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| Robin Steenman of Moms for Liberty thinks children of a certain age should be shielded from learning about bad police behavior during the Civil Rights Movement. |
Editor's note - this may not be an LGBTQ-themed article per se. But then again maybe it is. The activist in this piece expressed a desire to censor part of the Civil Rights Movement in which police and firemen used fire hoses on children during the 1963 Birmingham protest. She implied that it would put policemen in a bad light to other children. You just know how she would feel about Stonewall.
We know that Critical Race Theory is not an actual thing being taught to children in K-12 schools. We know that the GOP exploited fears about it to scare white suburban voters. We also know that it has generated considerable success for them, particularly in the recent Virginia governor race. And lastly, we all know that Republicans will be using this culture war dog whistle in an attempt to take back Congress next year.
But none of this seems to be registering to folks like it should. I personally think that it's due to an inability to conceive what's going on here and what it could lead to. Those of us concerned with the erasing of history (for whatever reason, both actual and imagined) can't seem to get our message across.
So why don't we turn to those groups and so-called concerned parents leading this 'fight' against Critical Race Theory and listen to what they have to say.
A recent CBS article vocalizes what I'm talking about:
In Tennessee, (Robin) Steenman and other members of Moms for Liberty have pushed to eliminate portions of a widely-used language arts curriculum called Wit & Wisdom from area schools. They take issue with some of the reading materials about the civil rights movement geared for grade-school students.
"Grade two, module three, has five or six books. One of them is Martin Luther King and the March on Washington, which of course that should be taught. But how should it be taught? What should we focus on when we teach it?" Steenman asked.
"There's one specific example in this book ... there's a very famous photograph of firemen spraying children that were engaged in protest in I believe it was Birmingham. It's a terrible photo, they're doing harm to children, Black children, they're blasted by fire hoses. And it shows that to these second grade children. Most kids up to that point have idolized the policemen, the firemen."
"I don't want them to see racism yet — to engage, to learn racism. They can teach history but let's not teach racism," Steenman said.
To be honest, we don't know the particulars of the lesson plan Steenman is speaking of. There has been a tendency from people on her side of the argument to take things out of context. Still it should bother people that Steenman's objection stems from her personal opinions. It's not about learning history or protecting children. It's more about protecting her ideas.
