Sixteen Black children accompanied by four mothers carry anti-segregation signs in Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1956. Photo: Bettmann Collection/Getty Images
Schools and universities are marking Black History Month starting today, but this is the first time it will be celebrated under new restrictions on diversity education imposed by some states.
Why it matters: The constraints — under the guise of banning the teaching of critical race theory — limit what some state-supported institutions can discuss about the nation’s racial past. Educators embracing Black history have received death threats.
Details: Since last year, 14 states have imposed such restrictions through legislation, executive actions, or commission votes, an Education Week analysis found.
- In addition, 35 states have introduced bills or taken other steps to restrict teaching critical race theory — a concept that focuses on the legacy of systemic racism — or limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism.
- Elementary school teachers, administrators and college professors have faced fines, physical threats, and fear of firing because of this organized push from the right to remove classroom discussions of systemic racism.
Between the lines: Broadly written laws and proposals allow state officials to punish schools and educators for discussing racism and the history of people of color, critics say.
- Those limits would allow teachers to mention that Brooklyn Dodgers infielder Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color line but not allow them to discuss why Black players were banned before him, Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, said.
- Teachers may also introduce Malcolm X but not read his speeches, mention soul singer Marvin Gaye but not discuss his “What’s Going On” lyrics, or point out Rosewood, Florida, or Tulsa, Oklahoma, on maps but not talk about the racial atrocities that occurred there.
In many cases, the toughest crackdowns could prevent students from learning about history that happened in their own backyards.
- South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem recently introduced a bill to prohibit colleges and schools from teaching certain lessons on racial atrocities. The state is the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre of Lakota people by the U.S. Army.
- State legislators in Alabama, where John Lewis was beaten by police during a 1965 voting rights march, are expected soon to take up a bill that would prevent colleges from teaching critical race theory.
- Lawmakers in Mississippi and Florida are considering bills that would ban history lessons that make students feel uncomfortable about their race.
What they’re saying: “These laws supposedly protecting white students from guilt say more about the authors of the law than the students,” Manisha Sinha, a University of Connecticut historian and author of “The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition,” told Axios.
- “There’s no reason why a white student can’t identify with the abolitionist or the civil rights leader rather than a slaveholder.”
Tracey Lynn Nance, a 4th-grade teacher in Decatur, Georgia, told Axi0s she estimates that half of the teachers she knows will continue Black History Month lessons as planned while the other half is distraught.
- “I think that many are self-censoring right now. (Many) are feeling angry about thinking that someone is out to get them or they’re going to twist their comments.”
- Nance, who has faced a backlash online for defending diversity and equity in education, says she plans to continue her lessons on Coretta Scott King and Black poets during Black History Month.
The other side: James Henderson, an Alabama conservative activist, dismissed complaints that anti-critical race theory laws that he supports would prevent students from learning Black history or Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “The teaching of morality is a good thing in public education. And unfortunately, we’ve largely gotten away from it,” Henderson said, referring to King’s teachings about being a good moral citizen.
Zoom out: New teaching on race has been criticized by the right and even some on the left. David Bromwich, an English professor at Yale, wrote in The Nation: “The new methods are marked by a certain severity, a pressure to cleanse or catechize.”
Yes, but: Even before Black History Month began, the attacks on critical race theory, driven disproportionately by white, suburban and rural parents, had led to book bans and school districts re-examining diversity lessons.
- Moms for Liberty in Tennessee, for example, filed a complaint last year asking the state to review certain children’s books about King and civil rights advocate Ruby Bridges. The state rejected it.
- “Dear Martin,” a young adult novel about a Black high-schooler writing letters to King, was removed last month from a North Carolina high school following complaints from parents about the book’s expletives.
Flashback: Historian Carter G. Woodson is credited for inspiring Black History Month after he organized the first Negro History Week in February 1926.
- In 1976, on the 50th anniversary of the first Negro History Week, the Association for the Study of African American History officially made the shift to Black History Month.
- President Gerald Ford issued a declaration that year celebrating the month — and every president since has followed.
The bottom line: El-Mekki said he’s encouraging teachers to use primary sources in lessons like the racist speeches and essays of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis or Thomas Jefferson. “Teachers can they say…’I didn’t say this. They said this.’ That’s history.”
Category: Schools / Schooling / Education / Libraries
New CO School Board Fires Pro-Mask Superintendent
The Washington Post reports:
A school board outside Denver voted to fire the district’s superintendent Friday night in a controversial move that came amid accusations that the newly elected conservative majority had violated state open-meeting laws.
The Douglas County, Colo., school board voted 4 to 3 in a special meeting Friday night to fire Corey Wise without cause, dismissing the superintendent with two years left in his contract.
Wise, voted in by the board last April, supported policies on in-school masking and equity that were overturned in the months since by four conservatives who campaigned against critical race theory and other diversity initiatives and were elected to the board.
Read the full article.
Notice in their rush to purge those they disagree with these board members are accused of violating the laws. But Republicans believe rules and laws are something they have a right to ignore.
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Workers are always essential. Without workers the employer can not make a profit. Share the wealth the worker creates with the workers
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Scottie’s world today
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In other words his income is tied to fossil fuels and he want the US to keep using them. The idea that by using more fossil fuels such as oil and coal we can make the plant cleaner is asinine. Manchin is hoping what he said will be picked up and run on the right wing misleading media as sound bites. He wants to make sure the clean energy parts of the Build Back Better bill are dead even though much of the country wants to and is ready to do more to fix the climate crisis.
Take away obstruction and Republicans will have to work.
No bigger performative coward than Mike Pence.
The system needs to be replaced. You can’t reform this.
![““Yes, of course [peaceful Muslims] exist, and those people are not good Muslims, but they’re good people. So, I’m talking about the doctrine of Islam itself, that’s what it prescribes, that’s what it’s calling for Muslims to do.”
– Yasmine...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/3277a88d473f3ba330a063be346696b9/6bdf7f88e8a2a81b-34/s1280x1920/ed60fb0c3bac923ec0d8b2c3efac3005a64b3360.jpg)
“Yes, of course [peaceful Muslims] exist, and those people are not good Muslims, but they’re good people. So, I’m talking about the doctrine of Islam itself, that’s what it prescribes, that’s what it’s calling for Muslims to do.”
The peaceful ones are the ones who don’t take it seriously.
Same with Christian and Christianity. Honestly most followers of a religion do not really know what the holy texts of that religion preach and why.
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
“Race” is a construct. There are only humans. That hasn’t stopped one set of humans for using demographic labels (race, religion, sex, economic class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.) as a means to suppress and kill that hated group. It’s human nature, unfortunately. We hate. We kill. Dig deep enough and you’ll find greed is the reason. It’s the most humanistic trait there is.
The old hero fantasy. Unlike in the movies there is a real mess to clean up. People who buy guns to shoot intruders are eight times more likely to shoot their own children. The burglary rate has dropped by half over the last ten years. The homicide rate, however, has climbed in those ten years. But it’s not because people are shooting burglars. Mostly it’s family or random, often unarmed strangers on the street.
Using the FBI data, the violent crime rate fell 49% between 1993 and 2019, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (-68%), murder/non-negligent manslaughter (-47%) and aggravated assault (-43%). Meanwhile, the property crime rate fell 55%, with big declines in the rates of burglary (-69%), motor vehicle theft (-64%) and larceny/theft (-49%).
Using the BJS statistics, the declines in the violent and property crime rates are even steeper than those reported by the FBI. Per BJS, the overall violent crime rate fell 74% between 1993 and 2019, while the property crime rate fell 71%.
So historically crime rates are down. Crime has risen as people are more desperate and stressed. However it is no where near the terrifying levels that the misleading right wing media wants to portray. Ask your self why it is so important for the misleading right wing media to push the narrative of a national crime wave? It is political. They want to find anything they can to make people feel the country is going wrong with Biden in charge. Don’t believe their hyped myth.
The right wing screamers that appointing a black woman is racist seem to have the assumption that race is the only qualification Biden is looking for and that there is no qualified black woman. That is racist. The idea of a white man not automatically getting the position while a black person must fight for it is shocking to the right.
Congress hasn’t done a good job since the GOP went off the range with the Tea Party, Trumpism, MAGA, and the other whack jobs they brought in.
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And now some for fun
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: When corporations and the wealthy shouldered their share of taxes on income could provide for the needs of an entire family. Greed of the large employers destroyed that.
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Scottie’s world today
Just kidding I love the inter webs and even the trolls … sometimes.
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Republicans can’t hide their Russian agenda.
And yet rather than spend money fixing the electric system to ensure that the power stayed on, Abbot instead shifted state money to pandering gimmicks like finish building the wall on the border. In fact the big money donors from the fuel and energy industry gave large donations to stop any requirements that Abbot had talked about implementing to keep the power on. Now again in winter with freezing temperatures the power is again going off. They made no effort to fix the very issues that happened before and were told would happen again. Seems they care far more over their personal finance than the health and welfare of the people that elected them
We are a selfish country.
Conservatives are about submission. Their kids will rebel one day.
Kids have no problem wearing masks. It’s the parents who can’t think of others.
What is horrifying is the change in the Republican party that went from saying “Better dead than Russian red” to praising Putin and supporting Russia. Russia under Putin is still as authoritarian as it was under communism. Russia under Putin is still as much an enemy to the US and democracy as it ever was.
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
This cartoon author is one of the right wing misinformation cartoonist normally but in this case I agree with her. The Chinese government has shown they will crack down on anyone who says what they don’t like even if done by the athletes. The big scandal in the comment section of the page is over Nancy Pelosi saying the athletes should be care and watch what they say to keep themselves safe, and she blasted the Olympic committee for picking China to host them. The right wing commenters can not seem to understand why she said these things and are attacking her at the same time they are attacking China. So it doesn’t matter what she said, the fact is them must scream in anger about anything she says.
Oh boy the right wing media is on fire over trying to make Whoopi the worst racist ever. Why? Because she is a left leaning black woman. They are drooling to attack her, it is a dream come true for them.
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And now some for fun
DeSantis’ Supreme Court connection
Good Friday morning.
A legal matter — Gov. Ron DeSantis, who went to Yale and Harvard Law School, has of course, lots of strong opinions about the law and what’s constitutional, and what’s not.
Everyone’s a critic — The Republican governor even recently ripped into the U.S. Supreme Court over its decision to let a Biden administration vaccine mandate for health care workers remain intact while an underlying lawsuit proceeds. While appearing on the conservative Ruthless podcast last month, DeSantis said that both Chief Justice John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh did not have a “backbone” when they decided to allow the mandate to stand.
Call me — Well, it turns out that DeSantis may have his own direct connection to the Supreme Court.
CC time — Emails handed over to American Oversight, a group that bills itself as a government watchdog, suggest that DeSantis is in regular contact with Justice Clarence Thomas. In June 2021, Thomas’ wife, Ginni, who runs her own consulting firm, worked with the DeSantis administration to have the governor talk to a coalition of groups, including people affiliated with Judicial Watch, the conservative organization that uses information requests and lawsuits to investigate public officials.
The pitch — In one of the emails about having DeSantis talk to “conservative patriots,” Ginni Thomas says that DeSantis should be acquainted with her for a few reasons: she interviewed him for the Daily Caller when he was in Congress, saw him at a state dinner when Donald Trump was president, and “my husband has been in contact with him too on various things of late.”
Response — POLITICO’s Matt Dixon reached out to the governor’s office about this email, but did not get a response. Helen Aguirre Ferré, the executive director of the Republican Party of Florida, responded by saying “I can’t speak about any private conversations Governor DeSantis may or may not have had with anyone but both he and Justice Thomas believe in the separation of powers and defend individual liberty, the law and the Constitution as written.”
Admirer — There’s no question DeSantis holds Thomas in high regard. Back in 2018, the governor called the justice the “gold standard for a Supreme Court appointment.” The two also appeared together at a 2020 Federalist Society conference held in Disney World where DeSantis introduced Thomas as the “greatest living justice.”
— WHERE’S RON? — Gov. DeSantis is scheduled to appear with former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany at the Federalist Society conference being held at Disney World in Lake Buena Vista.
Let’s talk about staying warm without power….
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: Life shouldn’t be a constant struggle to survive so that the wealthy can have more profit
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Scottie’s world today
I fell asleep after an early supper. Woke up at 5:30 and rushed to finish this. Enjoy
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Socialized safety net is antidote for capitalism.
Conservatives want to cancel non-white humanity. Conservatives want to cancel elections. Conservatives want to cancel the separation of church and state.
GOP: gaslight, obstruct, project
The above is about politicians in Kentucky trying to shield / block reports of bad actions done by cops and other political groups from the public and to make it easier for utilities to raise rates on customers with less input. Just jack prices for profit.
If this six year old could stand the discomfort of walking through crowds of shouting angry people screaming obscenities and throwing things at her, knowing that if they were allowed they would hurt her, then white six year olds can learn of her, what she did, and why.
Book titles for the book burners
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
What crimes! Oh the made up ones in Rudy’s mind? The right wing fever dream of Hunter being the worst being on earth? Oh Hunter used drugs. Have they seen the videos of Donnie Jr? He is clearly tanked up off his ass on something. The right did not care about Donnie Jr illegally hunting animals in other countries, they did not mind Ivanka getting an unheard of number of trademarks from China in a short time frame when China wanted things from tRump, they don’t mention that Jared couldn’t get a security clearance because he was such a risk but tRump gave him one anyway. Hunter Biden is an adult, he is not in the WH, he is on the WH payroll, he is not an unofficial advisor to the president. But the right needs desperately to find something to hit Joe Biden with, so they reach for the personal struggles of his son. Great people.
The right wing is preoccupied with crime as it again causes fear. Be afraid, be very afraid is the mantra of the misleading right wing media. Fact is urban crime is down, rural crime is up, and all crime is still far below historical levels. What is the rights solution to crime. Not to see what causes crime and fix it, nope. The right wants more militarized police officers to aggressively occupy the lower incomes and non-white people. They want more people in for profit prisons to do slave labor for the corporations. They want to cut any government assistance programs that would help curb crime such as after school programs and to cut any diversionary programs that help rehabilitate people as that might cost the wealthy a few bucks in taxes. And they blame democrats even though that is not the truth because they want the white people to be afraid and misinformed so they vote Republican.
The consequences seem to be causing Putin to have some second and third
thoughts on invading. I wouldn’t mock Biden too hard on that front. He
is pulling the world along with idea of sanctions if Putin invades. As for the minor incursions that was because there are already small groups of Russian military in the Donetsk. Biden did not want the misleading right wing media opinion hosts such as Hannity to use that to push the US into actions that would be premature. There are some Republicans wanting Biden to sanction and move aggressively against Putin now such as Lindsey Graham because that would force Putin to act and we would have the war Graham’s donors want.
The consequences seem to be causing Putin to have some second and third thoughts on invading. I wouldn’t mock Biden too hard on that front. He is pulling the world along with idea of sanctions if Putin invades.
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And now some for fun
Who Was Traditionally Dressed In Pink And Called A Girl? | QI
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: The US has become a backward country due to greed of the wealthy the bribing of the elected politicians.
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Scottie’s world today
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Republicans would have you believe they are ‘tough’ on terror. They are, in fact, not tough.
Trump released over 5000 Taliban fighters, deserted our Kurdish allies, and abandoned American military bases, weaponry, and equipment to hostile foreign interests.
US Conservatives and Russians are both trying to dismantle American democracy
Lindsey went all in for Trump and Brett Kavanaugh. Non-stop bad faith. Never forget.
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” – Frédéric Bastiat
Pass this on to your ‘both sides’ Putinists.
Boy he thinks highly of himself.
White terror needs guns, anti-blackness needs books banned.
Exposure leads to improved empathy and emotional intelligence. You build character.
https://href.li/?https://news.yahoo.com/kim-reynolds-ending-covid-disaster-195812882.html
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
The desperation runs from the right wing media to find anything to pin on Biden is driving them crazy. They think centralist Joe is following socialist Sanders. Have you seen the things Biden endorses right wing people, he is not being led by Sanders anywhere.
The right wing wants to paint Dr. Fauci as lying to the people. Why? Because their Doctors that push Ivermectin and other things that doesn’t work on Covid are lying or crazy. The head doctor of frontline doctors Stella Immanuel has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches. She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. She is a pediatrician not a virologist or immunologist. But they believe her over a Immunologist because she says crazy shit they also believe.
At CNN, they hold their own accountable, while at Fox, they give them bonuses and promotions. Somehow because the CEO was having an affair with a vice-president executive in the company and did not report it he felt because he broke the rules he enforces he should resign, and did. Fox did not have anyone in high position that had the same integrity. But that some how makes CNN sinking? Get real.
While she was wrong in what she said I don’t think there was any malicious intent. I think she was trying to express a point about inhumanity and was not fully versed in the mentality of the Nazis. She apologized with a real apology, not some fake one that put the blame on the victim.
So these people believe infecting others and being 97 times more likely to die from the virus is freedom? What about their responsibilities to their fellow humans? I guess it is freedom to not care for others or how what you do effects them. Seems pretty selfish to me, and if that has been the principle we wouldn’t have had a nation, fought a war to end slavery, joined a war to fight fascism, and so much more that takes the idea that doing something for the good of others even if it costs you personally is worth while.
There is no war on police. There is a war on bad actions by police. There can be no defending police that shoot unarmed people, that torture and beat black people for no reason, police that kill believing they are entitle to do so. There is a movement to adjust the duties and role of police to end militarized policing and return policing to community based serve and protect. It really is that simple. There is no reason to have the police act as an occupying army.
Nice cartoon, but late to the game. See the rate of inflation has slowed. Food prices are stabilized or coming down. The Fed and most economists think that inflation was caused by Covid resulting having to shut down the economy and then the fantastic reopening of everything. Like trying to run a whole swimming pool through a small funnel. But sadly many corporations took advantage and engaged in price gouging also.
Debts and Deficits only seem to matter when Democrats are in the White House. Get the corporations and all the rich to pay their FAIR share. That stop in the 1970s. The lower and middle class can’t make up for that crap. Debts and deficits matter if payments can’t be made on them. The U.S. economy has been growing during my lifetime and it hasn’t been an issue.
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And now some for fun
Steve Kelley continues to LIE about the border crisis, even though he has been caught in his LIES many times.
The border crisis was caused 100% by DONALD TRUMP.
When Trump took office, illegal border crossings were at a FORTY-YEAR LOW because Dubya Bush (one of the few things he got right) and Obama had in place systems to stabilize minority indigenous communities who were the targets of racist gang violence. In one single day (June 17, 2019), TRUMP CANCELED EVERYTHING, not gradually or phased out, but all at once, and a border crisis from Central America resulted. It takes years to build bridges, a single day to blow them up. TRUMP BLEW IT UP. And yes, VP Harris is on it. The crisis is in Central America, not at our border (which Harris, as a native Californian from a border state, has been to many times). She has already met (in person and via Zoom) with the presidents of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Stabilization aid is being restored and the numbers of illegal border crossings are already plummeting. Again, blame the Democrats WHO ARE ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING to return to stability, for the problem TRUMP CAUSED.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-trump/as-promised-trump-slashes-aid-to-central-america-over-migrants-idUSKCN1TI2C7
Under Obama / Biden, our nation had brought the border to its most stable level — lowest number of illegal border crossings — in MORE THAN FORTY YEARS — by removing the incentives for coming here: addressing the violence, neighborhood insecurity and economic collapse and other issues that drive people out of their ancestral homelands.
Those leaving are predominantly INDIGENOUS MAYAN. They do not want to leave the ancestral homelands their people have occupied for tens of thousands of years, long predating the arrival of brutal European thugs.