In other words, Idaho wants its citizens to fly blindly into life. Be insensitive to the call for sensitivity to difference that rests at the conceptual center of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Become immune to others' experiences in the world. Be actively ignorant.

How is the banning of CRT a recipe for success in an increasingly diverse world? Have these folks in Idaho not read the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Bible that can be fully interpreted from a CRT lens? It teaches us that being open to difference is a much higher calling than being distrustful and cynical toward others—and most especially in their hour of need.

May I never become immune to others' experiences in the world.

I do take comfort in knowing that CRT existed before there was a name for it and will continue to exist after its banned. After all, we will always continue to learn much from the lived experiences of racism, sexism, classism, transphobism, and the like in society despite the predictable fashioning by the dominant group of illusory, inaccurate views of how society works—or doesn't work—as the case may be.

After all, a more heterogenous life experience provides more conceptual anchors from which to analyze social inequality, separate from what those in power want us, as minoritized subjects, to believe and parrot. Rather than learning from diverse viewpoints for which CRT courses create space, this anti-intellectual posture seeks to block alternative views of lived experience.

That's what makes this stance fascist: We are all being told what and how to think, that is, ahistorical, decontextualized, de-personalized, and prescriptive. These are ways of knowing that come with a cost. That is, how can we as a diverse society learn to live differently with each other—ideally, at peace in a vibrant democracy—if we're not open to reconceptualizing our ways of relating to each other in ways that the CRT classroom generally provides?

Why not unmask prejudices and bias? Don't we all want to be better people in the world and assume responsibility for our own growth? What would Jesus want us to do? Certainly not what we see playing out in Idaho and other places.

Hence, to be against CRT is tantamount to the institutionalization of ignorance, arrogance, and insensitivity. This is hardly a virtuous education. Far from it, especially since it ironically reinscribes majority-minority relations anew! "Once a Samaritan, always a Samaritan" is not the actual takeaway from this parable. Or at least it shouldn't be...

Thanks to Dr, Valerie A. Martinez for sharing.

-Angela Valenzuela

Idaho moves to ban critical race theory instruction in all public schools, including universities

By Leah Asmelash, CNN

Updated 5:48 PM ET, Tue April 27, 2021

The bill, having passed the state legislature, now awaits Gov. Brad Little's signature.

(CNN)As some public school districts move toward embracing critical race theory in their curriculums, others -- like in Idaho -- are doing the opposite.

Idaho lawmakers have advanced a bill that would prohibit public schools, including public universities, from teaching that "any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior," which, according to the bill, is often found in "critical race theory."

It also prohibits teachings arguing that "individuals, by virtue of sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin, are inherently responsible for actions committed in the past by other members of the same sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin."

Critical race theory and teachings like it "exacerbate and inflame divisions on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or other criteria in ways contrary to the unity of the nation and the well-being of the state of Idaho and its citizens," the bill reads. Proponents have argued that students are being indoctrinated.

The bill, HB 377, passed the state House last week and the Senate Monday. It now awaits the governor's signature.

Critical race theory has become politicized in recent months, with proponents arguing the area of study is based on Marxism and a threat to the American way of life. But the study, according to scholars, explores the ways in which a history of inequality and racism in the US have continued to impact American society today.

"It's an approach to grappling with a history of White supremacy that rejects the belief that what's in the past is in the past and that the laws and systems that grow from that past are detached from it," Kimberlé Crenshaw, a founding critical race theorist and a law professor at UCLA and Columbia universities, told CNN last year.

CNN reached out to Idaho state Rep. Julianne Young and Sen. Carl Crabtree, both sponsors of the bill, for comment, but did not receive a response.

"The passage of HB 377 and the accompanying insinuations about Idaho teachers are very disappointing," said Layne McInelly, president of the Idaho Education Association, in a statement. "This is a 'monster under the bed' problem brought about by a false and misleading narrative that some legislators have willfully conflated. They aim to diminish the public's trust in our teachers and schools, just to come back next year and push to privatize education."

The bill has become a high-profile issue in the state, as dozens of Idaho students and teachers protested peacefully on the steps of the state legislature on Monday before the Senate vote, and filled the Senate gallery during the debate.

As HB377 is debated and passed by the Idaho Senate Monday, April 26, students and teachers filled the gallery.

"We have a group that's put out public comments that our teachers are brainwashing our children with a liberal, leftist indoctrination and that's simply not true," Idaho state Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking said during the debate, according to CNN affiliate KIVI.

Meanwhile, Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin announced a task force earlier this month, aiming to "examine indoctrination in Idaho education and to protect our young people from the scourge of critical race theory, socialism, communism, and Marxism."

"As I have traveled around the state and spoken with constituents and parents, it has become clear to me that this is one of the most significant threats facing our society today," McGeachin said in a news release. "We must find where these insidious theories and philosophies are lurking and excise them from our education system."

Across the country, public school entities are considering the inclusion of aspects of race education in school curriculums. In March, after years of debate, California approved an optional ethnic studies model curriculum for districts to employ if they so choose.

"By affirming the identities and contributions of marginalized groups in our society, ethnic studies helps students see themselves and each other as part of the narrative of the United States," a draft of the California curriculum reads. "Importantly, this helps students see themselves as active agents in the interethnic bridge-building process we call American life."

Other locales have made similar moves. Last year, Connecticut announced it will require high schools to offer African American, Black, Puerto Rican and Latino studies, becoming the first state in the nation to do so. Also last year, the San Francisco school board approved the development of a K-12 curriculum in Black Studies.

And yet, the area of study has been weaponized by some Republican lawmakers. In September, former President Donald Trump called critical race theory "divisive, anti-American propaganda," language similar to that found in HB 377.

"Students in our universities are inundated with critical race theory. This is a Marxist doctrine holding that America is a wicked and racist nation, that even young children are complicit in oppression, and that our entire society must be radically transformed," Trump said at the time.

CNN's Faith Karimi contributed to this report.

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