By: Sara St. Juste
“The heartbeat of racism is denial. And too often, the more powerful the racism, the more powerful the denial.” – Ibram X. Kendi
On Tuesday, January 15, 2022, Florida’s Senate Education Committee approved the “Individual Freedom” bill prohibiting private businesses and public schools from inflicting “discomfort” on White Americans during discussions about discrimination in lessons and trainings.[1] This bill, backed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and sponsored by Senator Manny Diaz, Jr., branches off from the recent conservative controversy regarding critical race theory (CRT) and The New York Times’ 1619 Project[2] in America to shield White people from feeling “guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.”[3] Although the bill itself does not explicitly mention critical race theory or the 1619 project, Governor DeSantis mentioned CRT during his announcement stating that this new law would help keep CRT both out of schools and out of the workplace.[4] Governor DeSantis and many other critics of CRT further argue that CRT is “divisive” and perpetuates hate towards White people today who feel as though they must adhere to the consequences of the afflictions White people in history have caused minorities and marginalized communities in America.[5]
What is Critical Race Theory (CRT)?
Although originating in the mid-1970s (as a direct response to critical legal studies),[6] critical race theory has maintained its purpose of transforming the relationship between race, racism, and power. This academic concept introduced discourse focused on the dynamics of race and racism in both our legal and education system in America. Presently, CRT has geared its focus to the teaching of discrimination in school curriculums while illustrating how racial, sexist and classist stereotypes and inequities still carry on in our systems today.[7] Opponents assume CRT portrays all White people as villainous oppressors while labeling Black people as the oppressed victims. In improperly concluding that CRT attacks ‘whiteness’ and the traditional principles of America while teaching White children to hate themselves and their ancestors, opponents have taken a striking stand against CRT, generating divisive controversy surrounding its implementation in both schools and the workplace.[8] CRT, however, does not attribute racism to White people individually or collectively as people. CRT conveys how U.S. social institutions are entwined with racism in its laws, rules, regulations, and procedures that precipitates prejudiced and inequitable outcomes depending on one’s race.[9]
The Individual Freedom Florida bill comes during this ongoing debate where Republicans and Democrats have disagreed on discussions of racism in America. At least 36 states and their legislatures have either adopted or introduced policies restricting CRT.[10] In truth, racism has shaped the laws and policies in the United States today and continues to be a part of everyday life for minorities and marginalized communities. This is evidenced by the range of injustices discerned in housing, education, food distribution, health, income, the difference in incarceration rates between people of color and White people, the attacks and killings of unarmed Black and Latino men and women by police officers, and several other systemic areas that impact people of color.[11] With CRT as a target for many Republican legislators in several states across the country, it presents the question that we tackle in this post: In a time when the nation is ensnared in a reckoning of race relations, why are government officials seeking to extinguish discussions of systemic racism in both the classroom and the workplace rather than fostering race consciousness to overcome racial stratification in America?
Colorblindness Approach Associated with Anti-Critical Race Theorists
Part of the reason lies in the terms of the recent Florida bill that seeks to prevent discourse about discrimination to allow White Americans to feel “comfortable” in both the classroom and the workplace. Simply put, the law aims to implement colorblindness, or the concept that race-based differences do not matter, and that racism and race privileges no longer exist in our systems today.[12] By eradicating any mention of racial discrimination in America’s history and the ongoing racial injustices and disparities discernible in the country today, it presents an erroneous illustration that the U.S. has moved beyond race and racism.
The rationale of critics against the teachings of critical race theory asserts that although slavery and segregation did occur in our nation’s history, these abhorrent events occurred a long time ago and was not implemented by anyone alive today.[13] These critics often use former President Barack Obama and current Vice President Kamala Harris as representations of how the U.S. has moved past racism in our institutions to justify dissolving any discussions of racial relations.[14] This logic, however, is simply not true. For example, Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman who accused 14-year-old African American, Emmett Till, of offending her in her family’s grocery store is still alive today.[15] Further, segregation in the United States ended merely 57 years ago after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, where many of whom were alive during this time, including several politicians and legislatures currently in office, are still among us today.[16] Gordon Parks, an African American photographer during the 1950s, provided in-color photographs of segregation in Life Magazine that negate the black and white photographs we would typically see representing segregation in both public and private school history textbooks.[17] These black and white images, often seen in writings discussing segregation, purposefully cultivate a sense of extensive distance between present day and what many believe happened many years ago.[18] Parks’ images, resurfacing during the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement, provides a realistic and in-color depiction of when segregation occurred, and how its history was not as ancient and far removed as its portrayal through black and white imaging made it appear.[19]
Critical Race Theory in Education
Regarding education, critics of critical race theory also oppose altering the manner U.S. history is taught in classrooms. U.S. history curriculums have consciously excluded important events that encompass minority and marginalized communities, essentially obscuring the deplorable truths of what actually took place to make historical experiences seem “more palatable,” or in this case, more “comfortable” for White teachers to teach.[20] An example of this is the omission of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre from school curriculums,[21] where Oklahoma is the only state that requires its teaching.[22] Many Americans, including those born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were never taught of the Tulsa Race Massacre in school, and therefore, knew little of their town’s history.[23]
The reality is that the education curriculum in America has been taught in schools from a Eurocentric lens, where America’s history has been “white-washed” to fundamentally water down the adversity minorities and marginalized communities have experienced while concealing how these racial oppressions are still evident in the U.S. today.[24] With lawmakers introducing legislation discouraging discourse of CRT in schools and in the workplace, it reveals an urge to maintain the status quo as to not violate their rights, specifically because they are white.[25] In representing the population of White Americans in this country, legislatures passing these laws believe it is up to them to ensure White people do not experience discomfort as a result of critical race theory.[26]
Critical race theorists have presumed that the resistance in integrating history involving minorities and marginalized communities into the education curriculum stems from the apprehension and disquietude many White Americans face in respect to the changing demographics in the U.S. because of the surge of people of color.[27] However, White people still maintain the overall power and authority in the U.S. regardless of the growth in diversity, where nearly 80% of all teachers and administrators in U.S. public schools are white, while White students only make up 46% of American public schools.[28] This unfortunate imbalance of representation pronounced in the education system concomitantly affects people of color not only in their capacity to learn, but in how Black students in American view themselves while grappling with the historical sentiments White people have had towards Black people that woefully have made little change since then. Specifically, when people of color continue to see unarmed black and brown brothers and sisters like Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, and countless others murdered by the hands of police, the absence of leadership representation in the classroom presents further obstruction in tackling the harrowing truth of racism in the lives of every minority student in America.[29]
Criticism of Florida’s Individual Freedom Bill
What Florida’s “Individual Freedom” bill fails to acknowledge is that by introducing a bill that highlights the discomfort of White Americans, it further proves the ideology critical race theorists have argued for decades. With recent protests surrounding the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor creating an environment of heightened racial sensitivities among both White and Black people, it is true that White people may approach the classroom or workplace with unease and uncertainty around their Black classmates or coworkers.[30] However, Black people, too, experience a heightened level of hesitancy, constraint, and exhaustion when speaking up about discriminatory issues where treading lightly around White Americans occurs to avoid appearing “radical” or “problematic.”[31] Without accepting that race and racism are still infiltrated in the systems of the U.S., the divergent views of people in evaluating racial relations in this country will only perpetuate racism further, contrary to the goals legislatures expect when implementing laws and policies eliminating critical race theory. As is often said, one cannot choose to ignore the problem and hope it goes away on its own. This tow towards political correctness that both White and Black people will continue to endure will only cost this country the necessary progression that must happen to achieve effective, systemic change in the U.S.[32]
Florida’s bill also infringes on the First Amendment of the Constitution, where it limits free speech and denies students the opportunity to learn history.[33] As many critical race theorists expected would result thereupon the restriction on teaching critical race theory, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and other educators and civil rights groups collectively sued the state of Oklahoma for restricting what can be taught about racism in public colleges and universities in HB 1775.[34] As the first lawsuit to challenge a state’s effort to limit critical race theory in schools, the lawsuit argues that the “House Bill violates the free speech of students and teachers and denies students of color, LGBTQ students, and girls the opportunity to learn their history.”[35] Rather than furthering a legitimate educational interest, the Oklahoma bill, like the Florida bill, invokes limitations that restricts academic freedom protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendment.[36]
Conclusion
As a substitute to eliminating critical race theory from discussions in the classroom and the workplace, legislators can work towards investing in professional development programs that assist in teaching the historical truths of white supremacy and racism to both Black and White educators. Many White teachers (and some Black educators) simply do not know of the history involving minorities. Enlightening them of the realities of our past will allow a boost in their “comfort” that Florida legislatures wish to bestow upon White Americans when engaging in dialogues on race and racism. In addition, hiring more African Americans as educators, coaches, directors, or supervisors both in public schools and in the workplace who are typically comfortable and confident speaking on racial dynamics, slavery, and the history of racism to their counterparts can provide a beneficial and safe space for both Black and White people. This is because of the significant representation for people of color, and how these leaders can assist in facilitating conversations that may be difficult to engage in for White Americans. Although policy makers can proscribe laws to circumvent students and employees from learning critical race theory, they cannot regulate what teachers and job officials learn, rendering an angle to overcome the barriers contrived by state legislators to immobilize critical race theory.[37]
Overall, rather than eliminating critical race theory to thwart White Americans’ feelings of “discomfort,” “guilty,” or “anguish,” in discourse on racism, legislators should look to centering newly implemented initiatives, policies, and laws geared towards advancing these uncomfortable conversations because it is there that progress in racial relations in America will materialize.
[1] Amy Simonson, Florida bill to shield people from feeling ‘discomfort’ over historic actions by their race, nationality or gender approved by Senate committee, CNN, Jan. 20, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/19/us/florida-education-critical-race-theory-bill/index.html.
[2] The New York Times Magazine 1619 Project “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” The New York Times Magazine, The 1619 Project, Aug. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html.
[3] Id.
[4] Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, during a media event in December, announced that the proposed legislation was a “’state-sanctioned racism’ that creates a ‘hostile work environment.’” Id.
[5] See Kiara Alfonseca, New Florida bill would ban feelings of ‘discomfort’ in teachings about racism in US history, ABC 7 News, Jan. 20, 2022, https://abc7news.com/critical-race-theory-florida-bill-discomfort-ron-desantis-what-is-crt-in-schools/11491558/.
[6] Critical Legal Studies (CLS) discuss how social issues are deeply rooted in the law, where the law has innated social biases. This theory challenges liberalism where the laws maintained the status quo of society, resulting in the marginalization of people of color. See Janel George, A Lesson on Critical Race Theory, ABA, Jan. 11, 2021, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-critical-race-theory/#:~:text=CRT%20grew%20from%20Critical%20Legal,from%20social%20or%20political%20considerations.
[7] See Marisa Lati, What is critical race theory, and why do Republicans want to ban it in schools, The Wash. Post, May 29, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/05/29/critical-race-theory-bans-schools/.
[8] See Anthony Zurcher, Critical race theory: the concept dividing the US, BBC, July 22, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57908808.
[9] Id.
[10] See Cathryn Stout and Thomas Wilburn, CRT Map: Efforts to restrict teaching racism and bias have multiplied across the U.S., Chalkbeat, Feb. 1, 2022, https://www.chalkbeat.org/22525983/map-critical-race-theory-legislation-teaching-racism.
[11] See Helen A. Neville et al., The Myth of Racial Color Blindness: Manifestations, Dynamics, and Impact, American Psychological Association(2016).
[12] See Meghan Burke, Colorblind Racism (2018).
[13] See Rann Miller, States want to prevent schools from telling the truth about racism in America. Here’s what educators can do about it., Chalkbeat, May 18, 2021, https://www.chalkbeat.org/2021/5/18/22441106/critical-race-theory-teaching-about-racism.
[14] Id.
[15] On August 28, 1955, Emmett Till was brutally beaten and murdered in Money, Mississippi, a lynching, after allegedly “flirting with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, four days earlier.” Emmett Till is murdered, History, Feb. 9, 2010 (Last visited Feb. 5, 2022), https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-death-of-emmett-till. The allegations at the time stated that Till grabbed Bryant from behind the counter, made erotic advances at her, and whistled at her as he walked out the store, with only Bryant as a witness. Id. Till’s killers, Bryant’s husband and his brother, were found “not guilty” before an all-white jury after deliberating for less than an hour. Id. Presently, there has been news that Carolyn Bryant Donham recanted the allegations she made against Till stating the parts of the story when he grabbed her and “was menacing and sexually crude toward her” were “‘not true.’” See Richard Pérez-Peña, Woman Linked to 1955 Emmett Till Murder Tells Historian Her Claims Were False, The New York Times, Jan. 27, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/emmett-till-lynching-carolyn-bryant-donham.html.
[16] See Segregation in the United States, History, Nov. 28, 2018 (Last Visited Feb. 5, 2022), https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/segregation-united-states.
[17] Steven W. Thrasher, A segregation that was never black and white: Gordon Park’s photographs of 50s Alabama, The Guardian, Nov. 12, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/nov/12/-sp-segregation-american-south-gordon-parks.
[18] Id.
[19] Id.
[20] See Courtney Erdman, History in its entirety: How whitewashed history education leaves much of history students out, The Badger Herald, Apr. 5, 2021, https://badgerherald.com/features/2021/04/05/history-in-its-entirety-how-whitewashed-history-education-leave-much-of-history-students-out/.
[21] The Tulsa Race Massacre, occurring between May 31, 1921, to June 1, 1921, was a vicious attack on Greenwood District residents in Tulsa, Oklahoma (predominantly African Americans) committed by a white mob for whom looted and burned down nearly 1,471 homes, and torched several Black-owned businesses, schools, a library, churches, hotels, and stores. Tulsa Race Massacre, History, Mar. 8, 2018 (Last Visited Feb 6. 2022), https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/tulsa-race-massacre. Greenwood District was known to many as Black Wall Street where many Black Americans prospered as the business district thrived prior to its destruction. Id.
[22] See Alexandra Kelley, Oklahoma will finally teach the Tulsa Race Massacre in its schools, The Hill, Feb. 20, 2020, https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/483821-oklahoma-schools-will-now-teach-the-tulsa-race-massacre.
[23] A former Tulsa resident and graduate of Tulsa Public Schools, Senator Kevin Matthews, recounted how he had never learned of the Tulsa Race Massacre in school and how it was not until he watched a VHS on a “white mob destroying Tulsa’s Greenwood District,” that he came to learn of the horrific events that occurred in Tulsa in 1921. Nuria Martinez-Keel, ‘A conspiracy of silence’: Tulsa Race Massacre was absent from schools for generations, The Oklahoman, May 26, 2021, https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/education/2021/05/26/oklahoma-history-black-wall-street-left-out-public-schools-tulsa-massacre-education/4875340001/. In a survey The Oklahoman took of 305 people (almost all of them Oklahomans), it found that 83% said they never received a “full lesson on the Tulsa Race Massacre or Black Wall Street in their K-12 school” where 61% had heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre through news media and others learned of the massacre through a family member, a friend, or a movie or TV show. Id.
[24] Miller, supra note 13.
[25] See id.
[26] Id.
[27] See Brian Resnick, White fear of demographic change is a powerful psychological force, Vox, Jan. 28, 2017, https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/1/26/14340542/white-fear-trump-psychology-minority-majority.
[28] See Miller, supra note 13.
[29] See George Floyd: Timeline of black deaths and protests, BBC, Apr. 22, 2021 (Last Visited Feb. 6, 2022), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52905408.
[30] See Dana Brownlee, Dear White People: Here are 5 Uncomfortable Truths Black Colleagues Need You to Know, Forbes, June 16, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/danabrownlee/2020/06/16/dear-white-people-here-are-5-uncomfortable-truths-black-colleagues-need-you-to-know/?sh=6857c6e6624e.
[31] Id.
[32] Id.
[33] See U.S. Const. amend. I.; see also Lauren Camera, Federal Lawsuit Poses First Challenge to Ban on Teaching Critical Race Theory, U.S. News, Oct. 20, 2021, https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2021-10-20/federal-lawsuit-poses-first-challenge-to-ban-on-teaching-critical-race-theory.
[34] Camera, supra note 33.
[35] “‘Educators cannot adequately teach students about the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, the Trail of Tears, the Civil War, World War II, the Holocaust, or any other cultural issue throughout U.S. history by silencing courageous classroom conversations that depict a more inclusive perspective of U.S. history’ Anthony Douglas, president of the Oklahoma State Conference of the NAACP, says.” Id.
[36] See U.S. Const. amend. I; see also U.S. Const. Amend. XIV.
[37] See Miller, supra note 13.
