The Economist - USA (2021-07-10)

The Economist July 10th 2021 25

United States

Patriotismandpolarisation

The history wars

P

arents areoutraged by a new curricu­

lum.  Politicians  worry  that  educators

are  indoctrinating  pupils  with  un­Ameri­

can revisionist history. Progressives argue

that  this  updated  version  of  the  curricu­

lum  reflects  an  American  reality  that

should not be hidden from children. Both

sides  clash  at  school  meetings,  teachers

are under fire. At issue could be the current

controversy  over  critical  race  theory  in

classrooms. Or it could be one of the many

skirmishes  during  the  past  century  over

history  education,  from  whether  it  was

pro­British to whether it was pro­Marxist.

Critical race theory (crt), which has be­

come the battleground this time, originat­

ed  in  the  1970s  as  a  legal  perspective  that

emphasised the role of systemic racism (as

opposed to the individual sort) in replicat­

ing  inequality.  The  Goldwater  Institute,  a

conservative think­tank seeking to prevent

the  teaching  of  critical  race  theory in

schools,  describes  the  set  of  ideas  thus:  a

“perspective...that  believes  all  the  events

and ideas around us...must be explained in

terms  of  racial  identities”.  Complicating

the argument is the fact that some conser­

vatives use the phrase to encompass every­

thing from discussions about institutional

racism to diversity training.

Twenty­six  states  have  introduced

measures that would limit critical race the­

ory in public schools, according to EdWeek.

Federal  legislators  are  also  piling  into  the

debate. Seven Republican senators, includ­

ing the minority leader, Mitch McConnell,

reintroduced the “Saving American Histo­

ry  Act”  in  June  to  limit  federal  funding  to

schools that use a curriculum derived from

the 1619 Project, a set of Pulitzer­prize­win­

ning  essays  published  by  the  New York

Times magazine  that  puts  slavery  at  the

centre of the nation’s founding and devel­

opment (and received mixed reviews from

professional  historians).  The  federal  bill,

originally introduced in July 2020, is most­

ly symbolic: Congress has little control ov­

er state and local curriculums, and the bill

is  unlikely  to  pass  when  there  are  Demo­

cratic majorities in the House and Senate.

But  the  politics  is  clear.  Republicans  are

convinced that a war on critical race theory

is good politics, even if attempts to ban it

might prove unconstitutional.

Tennessee’s bill, signed by the governor

in  May,  prohibits  public  schools  from

teaching  concepts  that  promote  “discom­

fort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psy­

chological distress”. Texas’s law specifical­

ly  bans  the  1619  Project,  prevents  teachers

from  giving  course  credit  for  “social  or

public policy advocacy”, prohibits required

training “that presents any form of race or

sex  stereotyping  or  blame  on  the  basis  of

race  or  sex”,  and  restricts  teaching  that

“slavery  and  racism  are  anything  other

than deviations from, betrayals of, or fail­

ures  to  live  up  to,  the  authentic  founding

principles  of  the  United  States.”  Idaho’s

legislation prevents any public institution,

including  colleges,  from  “compel[ling]

students to personally affirm, adopt, or ad­

here”  to  the  concepts  that  “individuals...

WASHINGTON, DC

The fight over critical race theory in schools is part of a century-long battle over

whose version of America is taught

→Alsointhissection

26 NewYork’snextmayor

27 U­Haulsonthebeach

28 Hydroelectricpowerinthe Northwest

29 Religiousaffiliations

29 Wrestlingwiththetruth

30 Lexington: Lessons from a defeat