The whitewashing of history is coming to Kansas!
It was always a matter of when, rather than a matter of if, but the banning of books, and class teaching materials is on its way to Kansas, with Republicans wanting to follow other red states’ lead in banning the teaching of critical race theory, which is a false narrative as CRT is not taught in grade school.
The GOP is trying to push a parental bill of rights, being allowed to review what is being taught and what books are available in school libraries. The Republican led Kansas house wants “parental review” over violence, sexual content, or excessive profanity, allowing ‘people’ to push for the removal of materials from school libraries and allowing for people to take legal action against schools.
If you read the above linked article, you’ll see that the parental bill of rights is just a way to pass something without sounding like a bunch of racists. Near the bottom of the article, State Rep. Patrick Penn, a black Republican wants to ban critical race theory from schools, again, it’s not taught in K-12 schools, it’s a college-level course, for students studying law, CRT is a culture war issue, nothing more. Don’t let the fact that Rep. Penn is black fool you, he doesn’t represent black voices in the state of Kansas.
If you know anything about America’s history, you’ll know the struggle of black rights, from slavery through to the civil rights movement, through to today has been extremely violent, hence the wording used in the bill. Allowing ‘people’ to request the removal of large chunks of American history from the curriculum.
We all know where this is going, it’s the same bullshit laws passed in Texas and Oklahoma, with a view to whitewash history, banning the teaching of America’s deeply racist history, because the right doesn’t want their children to feel like they’re to blame for the horrific treatment of black people throughout history, which is far from the case, how can teaching historical facts, put the blame on white students today, do they have something to feel guilty about? Educating their children in the facts about how black people have suffered due to racist laws, past and present, makes it harder for them to pass their racist beliefs on.
If we are going to have a parents bill of rights, then I object to all teachings that glorify the Confederacy, pushing that the confederate states went to war for economic reasons, which I guess is kinda true, as if they did not have the slaves, their economy would tank as they’d have to pay people to do the cotton picking. The civil war was about retaining the free slave workforce, which was the height of racism.
Racism is alive and well in the United States, the country has a long way to go in terms of race relations, many want to continue to keep racism alive by blocking the teaching of facts in school. As the old saying goes, an educated person is a dangerous person, keeping kids dumb, makes them easier to control.
Finally, the ‘people’ terminology troubles me, if this is to be a parents bill of rights, the only people that should be allowed a say should be parents with children actively in the school system. The term people indicates that anyone can use this law, should it pass to ban books and teachings. No one should be allowed to affect other parents’ children’s education when they have no children in the school system.