Black History Month 2023 leaves historic notches in the Black experience
27th February 2023 · 0 Comments
As Black History Month 2023 fades into the annals of history, this year’s celebration of Black history leaves behind historical moments that will forever be etched in the Black experience.
We saw history made by Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, the first Black quarterbacks to play against each other in the Superbowl. We saw Beyonce become the artist with the most Grammy Awards in the organization’s history, and LeBron James became the all-time scorer of the NBA.
But then, we’ve seen the banning of books by Black authors, attacks on the Advanced Placement African American Curriculum, and laws that prohibit teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT), even though it’s not taught in elementary and high schools.
Republicans running for president of the United States are trying to out-Black each other by proposing a white nationalist agenda to win over the Trump base, the 30-40 percent of predominantly white voters that sent him to the White House.
Ron DeSantis is doing the most. In his unspoken quest to become president, he is crisscrossing America attacking CRT and the Advanced Placement African American History curriculum.
DeSantis is not new to scapegoating Black people. In June 2021, the Florida State Board of Education unanimously approved an amendment to its rules that banned the teaching of CRT, which the legislation describes as “the theory that racism is not merely the product of prejudice, but that racism is embedded in American society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white persons,” Newsweek reported.
The rule also forbade using the 1619 Project, a classroom program inspired by a New York Times initiative focusing on slavery and African-American history.
DeSantis told the media that critical race theory would teach children, “The country is rotten and that our institutions are illegitimate…and described the theory as toxic,” and that CRT is “basically teaching kids to hate our country and to hate each other based on race.”
DeSantis continued demonizing the work of Black professors this month by pressuring the College Board to remove sections of the AP African American History curriculum that deals with “Intersectionality” and Black Queers.
“Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. That framework often erases what happens to people subjected to all of these things,” Columbia University Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who coined the phrase, has explained.
Crenshaw directs the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies and co-founded the African American Policy Forum, a think tank based on campus. The esteemed professor also is a co-founder of Critical Race Theory.
The College Board, which was established in 1900, is a non-profit institution that focuses on college readiness. The organization administers the SAT program and provides AP curricula for American schools.
Crenshaw explained what CRT is during a CNN Special on the topic:
“Critical race theory just says, let’s pay attention to what has happened in this country, and how what has happened in this country is continuing to create differential outcomes. So we can become that country that we say we are. So, critical race theory is not anti-patriotic. In fact, it is more patriotic than those who are opposed to it because we believe in the 13th and the 14th and the 15th Amendment, we believe in the promises of equality. And we know we can’t get there without confronting and talking honestly about inequality,” Crenshaw said.
Jason Carroll, a CNN National Correspondent, offered his take on CRT: One way to describe it is to look critically at race and institutions. Let’s take an example from history. The Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal. A critical race theorist would note that slavery persisted for almost 100 years after those words were written, and it was more than a century before women got the right to vote. So why is the term causing such a stir in conservative political circles today?
The answer to Carroll’s rhetorical question is that Republican lawmakers and political candidates are giddy over the prospect of having a new whipping boy, red meat, aka “racism,” to campaign on. CRT resembles Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen” and George H.W. Bush’s Willie Horton.
In 2021, 44 states introduced bills or restricted teaching critical race theory or limited how teachers can discuss racism and sexism, according to an Education Week analysis. Thus far, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have banned CRT, according to World Population Review.
The banning of books by Black authors and CRT are parts of a multi-prong strategy for Republicans to deny Blacks political power and for them to stay in control. What Republicans are pushing is plain ole racism and oppression.
One state legislature that has crossed the line with its racist agenda is Mississippi. The city of Jackson’s population is 80 percent Black. So why did the state’s House Republican lawmakers on February 7, 2023 – that’s right, during this Black History Month – approve House Bill 1020, a bill that would create a new, unelected court system in the state capital of Jackson, Mississippi?
The proposal has generated a storm of controversy and demonstrates the decades-long efforts to undermine minority representation in the state. Unfortunately, the proposed court system is just the tip of the iceberg in a state that continues to gerrymander its election maps, propose reinstating discriminatory electoral rules, and disenfranchise a large portion of its adult population,” Mississippi Today reported.
Unsurprisingly, Louisiana’s state House has its share of racists trying to erase Blacks from Louisiana and American history books.
Rep. Raymond E. Garofalo ® introduced House Bill 564 on April 12, 2021. The bill aimed to ban teaching “divisive concepts” related to race and sex in public schools. Garofalo “voluntarily deferred” the bill on April 27.
And, of course, Racist-in-Chief Donald J. Trump Sr. picked up the anti-CRT Movement after being influenced to do so after watching a FOX News report on its opposition.
Trump ordered federally funded agencies to stop teaching critical race theory and white privilege because the concepts lead people to believe – incorrectly, he said – that America is inherently racist.
It is racist.
With months left in his presidency, Trump launched the 1776 commission – a rebuttal of “warped” and “distorted” social justice teaching concepts like the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, spearheaded by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, which aims to reexamine America’s history through the lens of slavery, the IAC (Inclusion Allies Coalition) wrote in its e-newsletter.
President Joe Biden rescinded both the ban and commission on his first day, Vanity Fair reported in an article about Columbia Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who co-authored the Critical Race Theory with Columbia Law professors Kendall Thomas and Patricia Williams.
“Their scholarship, teaching, and advocacy have illuminated the pervasive effects of structural racism in our society and in the law. That they have persisted in the face of hostility and outright falsehoods is testament to their vision and determination,” said Gillian Lester, Columbia Law School Dean and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law.
Critical race theory was a movement that initially started at Harvard under Professor Derrick Bell in the 1980s. It evolved in reaction to critical legal studies, which emerged in the 70s and dissected the idea that law was just and neutral.
The Republican Party is using Black people – as it always has – as the scapegoat for uneducated white voters to blame for their impoverished conditions. If Blacks are the “other” to be feared, whites must vote for Republicans if they want to continue to experience unchecked white privilege and white supremacy.
Blacks understand that our ancestors’ and elders’ struggles have been passed down to us, including Republicans’ racist agenda. And none of us are taking Republicans’ attacks lying down.
Frederick Douglass offered sage advice about the fight for equality and inclusion: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.”
Thus far, we have not ex-changed blows with those who oppress us politically. But we are using their methods against them. We are taking them to court to fight for our rights.
Most recently, three high school honors students are suing the state of Florida for not allowing them to choose to learn the original AP African American curriculum.
Last Thursday, Florida college students held a statewide walkout to protest recent education-related efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis, including his policies targeting LGBTQ+ and people of color, MSN reported.
And we can be sure that Black Jackson voters and residents will rise against those who seek to subjugate them. The recent battle for clean water should have taught the oppressors that.
This article originally published in the February 27, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
