Tennessee Passes Anti-CRT Bill For Colleges
Source: Douglas Sacha / Getty
White conservative lawmakers are continuing to perform white supremacy by prioritizing white tears over honest education while claiming it’s racist to insist that white privilege is a thing.
According to Ballotpedia News, on March 30, the Tennessee legislature passed yet another anti-critical race theory bill that has nothing to do with CRT and everything to do with the fact Republicans deal in propaganda, fragility, and racism. Of course, this time, legislators aren’t going after CRT being taught in K-12 schools—where it literally isn’t being taught—they’re trying to ban what they wrongly think CRT is from public colleges, where academic studies are supposed to be taught.
House Bill 2670 would “prohibit a public institution of higher education from taking certain actions with regard to divisive concepts and the ideologies or political viewpoints of students and employees.” And because the language in the bill is vague and senseless AF, let’s just go with the Ballotpedia explanation that says the bill “aims to prohibit an individual’s views on critical race theory from influencing decisions about hiring, tenure, promotion, or graduation in the state’s higher education institutions.”
Still confused? (Me too, bruh.) Well, here’s what Tennessee state Rep. Ron Grant (R) had to say in a statement after the bill was passed:
“Any curriculum promoting the narrative that white privilege or racism is alive and well in Tennessee does not accurately reflect our state, our public education system or its residents. Our students deserve much better. This bill empowers employees and students of all races on our college campuses to think for themselves free from fear of discrimination and without being coerced to embrace any specific ideology or political viewpoint.”
First of all, Grant is doing that thing white conservatives do where they pretend their personal views represent popular opinion. Of course racism is “alive and well in Tennessee.” Why else is a bill being passed that, per Grant’s own statement, directly benefits whiteness and effectively excludes everyone else from “our state” and “its residents?” How many Black Tennesseans would you guess he consulted before deciding the general consensus is that there is no racism or white privilege happening in Tennessee?
Secondly, the state is not empowering anyone to “think for themselves” by trying to irradicate voluntary classes from institutions of higher learning. This isn’t high school or middle school. Students have control over what classes they take. If white students don’t like what they’re being taught, they can change courses. By not giving students the option to take classes where CRT is being taught, legislators aren’t promoting freedom of education, they’re doing the opposite.
Anyway, the House voted 66-24 to approve the bill and the Senate approved it with a 25-5 vote putting the ball in the court of Republican Gov. Bill Lee.
Meanwhile, days after the bill passed, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee)—who demonstrated loud and KKKlearly that she has no idea what CRT is during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Ketanji Brown Jackson—tweeted out her uninformed disdain for the study while insisting that “Parents across America are paying attention to what their children are learning in the classroom, and they’re speaking up,” and urging the nation to “Ban critical race theory.”
Parents across America are paying attention to what their children are learning in the classroom, and they’re speaking up.
Ban critical race theory.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) April 2, 2022
Of course, the fine folks on Twitter responded, and, well, they were appropriately unkind. Most of them just pointed out that Blackburn doesn’t know WTF she’s talking about.
Marsha, give us the name of one school that teaches a post-graduate law course in critical race theory to children. https://t.co/ukpcF7Irzr
— Willow (@Fuzzy_Fuzzbutt) April 2, 2022
Senator, with all due respect, would you like to debate on this topic? I would love to discuss the foundational framework of critical race theory and the lens it offers us to consider history, law, and policy. I’m happy to even give you some reading in advance so you are prepared
— Jennifer Taub (@jentaub) April 3, 2022
Marsha, Critical Race Theory is a graduate level law school class, it’s not being taught anywhere else. Maybe you should understand what you’re saying before you make ridiculous statements like this. Of course, you know this will get the attention of the right wing.
— Hollisann, WHNP, FNP-C (@hbiggsrochester) April 3, 2022
Marsha Marsha Marsha please explain critical race theory what schools are teaching it the teachers that are teaching it and where it is being taught . I’ll wait!
— kay (@sandygocaps) April 3, 2022
— Peter Lorber (@PMLorber) April 2, 2022
Those who tried to cosign her white nonsense were also given a dose of reality.
Nobody is teaching white children to hate themselves, my goodness! I teach my children to know history, to seek justice, and do good works to heal the wounds caused by those who have gone before us. Jesus told us to. My white children do not hate themselves. They hate injustice.
— Green and Serene stands with Ukraine (@BlackbirdRise) April 3, 2022
I think the question you should ask yourself is that when kids are told the truth about America’s history why do they instinctively hate white people.
— Chris the bard (@Erixson41) April 3, 2022
“I think the question you should ask yourself is that when kids are told the truth about America’s history why do they instinctively hate white people.”
Exactly.
SEE ALSO:
GOP Uses Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Confirmation Hearing To Push CRT Misinformation