Source: RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images / Getty
Arkansas appears to be trying to compete against Florida and Texas in the White and Fragile Red State Olympics, and, specifically, the sport of stifling Black history.
Earlier this month, we reported that the Arkansas Department of Education just up and decided two days before classes started that it would not recognize a new Advanced Placement course on African American history for course credit for the 2023-24 school year. Now, the department is demanding that every K-12 school in a six-district radius turn over all of their African American studies materials so they can be scanned for violations of the state’s anti-critical race theory law.
MORE: The Importance Of African American Studies
Here’s another way to put that: Arkansas and its governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, are out here confiscating Black history because it might violate anti-CRT standards they propagandized into anti-CRT legislation. It’s basically iron sharpening iron if both blades of iron are actually white supremacy.
But seriously, is government officials using anti-“woke” propaganda as a green light to invade places of learning and demand educational materials be turned over for inspection not exactly the kind of thing that links right-wingers to fascism? Please tell me the same people who boast that the government would have to pry their guns from their “cold dead hands”—despite no notable effort by government officials to confiscate citizens’ guns anywhere in America—are not going to stand for history books being taken by way of government overreach. (Yes, I understand that they’re public schools. No, that doesn’t make the optics any less Orwellian, not to mention racist AF.)
Ok, but let’s be fair here. After all, maybe the department has some reason to believe dangerous messages are being spread to indoctrinated school students. Perhaps schools are teaching step-by-step “kill whitey” instructions or, as conservatives often suggest, teaching Black kids to hate America and white kids ot hate themselves.
Let’s just take a look at what they’re so concerned about.
“Given some of the themes included in the pilot, including ‘intersections of identity’ and ‘resistance and resilience,’ the Department is concerned the pilot may not comply with Arkansas law, which does not permit teaching that would indoctrinate students with ideologies, such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), (See Ark. Code Ann. § 6-16-156, as amended by Section 16 of the LEARNS Act),” the letter sent out to the superintendents of the districts reads.
“To assist public school employees, representatives, and guest speakers at your district in complying with the law, please submit all materials, including but not limited to the syllabus, textbooks, teacher resources, student resources, rubrics, and training materials, to the Department by 12:00 pm on September 8, 2023, along with your statement of assurance that the teaching of these materials will not violate Arkansas law or rule. Items can be scanned and emailed to ade.commissioner@ade.arkanasas.gov.”
Well, there you have it, good people. The Arkansas Department of Education has important work to do here! The school districts in this great state simply cannot be left to their own devices lest the children—the precious, impressionable children—be insidiously indoctrinated by horrific lessons on—God, I can hardly even say it—”intersections of identity” and “resistance and resilience.”
Again, Arkansas wants to be Florida so bad. The Sunshine (or sundown) state is requiring lessons about enslaved people benefiting from slavery, and accepting “educational” materials from PragerU, a demonstrably racist organization that teaches children that Frederick Douglass would agree slavery was a necessary evil to preserve America. Now, Arkansas is picking up the white nationalist indoctrination tiki torch by eliminating Black studies materials that teach about the “resistance” and the “resilience” of oppressed people.
This is white supremacy at work. This is exactly what critical race theory was created to examine.
SEE ALSO:
Florida Approves Teaching Students That Slaves Benefited From Slavery
