More Republicans trying to whitewash history
Here they go again – white Republicans trying to whitewash history.
State Sens. Max Wise and Robby Mills have introduced SB 138, the “Teaching American Principles Act.” Like HB 14 and HB 18, it’s a censorship bill aimed at restricting the teaching of systemic racism in public schools.
SB 138 requires a teacher who “chooses to discuss current events or controversial topics” to “explore such topics from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to a specific perspective.”
“Does that mean that instruction cannot include the history that demonstrates that white institutions created slavery, Jim Crow oppression, and institutionalized racism?” asked Jim Johnson, a retired Louisville public school teacher. He wonders if the bill means teachers must present pro- and anti-slavery and pro- and anti-Jim Crow sides as morally equivalent.
The bill says slavery and post-Civil War Jim Crow racial discrimination, which included segregation, Black disenfranchisement, and lynchings, were bad “but that defining racial disparities solely on the legacy of [slavery and Jim Crow]...is destructive to the unification of our nation; The future of America’s success is dependent upon cooperation between members of all races.”
Read more: https://forwardky.com/more-republicans-trying-to-whitewash-history/