, an academic framework for examining the way laws and policies perpetuate systemic racism. The issue has been turned into a contentious culture war in which conservatives nationwide have pushed back against racial equity initiatives by schools, including teaching about racism in American history.
“There are people out there who don’t understand what CRT is. And so in their misunderstanding of it, they make a report but it’s not actually CRT,” Mackey told officials Wednesday, according to AL.com. “Having a Black history program is not CRT.”
Even though critical race theory is not taught in K-12 classrooms in Alabama, the state has already approved a resolution banning the teaching of divisive concepts associated with critical race theory, and it is considering passing additional similar bills [no doubt the “model bill” from the “Kochtopus” Goldwatr Institure.]
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin (D) tweeted. “Alabama’s history is Black history. It’s enslavement, lynching, Jim Crow, brutality, and oppression. And it’s about the brave heroes that worked, fought, bled and even died for equality.”
[M]any online observers pointed to how the satirical website the Onion predicted earlier this week what would happen in Alabama, with a headline that reads, “School Calendar Jumps to March 1 After Critical Race Theory Ban Prohibits Month of February.”
UPDATE: White Nationalist “Donald Trump and allies try to redefine racism by casting White men as victims”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/05/trump-redefine-racism/
After years of being branded a racist for his inflammatory comments and actions, Trump and some of his allies are attempting to turn that label back on their critics. In the process, they have wielded their own definition of racism, one that disregards the country’s history of racial exclusion that gives White people a monopoly on power and wealth. To make America more equitable, they argue, everyone must be treated equally — and, therefore, White men must not in any way be disadvantaged.
This diverging definition of racism — often coupled with imagery, symbolism and quotes from the civil rights and other movements — reflects deep and often partisan divisions about what, if anything, needs to be done to produce a more equitable America.
[W]rit large, their statements cast White men as victims, enraging many members of marginalized communities.
Bishop Talbert Swan, president of the Greater Springfield, Mass., chapter of the NAACP, said: “It is gaslighting on steroids for White men who have always been the most privileged segment of society to think that America offering to non-White males the privileges that they have always had from birth is somehow discriminating against them. For that demographic to be out in public, screaming racism and pretending to be victims is one of the most clownish disingenuous acts that I’ve ever seen.”
Experts in political speech and critics on the left say there is more at play than a disagreement over whether White people can be victims of racism or a slanted understanding of the role race plays in America. Some see the desire to identify racism and label opponents “racist” as an effort to wield grievance and stoke animus for political gain — a tactic Trump and others have used in campaigns to anger and animate voters. It’s a sentiment steeped in beliefs among some voters that attempts at equity have gone too far and are punishing people who happen to have been born White.
[A]ccording to an August 2021 Pew study on such divisions, 77 percent of Republicans believe little or nothing needs to be done to ensure equal rights for all Americans, regardless of their racial or ethnic backgrounds. Among Democrats, 74 percent said a lot more needs to be done to achieve racial equity.
“Conservative political strategy, at this time, is really about … keeping flames fired up to keep their base sufficiently inflamed, so that when it comes time to vote, they’ll vote their anger rather than their hope,” said Michael Fauntroy, the founding director of the Race, Politics, and Policy Center at George Mason University. “It was critical race theory last month, [the Supreme Court] is the thing this month, it will be something else next month.”
UPDATE: The Arizona Mirror reports, “To expose ‘critical race theory’ in classrooms, Republicans move to have teachers post all lesson materials online”, https://www.azmirror.com/2022/02/04/to-expose-critical-race-theory-in-classrooms-republicans-move-to-have-teachers-post-all-lesson-materials-online/
To allow parents to scour lessons for elements of “critical race theory,” Arizona teachers would be required to upload a list of every book and worksheet they use in their classrooms online for parental review if a Republican-backed bill becomes law.
The goal, says state Sen. Nancy Barto, is to increase transparency for parents who are concerned about their children’s education. Senate Bill 1211 requires schools to publicly post all materials and class activities on their website at least 7 days after being used. That means the names, authors, and organizations associated with the materials, along with links if they’re available for free online or descriptions if they’re not. Materials encompass everything from textbooks and worksheets to YouTube videos and phone apps.
Lesson plans that include topics like race, gender, diversity and non-discrimination must be posted at least 72 hours before they’re carried out.
“More sunshine on what our kids are involved in is a great thing,” Barto, the Phoenix Republican who introduced the bill, said.
This is the second attempt to enshrine this into law, and a response to conservatives’ concern about so-called “critical race theory” being taught in classrooms. Conservatives have appropriated critical race theory as a catchall to describe basically any serious attempt to teach the history of race and racism in America.
[The “Kochtopus”] Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based libertarian think tank that drafted the bill and is using it as model legislation in other states. Matt Beienburg, Goldwater Institute’s education policy director, said the organization supports other proposed bills of the same vein in 20 other states.
One proponent of the bill is Steve Daniels, the chairman of the right-wing extremist Patriot Party, who spent much of 2021 disrupting local school board meetings to protest mask mandates and how race is taught in schools. At one meeting, he was arrested for trespassing.
[The “Kochtopus”] Goldwater Institute’s other client, “the Arizona Charter Schools Association is opposed to the bill, and told the Arizona Mirror that it would unnecessarily increase the workload on already stressed schools and teachers. Matthew Ladner, the association’s director of the Arizona Center for Student Opportunity, said member schools have reached out with concerns.”
Educators said the bill has problems. Former Mesa public school teacher Judith Simons said policies like those in SB1211 are part of the reason she retired after 33 years. She referred to it as “creeping micromanagement,” and said it would constrain the creativity and responsiveness of teachers.
Every student is different and requires curriculum adjustments, Simons said. Having to report all of their instructional decisions constitutes extra work with no commensurate compensation and may disincentivize personalized teaching. Rather than mandate more work for teachers, Simons said parents who are concerned about their child’s education should simply communicate directly with their children’s teachers.
“Please treat teachers with respect and trust their professionalism,” she said.
[The] Arizona Department of Education opposes SB1211 because it places a “high administrative burden” on schools and teachers. The department advised parents to take advantage of curriculum nights and parent-teacher conferences to resolve concerns.
“We know parents and teachers share the same goal of helping their students learn and grow, that goal is best met by building stronger, trusting relationships, instead of accusatory rhetoric and burdensome policy proposals,” the department’s spokesperson, Morgan Dick, said in an email to the Arizona Mirror.
SB1211 was approved by the committee along party lines. It awaits approval by the Senate floor.