NC House passes bill to limit how racism is taught. Democrats call it ‘book burning.’
North Carolina Republican lawmakers are attempting to put new rules on public school lessons about race and history, part of a growing distrust about what students are being taught.
The North Carolina House voted 66-48 on Wednesday to pass a bill that prohibits schools from promoting concepts such as that the U.S. was created to oppress people or that people are inherently racist or sexist. Supporters say the bill, which calls for keeping people from being made to feel guilty due to their race or the past actions of people of their race, will protect the dignity of all people.
“This bill does not change what history can and cannot be taught,” said Rep. John Torbett, a Gaston County Republican. “It simply prevents schools from endorsing discriminatory concepts.
“At the end of the day, we should all be able to agree that no student, no teacher, no parent, no school employee should ever be made to feel inferior solely because of the color of their skin or their gender.”
Wednesday’s vote went completely along partisan lines with Republicans in support and Democrats in opposition. Several Democrats argued the bill would keep teachers from talking about systemic racism and other difficult parts of the nation’s history.
Rep. Kandie Smith, a Pitt County Democrat, equated the bill to “book burning.”
“A small group of enraged individuals are looking to ban an entire concept of thought because it makes them uncomfortable,” she said.
House Bill 324 now goes to the Senate.
Republican lawmakers say the legislation is needed to counteract the use of “Critical Race Theory,” a view that holds that systemic racism has been and remains part of the nation’s history. North Carolina joins several other states that have introduced legislation to limit the use of Critical Race Theory in schools, according to the Associated Press.
Concern about what’s taught in class
The legislation is the latest effort by the state’s Republican leaders to increase scrutiny of what’s taught in public schools. The House passed a bill last week that would require public schools to list online all the instructional material they’re using, such as teacher lesson plans.
Rep. Hugh Blackwell, a Burke County Republican, said requiring the listing of the materials “ensures that tax dollars are spent to educate our students and not on distracting political projects.”
Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson created a task force to collect complaints from parents, students and teachers in public schools across the state about “indoctrination” in the classroom, the News & Observer previously reported. Robinson endorsed the new legislation.
“Students should absolutely learn the horrific facts associated with slavery, Jim Crow, and other dark times in our nation’s history,” Robinson said in a news release Wednesday. “They should not, however, be subjected to pseudo-science social justice initiatives like the ‘1619 Project’ and ‘Critical Race Theory,’ which seek to divide us along racial lines and teach that the systems of our Republic and the history of our great American experiment are shameful.”
Conservative concerns have escalated since the State Board of Education’s Democratic majority in February adopted new social studies standards that include language such as having teachers discuss racism, discrimination and the perspectives of marginalized groups.
For instance, civics students would learn about “inequities, injustice, and discrimination within the American system of government over time.” Critics have charged that the new standards are anti-American and incorporate elements of critical race theory.
Under the bill, teachers can discuss or use materials about Critical Race Theory “if it is made clear the public school unit does not sponsor, approve, or endorse the concepts or works.”
Certain concepts prohibited
Under the bill, public schools would be prohibited from promoting certain concepts, including:
▪ The belief that the U.S. “is 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 individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.
▪ An individual, solely 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 sex.
▪ Any individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.
“North Carolina must have an education system that unites our children, not divides them,” Torbett said of the bill’s requirements.
But Rep. John Autry, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, said “conflating racial analysis with racism is a way of protecting the sensibility of us white folk.”
The bill prohibits schools from using those concepts in curricula, reading lists, seminars, workshops, training or other educational or professional settings that could reasonably give rise to the appearance of official sponsorship, approval or endorsement.
The legislation also says schools can’t contract with, hire or otherwise engage speakers, consultants, diversity trainers and others for the purpose of advocating those concepts.
How do you teach slavery?
Democrats argued that the bill would hamstring how teachers handle topics that involve race.
“How can school systems teach that this nation was not founded on oppression?” said Rep. James Gailliard, a Nash County Democrat. “That would fly in the face of the 12 million African Americans that were exported, that were brought here in chains, not on a cruise ship.”
Rep. Ashton Wheeler Clemmons, a Guilford County Democrat and former teacher and principal, questioned how it could be determined what is considering promotion under the bill. She also questioned the language saying that students shouldn’t be made to feel discomfort.
“Fundamental to education is discomfort,” Wheeler Clemmons said. “If you stay in your comfort zone, you are not growing, you are not learning. You fundamentally have to feel discomfort to learn something new.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 4:52 PM with the headline "NC House passes bill to limit how racism is taught. Democrats call it ‘book burning.’."
