Yo, Miss! (No. 9)

Memory Laws and History Wars

It is not a good sign that I feel like I need to keep sharing Timothy Snyder’s 2021 article for The New York Times, “The War on History is a War on Democracy”. But here I am sharing it again.

It is worth reading the whole article, but this part especially resonates in light of the recent news that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blocked the College Board AP African-American Studies course from being taught in public schools in his state:

“In most cases, the new American memory laws have been passed by state legislatures that, in the same session, have passed laws designed to make voting more difficult. The memory management enables the voter suppression. The history of denying Black people the vote is shameful. This means that it is less likely to be taught where teachers are mandated to protect young people from feeling shame. The history of denying Black people the vote involves law and society. This means that it is less likely to be taught where teachers are mandated to tell students that racism is only personal prejudice.”

If you are curious about the course that DeSantis banned, here is a version of the AP African-American curriculum. Teachers have reported that this is an older version of the course and there have been a lot of changes. However, they also claim that it is largely the same course that pilot teachers are using this year. Based on this earlier version of the course, it appears that the class is broken into four units:

Unit 1: Origins of the African Diaspora

Unit 2: Freedom, Enslavement, and Resistance

Unit 3: The Practice of Freedom

Unit 4: Movements and Debates

By the way, I REALLY want to teach this course now! Not just because DeSantis banned it :)

The fact that DeSantis has deemed this course as one that “significantly lacks educational value” should not come as a surprise to anyone who has been following the culture war that DeSantis has waged in his state. His push to weaponize racism and homophobia to win support from his constituents has recently led to the state passing his Stop W.O.K.E. Act.

I have started to anonymously speak with teachers in Florida (if you want to talk to me, please reach out!) and they have shared that they feel as though they need to stay away from any topics related to race and racism, including the history of slavery in America, as to avoid losing their jobs and/or getting fined. In other words, teachers are being forced to choose between their paychecks and their principles.

When I spoke with NBC News/Mike Hixenbaugh after the Buffalo shooting last spring, I shared:

“What the states are doing is asking teachers to commit — and I’m not being hyperbolic — educational malpractice,” Rosenberg said in an interview. “It’s like telling a doctor to operate in a way that he knows is not going to be the best outcome for the patient.”

These lessons are vital, Rosenberg said, not only to help students of color process a deadly attack that targeted Black people, but also for white students who might be persuaded by the types of racist ideologies that can lead to violence.

“I’d like to think that if we can start at a young age teaching these concepts and this history to kids, they’ll be less likely to fall prey to online radicalization,” she said.

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What is happening in Florida is a part of a wider backlash across the country where, according to EdWeek, since January 2021, “42 states have introduced bills or taken other steps that would restrict teaching,” what they they call “critical race theory.” In reality, these bills are intended to put a chill on most conversations related to racism and sexism.

According to Axios, this battle against critical race theory, aka the teachings on systemic racism, “is not letting up” in public schools across America.

What we are witnessing is a blatant attempt to erase the teaching of an honest history in America’s K-12 classrooms. The mission is to force a whitewashed, white-centric American history by eliminating everyone else from the story.

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These battles over what is taught in America’s public schools is not a new phenomenon. For example, after the Civil War, various groups attempted to push a white supremacist version of the causes of the war as well as the Reconstruction Period after the war. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was a backlash to textbooks adding the progressive historian Charles Beard’s argument that the founders were not just motivated to fight for independence from Great Britain for idealistic Enlightenment principles but also for economic motives. Probably one of the most famous examples of the clash over what is taught in schools is the 1925 Scopes Trial when John Scopes, a teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was charged with violating a state law against teaching evolution.

Historian Jill Lepore wrote an excellent article in March 2022 for the New Yorker, “Why The School Wars Still Rage,” connecting the anti-evolution movement with the current anti-CRT movement:

When anti-evolutionists condemned “evolution,” they meant something as vague and confused as what people mean, today, when they condemn “critical race theory.” Anti-evolutionists weren’t simply objecting to Darwin, whose theory of evolution had been taught for more than half a century. They were objecting to the whole Progressive package, including its philosophy of human betterment, its model of democratic citizenship, and its insistence on the interest of the state in free and equal public education as a public good that prevails over the private interests of parents.

Basically, from evolution to anti-racism, parents and progressives have battled it out over who gets to tell our origin stories.

History rhymes.

By the way, even in the 1990s, Lynne Cheney initiated a campaign to introduce new United States History standards. Cheney claimed that the current version taught was not celebratory enough and focused too much on Harriet Tubman, the KKK, and McCarthyism.

Also, let us not forget that it is only recently that there has been a push for a more inclusive and less whitewashed curriculum in our public schools. Even before they started passing these anti-history laws, we still had a LONG way to go in most classrooms across America to achieve this goal.

Considering that according to the U.S. Census, around half of the nation’s K-12 students today are students of color, the plan should be to find ways to include them in what they learn in class. Instead, states like Florida are attempting to erase them from the story altogether.

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Feeling frustrated and fired up about this topic? Join a conversation about it all with me next week. I am hosting a new episode of our PBS Newshour Classroom Educator Voices Series on Thursday, January 26 at 7PM ET with Alfred Shivy Brooks as our guest host. You can RSVP here.