North Carolina's New Education Bill Promotes Historical Erasure and White Supremacy

In the state of North Carolina, the legislature saw fit to pass House Bill 324 in response to the Critical Race Theory madness set off by a FOX News interview. The bill outlaws teaching that includes the following:

1. "One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex."

2. "An individual, solely 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. "An individual's moral character necessarily determined by his or her race or sex."

5. "An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex."

6. "Any individual solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress."

7. "That the belief that the United States as a meritocracy is an inherently racist or sexist belief, or that the United States was created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race or sex."

An attempt at apolitical language allows the authors to make a strong rightist political argument while attempting a politically neutral stand. This is something that has been done forever, but the authors of this document do this quite well. A reasonable person who is a non-educator could look at the above list and see nothing wrong with it. This is the power and difficulty of HB 324. It uses the moment of anti-Critical Race Theory rhetoric to go after its real target: anti-racist, anti-oppressive, critical civic, and authentic teaching.

Rather than thinking of school as a desperately necessary public good with educators who have an expertise, a place for difficult but incredibly needed conversations, both the authors of HB 324 and the F.A.C.T.S. Task Force want to engage in acts of historical erasure, avoidance, and advocacy for white supremacy.

The HB 324 legislation run counter to the most recent state approved North Carolina social studies state standards. The preamble to the standards approved by the state legislature in 2020 and implemented in 2021 reads in part:

...it is important to remember that history itself doesn't provide the sole explanation for why we have injustices, racism, extremism, and discrimination today, be they institutionalized or localized. Our human failings have at times taken the form of racism, xenophobia, nativism, extremism and isolationism. We need to study history in order to understand how these situations developed, the harmful impact they caused, and the forces and actors that sometimes helped us move beyond these outcomes.

While they strive for an apoliticality they signal to educators the need for a historical and system analysis and the development of a critical consciousness amongst students. Students need to be able to critique and understand the systems at play historically and in our present. There is a desperate need for students to have uncomfortable conversations about race, class, power, gender, queerness, resistance, and change.

While House Bill 324 was making its way through the legislature, the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina Mark Robinson established the Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom or Teachers and Studies, or F.A.C.T.S, Task Force. Both ask parents, teachers and most importantly students to "stand up for North Carolina's future by exposing indoctrination in the classroom and taught not what to think but how to think". An online portal was established to allow the aggrieved a chance to turn in educators who were teaching indoctrination, or in other words, Critical Race Theory. A read of the three hundred page plus document reveals the ridiculousness of the task force as well as its potential for harm. It is repetitive in mentioning an educator who wore a Black Lives Matter T-shirt on more than one occasion. The report surfaces little and focuses on the mundane: classroom decor, clothing worn, and what educators might have said in classrooms. There is little if any evidence of impropriety much less anything that reaches the level of attempted indoctrination. What's more though the task force's findings are presented as a thoughtful, and well-conceived study it in no way reaches the threshold of legitimate study.

Neither House Bill 324 nor the F.A.C.T.S. Task Force have an enforcement mechanism. They both make demands. With no evidence they both argue that schools are rife with Critical Race Theory and educators are in the process of indoctrinating students. Both documents to a certain extent attempt to take a neutral or apolitical stance. A reasonable person ignorant of the politics hidden in the language of both documents might be supportive of them and be outraged that educators are engaged in the activities the documents accuse them of. This, I think, is the point. Both HB 324 and the F.A.C.T.S. Task Force are not about education. They are not about student learning, their future, or school outcomes. They are not about the possibility that schools can and might have a positive social impact on society. While all things are inherently political, both HB 324 and the F.A.C.T.S. Task Force seem only to be. They exist to support the larger Trump agenda and the far-right conspiracy theories that argue that schools are not inherently good nor support society's greater good. At a time in which school board meetings and school board members are being targeted and threatened, both HB 324 and the F.A.C.T.S. Task Force serve only to inflame, encourage, and empower the mob.

Neither the attempted legislation nor the task force is concerned about education, or even politics really. What they are concerned with is control. Rather than thinking of school as a desperately necessary public good with educators who have an expertise, a place for difficult but incredibly needed conversations, both the authors of HB 324 and the F.A.C.T.S. Task Force want to engage in acts of historical erasure, avoidance, and advocacy for white supremacy. The weapon the authors and supporters of these measures are using is fear. If the measures themselves don't cow and intimidate educators the hope is that the mob, that people will be so incensed that they begin to threaten educators themselves. This has been and continues to be done at school board meetings and at schools themselves, where they demand that principals or teachers be removed that content not be taught and pedagogy changed. We must encourage and support teachers engaged in the complicated work of teaching our children about the reality of our country's, and the world's racial, misogynistic, homophobic, and violent history. Teachers must do this with care and hope. Teaching authentically must be done thoughtfully and with care. Teachers need our help. The work is necessary, and needed more than ever, teachers must be protected and allowed to educate.