Source: Jodi Jacobson / Getty
If the whole critical race theory debacle has proven nothing else, it has proven that the Republican party, at this point, is that party of making up sh**.
Conservatives have claimed, ad nauseam, that the college-level academic study that is CRT is being taught in K-12 schools—which it isn’t. They’ve also claimed CRT teaches that one race is superior to others, that white people are inherently racist and that they’re responsible for America’s historic racism—which it doesn’t.
But because white fragility rules America, these strawman arguments swiftly become legally-binding policy, so now, the West Virginia Senate has passed a bill that would prohibit teaching that any race, ethnicity, or biological sex is superior to another in public K-12 schools and colleges—which don’t teach any of that.
And these racist AF lawmakers have the unmitigated caucasity to title the bill The Anti-Racism Act.
According to ABC 13 News, “The Anti-Racism Act of 2022 passed the Senate by a 21-12 vote on Wednesday and has been sent to the House. The bill is similar to the Anti-Stereotyping Act, which was halted in the House Judiciary Committee.”
When Black people complain about racism and stereotyping, we get told we’re “playing the race card.” When white people complain about racism and stereotyping, policy gets made. That’s how white privilege works, and that’s why CRT, a study that examines how race affects law and other institutions, is necessary.
But that doesn’t matter since CRT isn’t taught in K-12 schools. (Although, the fact that the bill also bars the teaching in colleges and universities, the voluntarily-attended institutions it was meant to be taught in, shows they’re selective when it comes to complaints about government overreach.)
“When something’s not happening, why would you vote for a bill that’s causing angst in the classroom? There’s tension in the classroom with this bill,” Sen. Owens Brown (D – Ohio) said while arguing that there have been no clear examples of such lessons in West Virginia schools.
Sen. Amy Grady (R – Mason), on the other hand, claimed she’s heard about it happening, so it must be true.
“I have heard from teachers. I have heard from parents,” Grady said. “And I have heard from students that they have been told that because of their race that they’re privileged. Now that’s a terrible thing. Just as bad as saying a black student is underprivileged because of their race.”
See, here’s an example of what disingenuous conservatives do best—they conflate things.
Teaching about social privilege (e.g. white privilege, male privilege, hetero privilege, etc.) is not the same as teaching that one race is superior to others. It’s a simple acknowledgment that a society that is overwhelmingly run and dictated by the white, male, and straight (etc.) tends to benefit those who fit into those demographics. So, if we’re talking about that, it’s absolutely true that “a black student is underprivileged because of their race.”
But Black people have wasted our collective breath for at least a couple of decades trying to explain to the fragile whites that white privilege doesn’t literally mean white people have everything handed to them just by virtue of being white. But they ignore it and proceed with their own strawman arguments instead of even taking a peek at the volumes upon volumes of peer-reviewed research that legitimizes the concept of social privilege. (Which incidentally is also their approach to fighting against their fictitious idea of what CRT is.)
Now, it’s worth noting that CRT isn’t actually mentioned in the bill, but we know what this is. It’s a white fragility bill all the same.
White people are, indeed, privileged, and Black people are exhausted.
ALSO SEE:
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Wants To End Tenure For College Professors Who Teach Critical Race Theory
An Open Letter To Michele Tafoya About Critical Race Theory And Why Post-Racial America Is A Lie
West Virginia Advances The ‘Anti-Racism Act,’ But It’s Not What You Think, It’s A Bill To Protect White Feelings was originally published on newsone.com
