By Asia Quiroz and Arlette Peña, Staff Reporters
May, 2022
On September 1st, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a pair of bills that limited the ways Texas teachers can discuss race, racism, and American history in the classroom. The new laws forbid teachers from teaching, among other concepts, that:
1) one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex; 2) an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously; 3) an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex; 4) members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex; 5) an individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex; 6) an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or class; 7) any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.
While parts of the laws seem uncontroversial, they were designed to prevent the discussion of systemic racism or white privilege, and to keep certain anti-racist books and ideas out of the classroom. The idea is that acknowledgement of the history of the U.S., from slavery to segregation, could make some students feel guilt or discomfort.
A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE
KAC World History teacher Jamila Shaw worries that these laws will negatively affect Social Studies teaching in the state. “Understanding the impacts of racism and systems that have allowed for the massacre and marginalization of BIPOC in these countries allows us as members of the U.S. society to better understand our current climate,” she explained.
“And without that, we will only continue to see the divisions grow.”
Shaw described the law as “wrong,” arguing that it “works to further create an unrealistic picture of American history that upholds white supremacy and works to harm Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color from having their real experiences taught in K-12 education.” Nonetheless, she said she will continue to teach as she always has, honestly depicting all elements of history, including its negative aspects.
“I have always been committed to providing students with the realities of the past and pushing them to gather all the evidence and never look at the ‘single story,’ so they can then critique the world around them using those tools,” she said. “My commitment to supporting students to stand up for what they believe is right compels me to stand my ground and continue teaching real history that is critical of the lies that have been told.”
BOOKS AND MOVIES CHALLENGED
The laws and the controversy that led to them have already had effects in other schools in Texas. In Southlake, a teacher was reprimanded for having a copy of a book by Tiffany Jewell, This Book is Anti-Racist, in her classroom.
The book’s title gives you an idea of what it’s about. In chapter 4 of the book, “What is Racism?” Jewell explains that racism is a kind of toxicity that we breathe in because it’s all around us. She writes, “Our lives are polluted and it harms us all.” Jewell also writes, “Everyone has prejudices or biases. These are our judgments: the things we discriminate against … They are things we’ve learned and assumed from everything around us.” While both statements are true, they also could be interpreted as violating the new Texas laws.
“The author does a great job guiding the reader to explore the ways we’ve been socialized to be racist in society and how we start the work to deconstruct those aspects within each of us and then take action to dismantle the racist systems in place,” said Shaw.
In other cities in Texas and around the country, other books are being challenged for similar reasons. The Hate U Give, a novel by Angie Thomas that was turned into a movie, has been criticized in multiple school districts. Its main character, an African American high school student named Starr, has two sides to herself–one she displays at her rich, white private school, and the one that lives in a “poor,” mostly Black neighborhood. Her childhood friend gets shot by a white, male police officer because the officer suspected him of having a weapon when all he had was a hairbrush. To critics, the story is anti-police and divisive, but the movie and book both depict anger that people experience due to the racism we have in this world. Watching the movie, I noticed the amount of threats Starr faced as she spoke for Khalil, the amount of “I’m sorry for your loss but the officer had to protect himself.” Starr faces the real world’s society, and has to learn her liberties and rights when she’s only a kid.
TEACHING HISTORY CAN LEAD TO POSITIVE CHANGE
These topics can make students feel guilt, discomfort, or unease, but hopefully that feeling will help them advocate to stand up regarding these issues. This is what happened after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer on May 25th, 2020. The video of Floyd’s death went around the internet on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Teenagers knew what the video meant due to schools’ teaching on racism in American history, and students acted on that knowledge and protested in Floyd’s name.
The new laws in Texas mean that more children will grow up in ignorance of what happened before them. The purpose of teaching history is to avoid repeating it. Without knowledge of history we are set up for failure. By restricting education on the important topics of racism and race we take a huge step back from the progress people made fighting injustice. Black lives matter, and the suffering and trauma caused by racism must be taught so future generations understand the sacrifices people have made to get us to where we are now–sitting in classrooms where we all have the ability to achieve the same quality of education received by any other child.
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