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If our Republican super majority allows this bill to go through, this Republican will not vote for the Republicans in our state legislature again. This is bill represents a boogeyman that hard-right GOP ‘leaders’ nationwide have shaped to stoke fear and get votes. I know the left often uses racism as a manipulative tool and the far left loves to tell us we should hate America for all its sins. But this bill isn’t the answer – it’s a partisan bomb that would only serve to widen the divide in this state and country even more.
I actually agree that this won’t achieve much and will make the good teachers (hopefully still a majority of them in the workforce) feel hamstrung.
But what IS the answer? Who is initiating the division? Under what circumstances is it appropriate to bring graphic sex descriptions into the text of a 9th grade classroom? Part of the point of curriculum is to filter for what is age-appropriate, which is why most textbooks have included excerpts when the content is contentious (e.g., “Native Son” or “1984”).
If you think the “hard right” represents anything close to the Yuri Bezmenov levels of subversion we’re witnessing, or that the leftist view of racism isn’t “Mein Kampf”-style racial essentialism (actually encouraging resegregation in some elementary schools, and getting rid of accelerated teaching because “progressive” teachers don’t think the children of color can handle it), then I guess you can go march with the window-smashers the name of racial justice, Eric, along with fellow “principled conservatives” like Mitt Romney. There might be a better middle, but if there is, it sure isn’t making itself obvious.
I wish this weren’t a Sophie’s Choice, but this is absolute subversion and if parents who don’t want their kids to turn out like the face-tattooed basketcases on the Tiktok videos have to ally with the “hard right”, then the hard right it is. Amazing how “hard right” principles got Glenn Youngkin comfortably elected in a “hard right” state like Virginia, wouldn’t you say?
My hope is the school boards who cater to this nonsense get walloped at the next election, and we allow the individual districts to sort out their problems. Outside of a few woke districts, there are very few places where the majority of constituents want this.
My conservative district did a very good job at teaching that racism is wrong while I was there. Frankly, it didn’t need to be taught–the books we read and the basic relating of American history made it evident. CRT actually encourages racial fixation, and when we fixate on superficial differences as opposed to individual merits, there is simply no way it will lead to good outcomes, even if the point is to admonish people against racism. If you tell people to stop thinking about pink elephants, well, you know how it goes…