Critical Race Theory

[Rev. Rye]

Just for the record, the stuff about teaching the history of white supremacy, slavery, eugenics, and the Klan (and how they're bad) is an addition to the bill made by Democrats in the House; earlier drafts mention nothing less typical than de Tocqueville. You can actually look at the process here; the vast majority of the subjects mentioned in the later version were added by Democratic members of the House, with the exception of Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists (added by Bryan Slaton).

That said, while that particular clause about the teaching of the history of white supremacy (Amendment 7) was listed as being authored by Democratic State Representative James Talarico, it is also listed as having a co-author Republican Representative Steve Toth, which may be a concession to basic decency after this particular exchange five amendments prior:




This is all the supplemental record on that day states about that amendment:

[Amendment No. 7 by Talarico and Toth was laid before the house.]

TALARICO: Thank you to Representative Toth for working with me on this amendment. It'll just add that the knowledge and skills that are developed on the first page of this bill will also include the history of white supremacy and the way in which it is morally wrong. I believe it is acceptable to the author.

[Amendment No. 7 was adopted.]

What's more troubling (and likely killed its chances of a single Democratic vote in the Senate), besides the way they worded their list of things that should not be required (which reads like it could be referring either to explicit white supremacism or their strawman version of anti-racism), is the section where they say:

(1) a teacher may not be compelled to discuss a particular current event or widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs
(2) a teacher who chooses to discuss a topic described by Subdivision (1) shall, to the best of the teacher's ability, strive to explore the topic from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective;

This, I admit, might not seem too bad on first glance, but then, you remember that one of America's two political parties has a policy of saying "I reject your reality, and substitute my own" to anything the other says that they don't like, even if what they say is objectively true, or even if to do so is going against basic human decency. Hell, you only need to look at the fact that an amendment for that very bill that included "the history of January 6, 2021 insurrection and how it was a stain on American history" among things that should be on the Texas school curriculum, ended up failing after a vote that fell squarely on party lines. Or, Hell, remember that the Alt-Right movement, (which is openly racist and functionally Neo-Nazi) movement is still an alarmingly prominent movement in American politics.