Sunday, June 27, 2021

Editorial: Instead of whitewashing history, governor, tackle real problems

Great editorial by the editors of the Austin American-Statesman. It notes the willingness of the Texas GOP to "stoke conflict," by, for example, signing anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) Bill—House Bill 3979—into law this past legislative session that is, in fact, not actually getting taught in K-12 schools. CRT is college-level instruction, not K-12. Most teachers do not even know what it means if they have ever even heard of it.

This agenda amounts to dog-whistle politics designed to create a wedge issue that Gov. Greg Abbott can run on in his bid for the U.S. presidency, as indicated in the editorial below. Rather than fearing the teaching of CRT in our nation's classrooms, the only thing to fear is the Texas GOP itself and the whitewashing of history, alongside local political struggles and strife of an unenforceable policy that this mean-spirited law will inaugurate.

-Angela Valenzuela

Editorial: Instead of whitewashing history, governor, tackle real problems

American-Statesman Editorial Board | June 27, 2021


When President Joe Biden signed the law making Juneteenth a national holiday, he extolled the power of history to teach. 

“All Americans can feel the power of this day, and learn from our history,” Biden said at a signing ceremony at the White House. The law designates June 19 as the national day to commemorate the end of slavery.

Juneteenth might be new to some Americans, but, of course, it has long been celebrated in Texas. It draws its name from June 19, 1865, the day the news of freedom reached enslaved people in Galveston -- more than 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

A federal holiday marking the end of slavery is symbolically potent on the heels of a year of racial strife and Black Lives Matter protests in Austin and across the country. But the same week Biden signed the Juneteenth holiday law, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law restricting how current events and our nation’s long history of racism can be taught in public schools, for example mandating that teachers must "give deference to both sides" when discussing current events. 

In signing the law Abbott has delved yet again into another attempt to stoke cultural conflicts and dictate what Texans, in this case educators, can and cannot do. Once the Party of Small Government, the Texas GOP has become the Party of Government Knows Best under the governor's helm.

Related: Editorial: If the GOP has all the answers, why let Texans decide?

The measure Abbott signed, HB 3979, is known as the critical race theory bill though it doesn’t contain the words. Abbott, however, invoked them in signing the law, calling for abolishing critical race theory and for the Legislature to take up the issue at its special session this summer.

If you don’t know what critical race theory is, you’re probably not alone. And if you’re wondering why it’s relevant to your life and why the governor is set on killing it and on telling teachers how to teach, welcome to Texas and its Republican-controlled Legislature. Though we recognize that state lawmakers have a duty to oversee education policy and how our tax money is spent, this is hardly an example of responsible government responding to a critical and urgent need. Indeed, some education experts say there is little if any evidence critical race theory is widely taught in our schools.

"Nobody in K-12 is teaching critical race theory,” Andrew Robinson, an 8th grade U.S. history teacher in Dallas, told the Texas Tribune.

What is critical race theory?

For the uninitiated, critical race theory is the academic discipline practiced by scholars, legal experts and others that questions the role of race in society and why racism endures. Many conservative lawmakers, commentators and parents rail against it, sounding alarms that it is a divisive, racist threat and that it is used to teach white children they are racist and so is the country. They claim, without evidence, that it teaches people of color to hate white people and assigns them blame for the country's racial sins. Legislation similar to Texas' has been proposed in 22 states; Texas is one of a handful of states where it has been signed into law.

With the lack of hard evidence that critical race theory is even being taught in our schools, attacks on an honest accounting of the country's racist past are poorly disguised attempts to whitewash history, to stoke racial anxiety and grievances and to exploit a wedge issue ahead of the 2022 midterms. Abbott is girding for reelection and a possible presidential run. A recent poll found 63 percent of Republicans are against teaching critical race theory in K-12 schools, compared to 13 percent of Democrats.

History has the power to teach. But it requires a willingness to stare down demons like the Tulsa race massacre and in Texas, the historic murderous violence by Texas Rangers against Mexican Americans. Teaching our students about racism is not racist, nor is confronting these ugly truths an exercise in blaming, but an attempt to find healing and paths to justice and equality and to understand how historical racism and racist violence have ramifications today. 

How Texans feel about teaching these truths relates to their beliefs about the purpose of an education, said John Morán González, director of the Center for Mexican Studies at the University of Texas and a professor of American and English literature at UT.

If it’s indoctrination into a kind of uncritical nationalism, that is one thing, González told us. "But if we think that our tax dollars should be used to engage critical thinking citizens, that’s an entirely different avenue."

Abbott and elected officials who harbor greater political ambitions use wedge issues like the critical race theory debate to secure positions as champions of conservative causes. In their hands, policymaking becomes the servant of electioneering, not good government.

RELATED: Editorial: That border wall plan isn’t for Texas. It’s for Gov. Greg Abbott.

But in tilting at windmills like critical race theory, non-existent widespread voter fraud and border walls that won't get built, Abbott does a disserve to all Texans. We have real problems, not manufactured ones ginned up for the culture warriors on social media and Fox News. Just four months ago, countless Texans died or lost limbs in the winter storm when the power failed. Texans want a full reckoning. They want an electrical power grid that works, they want a better education for their children and improved access to medical care. Tackle those problems, instead, governor.

Austin American-Statesman Editorial Board


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