The debate over critical race theory and the New York Times‘s 1619 Project is reaching a fevered pitch and the two biggest teachers unions in the United States are vowing to defend their members against any backlash over how they teach our nation’s complicated history with race and racism.
Education Week is reporting that both unions, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association are unified in having a single message:
“Teachers must be honest about racial injustices so that students learn to think critically about how the country’s problematic past has shaped its present. Any efforts to restrict those conversations in the classroom, the unions say, are akin to censorship.”
On May 6, AFT president Randi Weingarten appeared on the Prime with Charles Blow on BNC, where in comments, she accused opponents of the 1619 Project of trying to ban a “factual version of oppression in America.
“All of a sudden you’re hearing people talk about critical race theory, people who have no idea what that term means, who are trying to ban the 1619 Project, because it is trying to…actually teach a factual version of oppression in America,” Weingarten said.
Weingarten’s comments arose during a period of controversy over the U.S. Department of Education’s push to adopt a curriculum based on certain parts of the 1619 Project, unveiled by the New York Times in 2019.
Actually, on April 30, according to The Hill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell sent a letter to Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urging him to remove The New York Times’s “1619 project” from federal grant programs.
“We write to express grave concern with the Department’s effort to reorient the bipartisan American History and Civics Education programs, including the Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History and Civics and the National Activities programs, away from their intended purposes toward a politicized and divisive agenda,” the letter states.
McConnell also cited the 1619 Project as “putting ill-informed advocacy ahead of historical accuracy.” McConnell also claimed the project has been criticized by historians and serves to “double down on divisive, radical, and historically-dubious buzzwords and propaganda.”
The battle ahead for keeping the 1619 Project
While Weingarten has not been afraid to use the term, critical race theory in interviews and discussions, NEA President Becky Pringle has avoided using the term critical race theory in interviews, instead, calling for educators to teach the truth about the most painful parts of American history.
And teaching the truth about painful parts of America’s past seems to be what opponents want to suppress. To date, nearly 26 states have introduced legislation to limit how teachers can discuss racism in the classroom, and nine states have enacted restrictions.
And according to the Associated Press, Last month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law forbidding schools from teaching that people “should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress” because of their race or sex.
The law adds that slavery and racism can only be taught as a deviation from the nation’s “authentic founding principles” of liberty and equality.
“Mark my words: Our union will defend any member who gets in trouble for teaching honest history,” Weingarten said in her virtual address to members of the AFT on Wednesday. “Teaching the truth is not radical or wrong. Distorting history and threatening educators for teaching the truth is what is truly radical and wrong.”
“Teaching America’s history requires considering all the facts available to us — including those that are uncomfortable — like the history of enslavement and discrimination toward people of color and people perceived as different,” she said. “Years ago, the country unified against Holocaust deniers. We must unite again to address racism and its long-term effects.”
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