{"id":61994,"date":"2022-03-08T05:37:47","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T10:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=61994"},"modified":"2022-03-08T05:37:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T10:37:47","slug":"battles-over-book-bans-reflect-conflicts-from-the-1980s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/battles-over-book-bans-reflect-conflicts-from-the-1980s\/","title":{"rendered":"Battles over book bans reflect conflicts from the 1980s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nA conservative leader found fault with how \u201crespect for our nation\u2019s heritage\u201d had been mostly stripped from the textbooks of public schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom kindergarten right through the total school system, it almost seems as if classroom textbooks are designed to negate what philosophies previously had been taught,\u201d the conservative leader lamented. \u201c[M]any textbooks are actually perverting the minds of literally millions of students.\u201d<\/p>\n

A teachers organization shot back, saying the underlying motive for some attacks against books has \u201cunquestionably been racial.\u201d<\/p>\n

This might sound like a back-and-forth from recent\u00a0debates over removing books<\/a>\u00a0from school classrooms and libraries. Often,\u00a0critical race theory<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 an academic framework for understanding racism \u2013 has been at the center of these debates. But in reality, both quotes are more than 40 years old.<\/p>\n

Religious influence on politics<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The first quote came from a 1981 book by the Rev. Jerry Falwell titled \u201cListen, America!<\/a>\u201d Falwell, founder of the\u00a0Moral Majority<\/a>, was one of the leaders of the\u00a0book-banning efforts of the 1980s<\/a>. It was during this period \u2013 with Ronald Reagan in the White House \u2013 that Christian fundamentalists became a\u00a0growing influence in conservative American politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The second quote comes from a 1981 publication of the National Council of Teachers of English, \u201cThe Students\u2019 Right to Read<\/a>.\u201d The council was one of the major groups opposing Falwell and other conservatives.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0attacks on books in the 1980s<\/a>\u00a0bear similarities to the current attacks. Both object to the critical teaching about race and racism, historical as well as contemporary. Both accuse schools of tearing down America and weakening patriotism. Both object to teaching about gender roles, sexual orientation and alternative models of the family. Conservative institutions like the Heritage Foundation\u00a0have been involved<\/a>\u00a0in both periods.<\/p>\n

There are also important differences between the two periods. The 1980s bogeyman was\u00a0secular humanism<\/a>, because it argued that human beings can define their own morality without the use of religion. Falwell and others claimed that public schools were anti-Christian because they taught students that they didn\u2019t have to use the Bible as a standard for right and wrong. Chaos would result, the Christian fundamentalists asserted, if everyone had to determine their own morality.<\/p>\n

In a way reminiscent of the so-called\u00a0Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925<\/a>, conservatives objected to the teaching of evolution as a fact, rather than a theory. Instead, they wanted biology textbooks to give equal space to the so-called scientific theory of\u00a0creationism<\/a>, which holds that God created the universe.<\/p>\n

A new bogeyman<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In 2022, of course, the bogeyman is critical race theory. Emerging from\u00a0critical legal theory<\/a>\u00a0taught in law schools, critical race theory argues that\u00a0white supremacy has been embedded<\/a>\u00a0in American legal and educational institutions since the time of slavery.<\/p>\n

Right-wing critics have made a number of erroneous allegations about critical race theory: that it is\u00a0taught in public schools<\/a>; that\u00a0it is Marxist<\/a>; that it is\u00a0intended to make whites feel guilty; and more<\/a>. The Heritage Foundation has published \u201cHow to Identify Critical Race Theory<\/a>\u201d as a guide to help parents evaluate books and curricula by looking for words like \u201csystemic racism,\u201d \u201cwhite privilege\u201d and \u201csocial construction or race.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, these concepts predated critical race theory, which came on the scene\u00a0in the late 1970s and 1980s<\/a>. Activist Stokely Carmichael \u2013 also known as Kwame Ture \u2013 and political scientist Charles V. Hamilton discussed institutional racism in\u00a0\u201cBlack Power: The Politics of Liberation in America\u201d in 1967<\/a>. \u201cInstitutional racism\u201d and \u201cstructural racism\u201d are very similar to \u201csystemic racism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhite privilege<\/a>\u201d was discussed by W.E.B. Du Bois in the early 20th century and by civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s. Another term associated with critical race theory, \u201cthe social construction of race<\/a>,\u201d was used by anthropologists like\u00a0Franz Boas<\/a>\u00a0back in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

New interpretations<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Critical race theorists took these and other concepts, reinterpreted them and applied them to the American legal system. Scholars in education have done the same in trying to understand education as an institution. After\u00a040-plus years of teaching and writing about race and diversity<\/a>, I know that it is impossible to accurately discuss American racial conflict without using these concepts. But that\u2019s what many lawmakers would have American educators do.<\/p>\n

According to a\u00a0Pen America report<\/a>, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom of expression in literature, 156 \u201ceducational gag order\u201d bills in 39 states have been introduced since January 2021. Twelve have become law in 10 states, and 113 are pending in 35 states. As of March 2022, at\u00a0least seven states<\/a>\u00a0specifically ban the teaching of critical race theory. \u201cCumulatively,\u201d says the Pen report, \u201cthey represent a national assault on our education system, censoring both what teachers can say and what students may learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, some white students \u2013 and other students, too, for that matter \u2013 will feel uncomfortable upon learning not only about the history of American racism but also its present manifestations. Reality is sometimes uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where good teaching comes in. Good teaching means taking the students\u2019 age into account. It also means being supportive of students who may feel uncomfortable or guilty about certain events in American history.<\/p>\n

I always tell students: \u201cYou are not responsible for what happened in the past. You are responsible to decide what you plan to do in the present and the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Fred L. Pincus is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Count<\/em>y<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A conservative leader found fault with how \u201crespect for our nation\u2019s heritage\u201d had been mostly stripped from the textbooks of public schools. \u201cFrom kindergarten right through the total school system, it almost seems as if classroom textbooks are designed to negate what philosophies previously had been taught,\u201d the conservative leader lamented. \u201c[M]any textbooks are actually […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[428934],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-61994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-change","tag-battles-over-book-bans"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBattles over book bans reflect conflicts from the 1980s - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/battles-over-book-bans-reflect-conflicts-from-the-1980s\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Battles over book bans reflect conflicts from the 1980s - 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