What do Republicans want taught regarding Black history?

Nothing. There is no such thing as Black History to them – only American History. They don’t want to call attention to blacks because that would highlight their own bigotry.

The Republishit Party deniesAmerican racial history because they know it makes them look bad.

@elbanditoroso So, American history won’t include Black people? Nothing about slavery, segregation, or any amazing accomplishments and inventions by Black people?

Of course they want it taught. It needs to be taught appropriately, historically accurate, fair and as matter of fact as possible. They take offense when blame is cast to people living today either directly or indirectly. What is taught in school is often weaponized politically to create future political foot soldiers. Don’t deny that, it happens, everywhere. This is behind the pushback you see. IMO there should be no such thing as black history month or whatever. It needs to be an everyday thing as history is not restricted to one month out of the year.

@Blackwater_Park What in K-12 was being taught that implied that white people today are to blame? Blame for what? Something that happened 150 years ago? Even 60 years ago?

@JLeslie it’s indirect. We did not experience this in school. It was whitewashed for us. Younger generations are having a very different experience. It’s not all positive.

@Blackwater_Park I don’t have kids or grandkids, so that’s why I’m genuinely interested in knowing what is actually being taught that people have a problem with. I just wonder if there is more agreement than people think and the topic is mostly being used for political gain.

So, from what you wrote Republicans are ok with teaching about slavery and segregation. Is that correct?

Yes it is. They are A-OK with teaching about it. They are against the political activism that comes with it at times though.

If they are like me, nothing. I learned all I need (or care to know) from watching news programs over the last 60 years.

@JLeslie I think rather than speculate; you can research what your own governor is doing regarding the teaching of Black history and its fundamental contributions to our country. That seems to be the Republican playbook.

I agree with @Blackwater_Park -truth. The torture and murder, the rapes, babies used as croc bait, etc..

I am very conservative but I can’t speak for all conservatives. It would appear that there is a plethora of opinions from liberals about what conservatives think but I’ll give you a short synopsis of what I think. History is history not White, Black, Asian, Jewish or any other group. When I was young (the 50s) we had American History and World History. History covered the good, the bad, and the ugly. That’s all I want out of a history class. Atrosities have been committed by virtually every race and ethnicity. at some point in history and it seems like we should know that. We come from a very barbaric past. Don’t whitewash it nor demonize it. Simply teach it.

Off the top of my head, here are things I remember US “totally not racist” conservatives saying to me about African Americans over the years, as if they believed them, and/or they wished these were the beliefs about them in the USA:

* “They just aren’t as smart as white or Asian people.”
* “They have a higher pain threshold than white people.”
* “He’s a jiggaboo.”
* “There are black women who have more and more children just to collect the welfare checks.”
* “If you treat them as subordinates, they’ll behave that way.”
* “They want others to be in charge, and tell them what to do. They’re better suited to it.”

@Zaku There will come a day when that racist crap is purged, I hope.

I’ve heard the welfare thing said about poor whites, too.

@KNOWITALL Hopefully, it will come when we have a full understanding that Black history is American history and that to move forward we have to confront the racism in our past and how it impacts the present.

To be taught as History in a general History class. My kid studies History in college, looks at it as events that happened no caring about melatonin levels of those she’s studying as it doesn’t change the facts.

I mean, they do not even want to acknowledge that slavery was the cause of the civil war, despite it being explicitly named by the secessionist states as the reason they seceded.
One of the things I came across was them claiming that slavery was a good thing for black people.

Repubs also want to teach that racial discrimination ended with the Civil Rights Act of 1964: http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act

So all the current accusations of racial bias these days ought to be invalid.

@janbb I’m having trouble figuring out the details in Florida, and this Q is not just for Florida. I’m interested in Republicans around the country.

@Acrylic So if the same things are taught, but just not called Black history, then it’s ok? You have no problem with the content?

@JLeslie History is history. Can’t change it, can only study and learn from it. Categorizing by region is fine like American or European or whatever. Does England subcategorize by race? I never heard or Black English History, but I’m not from there so no idea what their schools are like.

@Acrylic The only reason there is a need for Black history to be separate is that it has been traditionally excluded from American history. Through my reading in the past few years I have learned so much that was never taught in school. One example is that I went to a lecture on Wednesday that exposed me to the fact that slavery was widespread in my Northern state. I never was taught that enslaved people built the White House. I never was taught that Montgomery, Alabama closed down all their beautiful public parks and swimming pools to avoid having to integrate them.

I suspect the same conversation is going on in English curricula as they are forced more and more to study about their own colonial and enslavement past.

Also, history is not history – we are always learning new things about the past and revising our views of what happened and how it impacts contemporary life.

I see a lot of non-Republicans answering. I think @Jaxk and @Blackwater_Park covered much of my viewpoint. History is history. I’m a firm believer that the more you try to segregate society by keeping blacks separate from everyone else, the more division you will have in society. Blacks contributed to much in this world, both willingly and unwillingly. But so did whites. So did Asians. So did Latinos. I don’t see teaching “black history” as a good thing for these reasons. Every group had their good and their bad. Teach it as it happened, not through some political or racial lens.

BTW, complete transparancy – I’m not a Republican either. But I am conservative and many on these pages really don’t know how to tell the difference.

I agree with @seawulf575.

If the main gripe is not wanting to call it Black history, that seems easily solved.

As far as there being an agenda behind teaching the history. I’m not clear what specifically Republicans/Conservatives think is the agenda, and what specifically is being taught that is pushing the so called agenda. No one on the thread has given specific examples of something being taught that they take issue with.

I hear Republicans where I live saying they don’t want their white kids feeling guilty. I don’t think that’s happening at all. What white kid feels guilty about slavery 200 years ago or segregation 80 years ago? I was a white kid learning about slavery and segregation, and yeah I felt badly that happened to people, but I didn’t feel like it was my fault. Did you other white people feel guilty when you learned about those things in school?

History is a story about the PAST. The current generation isn’t responsible for the past, they are responsible to not repeat bad things that happened in the past.

One jelly said kids can learn about it on TV, that I disagree with, we can’t leave it up to TV shows or people picking up their own reading materials.

The odd thing about this, is that most people learn about this stuff after school. The internet changed everything.

In schools defense….I understand people are hesitant to expose kids to stark reality. We might as well tell them in middle school: “Santa isn’t real, money is power, and exploit the lower class.”

Unless you keep your kid dumb in a small town, the truth will come out regardless.

High school is nothing compared to what kids will learn in real life. They’ll see for themselves eventually.

@Blackberry Some basics in school are good though. There was a jelly (who is not on this thread) who had a relative who didn’t know about the Holocaust. She had seen movies, but she thought those were just movies, not real story telling. It seemed impossible to her anything so horrific could happen.

When people are surveyed in the US there is a decent percentage who don’t know about the Holocaust. I don’t see why that also couldn’t happen regarding our Black history. It might be the case right now for all I know. Learning about segregation (for instance) is important not only for Black history, but the topic in general is important, because it can happen with many groups.

I don’t think K-12 needs an entire semester on Black history, or anything near that extreme, I also think it should be taught after grade six. I’m wondering as I write this how many weeks Black history is taught? Is it 4 weeks in 8th grade? Is it interwoven in all American history classes in high school?

People are fighting about this, and the truth is we can only fit so much in the curriculum anyway.

@JLeslie I told you that to me it is the division it spreads in society. “Black History” has taken on many aspects these days. It has been politicized many times in this country. It isn’t about learning anymore, it is about pushing political agendas. Here is a perfect example of it. I saw another where a pre-school put the white kids in blackface to “celebrate” black history month. It is the same thing with teaching CRT in the classroom. It isn’t about learning anymore. It is about political agenda. Oh, I know, someone will squawk that “CRT is a college class and they don’t teach it in schools!” But just because they don’t use the name “CRT” doesn’t mean they aren’t teaching the same materials.

Republicans (or actually, more accurately, conservatives like me) aren’t against education. They aren’t against other races or learning about them. They are against turning our schools into indoctrination centers. And I repeat my previous answer to the question of this thread: Teach history and don’t slant it. Teach the bad and the good.

@seawulf575 I don’t know how real the examples are in your video, obviously the dictionary thing was just a joke, but let’s say they are mostly really and that you don’t even approve of using kids in the joke video, it’s just a few cherry picked examples. If parents have any problem with it they should address it with the local school board. Back in my day some schools did the blue eyed brown eyed exercise, probably that’s not allowed anymore. If it is allowed probably still some parents have a problem with it.

For some reason you are ok with more laws. I thought you were a smaller government guy.

The man in your video is accusing the left wing media of making a mountain out of a mole hill, when it’s actually DeSantis who did that. He made a law where there is almost no problems, and problems can be addressed locally. Both political sides are using it as a wedge issue, but the difference is it’s the political right that starts most of these things.

DeSantis constantly throws bones to his right wing supporters and that simultaneously is throwing a bone to people on the left. My point is he helps divide the country, and that is destructive to America.

Religious schools indoctrinate children. That’s why the right wing believes public schools indoctrinate, because that’s exactly what their private schools do. I read Forever in 4th grade. There is a sex scene in it. Usually kids read it at an older age. I read it at school during private reading time, it wasn’t available at the school library, but this law would possibly worry a teacher about it being in class at all. It’s just unnecessary, and just another thing to fight about.

As far as white children bowing and feeding Black children, If that is even real, fine get rid of that teacher if he is doing exercises that bother educators and parents. I highly doubt that is actually part of school curriculum.

If everyone on the thread here is saying they are ok with teaching about slavery, the underground railroad, Rosa Parks, segregation, freedom rides, the KKK, Black inventors, Black scientists who made discoveries, the civil war (including that the South wanted to maintain slavery as part of the reason for the war) I mean really there isn’t much disagreement is there?

CRT means different things to different people. When you say it you define it differently than when a professor at NYU says it. Throwing around words with alternate definitions doesn’t help communicate with each other. CRT isn’t part of the curriculum in K-12 but maybe it is how you define it and maybe you can find one school out a 1,000 that is teaching it. Keep things in perspective.

@JLeslie I agree with you.

@seawulf575 Surely you know that all teaching is indoctrination to a certain extant? We were indoctrinated in school to believe that America was a shining city on a hill and while it is a great country in many respects, it still has a long way to go. What’s being asked now is to tell the “victims’” full story as well as the victors so the greater truth can be told. By confronting our full past and correcting inequities in the present, we can become an even greater country.

Everyone is concerned about traumatizing white children while most curricula always stress age appropriate lessons. My state has mandated Holocaust education for grades K_12 since the 1980s or 90s but they don’t show kindagartners films of gas chambers.

And what about the Black children who have been “traumatized” by not knowing their history?

I’m signing out of this question now. I’ve said my piece and I won’t be subjected to a battering ram. .

“What’s being asked now is to tell the “victims’” full story as well as the victors so the greater truth can be told.”

Yes, great wording and I agree.

Most of us alive today had nothing to do with the Holocaust, the genocide of natives or slavery, we can agree on that.

If we aren’t taught both sides are we any further than North Korea or China?

We said the pledge and sing songs about our country but aren’t taught that our country has done pretty terrible thing’s?

I watched a video series in China, where a black man is studying. He video’s the Chinese reactions to him, and it’s quite sad. One older lady told him she was taught never to speak to blacks or they’d hit or rape her. The black man assured her he was just a student and would never hurt her.

It’s not right to push nationalism k-12 yet withhold reality, in my opinion. Empathy is very important to develop, especially now with so much racial tension and school shooters. Maybe this is the change we need.

@JLeslie It is interesting to me that you asked the question and I have given you an answer…twice. You seem to want examples so I gave you an example. Apparently you only wanted that so you could call it a one-off and question that it is real. In other words, you either really don’t want an answer to your question or you only want the answer that agrees with you.

But I will dig deeper and address the drivel you are putting out now.

Let’s look at what you have said. You have said that the teacher made a “joke video” and that I cherry picked the story. Yet you first off ignore the idea that a teacher of young children would structure a “joke video” as a political statement. What possible educational purpose does that provide? He obviously did it using school children on school grounds. He did it well in excess of what the law or DeSantis has put forth as a way to indoctrinate the students to believe the lies he is pushing. And again…what possible educational purpose would that serve for children that young other than to indoctrinate them?

But you want to pooh-pooh that away. And you want to claim it isn’t really happening other than in isolated cases.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/08/30/teacher-fired-after-speaking-against-gender-identity-critical-race-theory-and-mask-mandates/
https://reason.com/2021/07/06/critical-race-theory-nea-taught-in-schools/
https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1002479412/a-virginia-teacher-was-put-on-leave-after-opposing-a-new-policy-for-trans-studen This one is particularly interesting since you brought up the idea that parents just need to address the school board if they have problems with what is being done at schools. Louden County VA is the place where the school board forced the school to allow “transgender males” to use the girls bathroom. That ended as you might expect. A 9th grade girl was raped by a boy wearing a skirt in the bathroom. That father brought his concern up to the school board. One of the school board members, a left-wing activist told him she thought his daughter was a liar. When he started to respond he was arrested and branded as a Domestic Terrorist. Merrick Garland put out a Memo that told the FBI to work with federal prosecutors to plan strategies on how to deal with parents that speak out at school board meetings. All it would take is for a school board to say they felt intimidated. This memo was put out in response to that father that was upset because his daughter was raped and the school board blamed her and called her a liar. As a side note, this same “trans” student was transferred to a different school where he raped another girl. But she is probably lying as well.

But back to giving you more examples so you don’t believe it is just an isolated issue:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/education/massachusetts-teacher-fired-for-opposing-crt-on-tiktok-sues-superintendent-and-principal
https://spectator.org/public-schools-gender-radical-reshaping/
https://nypost.com/2016/07/01/elite-k-8-school-teaches-white-students-theyre-born-racist/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3670918/White-babies-display-signs-racism-Elite-New-York-school-tells-white-kids-ashamed-privilege-segregates-children-race.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/us/miami-black-history-month-daycare-blackface-reaj/index.html

Do I really need to go on or are you willing to admit there is more political agenda pushing than you thought?

There is nothing wrong at all with teaching that we had slavery and that it was wrong, that we had segregation and that it was wrong, that some blacks have contributed greatly to this world, etc. But when you want to teach “Black History” are you also willing to teach how many blacks were sold into slavery by other blacks? Are you willing to talk about how white people have been enslaved by blacks around the world? Are you willing to talk about the black slave owners in our own country? If you aren’t, why not? Isn’t that part of history as well?

@seawulf575 I just think the trans stuff can be handled at the school level. I think there is a political agenda, the political agenda is both extremes in the political arena want to keep this as a wedge issue. This is Q is primarily about Black history.

American history does not really have many cases of Black people selling Blacks into slavery or keeping black slaves, but sure I am fine teaching it. Mostly, it applies to world history. I don’t know the history about white people being slaves to Black people, but if that happened in the world then for world history that’s fine.

The thing you don’t understand is there is continued trauma for Black people that white Christians in America don’t experience in the same way. Let’s take the Irish, they were met with bigotry when they first came to America, but now they are completely interwoven into the fabric of America, and now they are seen pretty much as “white” enough to hang out with the white Protestants. Black people it is like that in some pockets of American, but there is a still a ton of places that they are still excluded or at a big disadvantage. They still have millions of people who think the confederate flag should be allowed on state capitol buildings, and drive by people with confederate flags on their houses, cars, and t-shirts. I learned about the Irish meeting with bigotry, I learned the KKK put Catholics in same category as Jews and Blacks. My education was not that all white people skated through life in America.

Black people have constant reminders that there are people out there who want to target them, to kill them, and that adds up like blocks one on top of another. It is the stuff for creating PTSD and paranoia, but actually it is not paranoid when people are actually really out to get you.

Teaching the population about the history and preventing the racism from continuing will help society overall.

I think we mostly agree about Black history, and where we don’t, we could probably still work out a curriculum in a compromise. So, that means to me, DeSantis is addressing something that does not need a law, but rather he just knows the Republicans and Democrats will react to it. He is politicizing an issue that does not need to be politicized and creating laws, more laws, where they are not needed.

The conversation out on social media is Republicans want to eliminate taaching Black history and Democrats want to make white kids feel bad. Neither seems true to me.

@Blackberry I think television, in general, did more than any internet. More people tune in to TV, and have tuned in to TV, than explore some odd/out-of-the-ordinary/unspecific/random web site that MIGHT touch on certain Black historical specifics.

@janbb Go back and read my answers. I’m certainly not against teaching the good and the bad of all that has gone on in our past. But when you start teaching “black history” as a separate course you are making one race more important than others. Would it be okay to then teach “white history”? How about “Asian history”? We could focus on the trials and tribulations each of these groups faced in their history. We should show how great they were for helping society. Would that be okay? Should we have a White History Month?

@seawulf575 I wonder how many K-12 schools actually have a mandatory Black history class? I’m guessing close to zero. We don’t need a white history class, because white people are the majority, and history classes already highlight white history.

I happen to love Black history month, because I love hearing about the Black people in history who did amazing things, but one could certainly argue we can highlight those people without a special month set aside. I also wouldn’t want a Jewish history month so I wonder how Black people feel about it. I wouldn’t mind at all highlighting Jewish people in history though. I don’t think most people in the country know our great Jewish composers, inventors, actors, singers; I mean I think they know them, but not that they are Jewish. It only matters because people hate and want to kill us. White Christians don’t deal with that type of prejudice and hate.

I wouldn’t mind a women in history month. For some reason that’s different to me. Maybe because I’m afraid of Jewish people being targeted for hate, and one of the White Supremacists’ schtick is to say Jewish people are powerful and want to control the world and replace them. I’m not sure how 6 million Jews are going to replace 200 million Christians in the US.

@JLeslie You would likely be wrong on your assumption that no schools have black history classes

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2020/08/20/black-history-instruction-gets-new-emphasis-in-many-states
https://hub.jhu.edu/2021/02/10/black-history-curricula-lacking-rigor-and-quality/
https://www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/articles/se_810117014.pdf
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/education-statistics-facts-about-american-schools/2019/01

Isn’t it amazing what you can find if you don’t assume and actually look?

As for not needing white history month, your reasoning is racist. Because they are already the majority. That means they can’t have pride in their heritage. That means they can’t celebrate the great things that white people have done. That means you want to relegate them to being a subordinate race.

@seawulf575 Teaching Black history for a few weeks isn’t the same as having a mandatory Black history class. I’m talking about an entire term or semester. Black history is part of American history, it just looks like now maybe a lot of schools are teaching the topic in February. I read your links and I’m not seeing an entire class devoted to Black History.

I really don’t understand the issue. Most Republicans are ok teaching about slavery and segregation and what? They don’t want the chapters in the text books called Black History?

The argument is about nothing.

WTH pride? We do talk about and teach about white people who did great things.

It does matter who is the majority and who has had the power.

Anyway, I don’t care if we take away the title Black history. We can just call those chapter Slavery, Segregation, Underground Railroad, Emancipation, but no matter what it’s about Blacks being slaves and discriminated against.

@JLeslie Black history is a part of American history. So is white history. So is Asian history. So is Irish history. What makes blacks so much more important than every other group? Racism. We have to put blacks above others because of racism. It promotes racism to do this very thing. I have stated this several times now and you keep missing the point. At this point I believe it is purposefully done.

Asian history is taught. We teach about internment camps, the Chinese Exclusion Act, etc. Irish we learn about their immigration to the US during the potato famine, we learn they were discriminated against. The Irish are white by the way.

Blacks are not being put above others by teaching how they are a part of the history of America.

Which white people specifically are you talking about? Is Columbus white? Salem witch trials? George Washington? The men who created the constitution? What white history do you want taught that isn’t being taught?

It isn’t the teaching that is divisive. That is what you are missing. By pushing teaching of one particular race’s history as a special thing, you are pushing racism. You are putting them above others. You are giving them a class all unto themselves.

I am suggesting that we teach history….period. And not all the good or bad of any particular group. Until we can get out of this morbid belief that we have to specialize our history, we will continue to push racism. I mentioned before that we need to talk about blacks selling blacks into slavery and you tried avoiding that by saying that isn’t really part of American history. Yet it is. You want to talk about slavery but you don’t want to talk about where the slaves came from. This fact check shows there is a whole lot involving slavery and blacks that isn’t taught in schools and isn’t discussed. I suggest it is ALL important. When you hide parts of history and don’t teach people about them and let them understand what happened and why it is bad, you are destined to repeat those errors.

I am a registered Independent.
What they are trying to do by not allowing it to be taught is to keep people ignorant of certain things. This doesn’t meant that people are ignorant. It just means that you are depriving them the ability to learn. It nips it in the bud before it even can grow into a conversation.
Historically, this has been the way that certain political groups control the narrative. This is a similar technique used by banning books.

I asked my daughter this question. She is well travelled around the world. She is part of a biracial and cross cultural marriage (her husband is from West Africa), and their baby is has dark skin. She is also a Christian. This is her answer, and I quite agree with it:

“I’m not sure what Republicans want taught, but I can give my opinion on what I think should be taught.

I think black history in the US should be taught in a way  that does not shame any of the students. It should not be sugar coated. 
 
Instead the truth should be told with a strong emphasis on how do we prevent this from happening again?

And knowing this terrible part of our past, how can we help build unity between everyone?”

@snowberry Instead the truth should be told with a strong emphasis on how do we prevent this from happening again?

And knowing this terrible part of our past, how can we help build unity between everyone?”

I totally agree with that.