Texas Senate Restricts Teachings which says Ku Klux Klan was Morally Wrong
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Texas Senate Restricts Teachings which says Ku Klux Klan was Morally Wrong
The Texas Senate voted to pass a bill that will restricts the requirements for public schools teachers to teach that the Ku Klux Klan is morally wrong.
From the Senate meeting was said that the current requirement, that students learn: “the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong” would be dropped if the bill is passed.
What’s is the Essence of the bill?
The bill is believed to be part of a Republican campaign against Critical Race Theory, which looks at the impact of race and racism in US institutions. Although the theory was not mentioned specifically in the legislation, it is currently a flashpoint in US cultural and political debates.
Recall that on June, 2020, Texas Gov Greg Abbott signed legislation that outlined how state schools can educate students about race and racism and forbade schools from teaching that individuals bear responsibility for actions committed by people in the past because of their race, according to The Hill.
That bill included a section requiring that students are taught “historical documents related to the civic accomplishments of marginalized populations”.
The section included “the Chicano movement”, “women’s suffrage and equal rights”, “the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong”, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and “I Have a Dream” speech among other writings.
Those requirements are not included in the new bill passed by the Texas Senate last Friday, but language limiting how race can be discussed in classrooms is retained.
The bill says teachers should cover those topics “from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective” to the best of their ability.
“What we’re doing with this bill, we’re saying that specific reading list doesn’t belong in statute,” state Sen Bryan Hughes, the bill’s author, said in a statement to Bloomberg.
Democrats, including state Sen Judith Zaffirini, have condemned the measure, saying teachers’ hands will be tied.
She said, “How could a teacher possibly discuss slavery, the Holocaust, or the mass shootings at the Walmart in El Paso or at the Sutherland Springs church in my district without giving deference to any one perspective?”, reports Bloomberg.
The legislation now awaits consideration in the House so as to effect the bill.
What is Ku Klux Klan (KKK) ?
According to Wikipedia, Ku Klux Klan is an American white supremacist terrorist hate group whose major targets are Africans Americans, Jews, Catholics, Muslims and atheist.
The group which existed long ago, (1950, precisely) have always focused on opposing civil rights movement by regularly using violence and murder to suppress activists.
KKK is taught in History in American schools but recently the Senate has proposed a bill to abolished the perception and notion that Ku Klux Klan was “morally wrong”.