The state of Oklahoma enacted a bill on May 8 that will prohibit teachers from discussing matters that could cause a person “to feel uneasy, guilty, anguished or in any other form. psychological distress ”because of their race or gender. The measure is part of a conservative backlash that targets efforts to provide education to young Americans about racism and sexism, and more specifically on topics such as slavery and Jim Crow.
This measure therefore does not differ from the texts adopted or envisaged by several conservative states, including Texas, to combat the new ideological scarecrow of the American right, the critical theory of race. While this approach aims to explore how discrimination is woven into American institutions and laws, many Republicans across the United States and in Washington reduce it to left-wing racist indoctrination.
The passage of the law of Oklahoma comes however in a particular context. In a few days, this state will mark the centenary of a story that has long been ignored and actively obliterated: the racist massacre in Tulsa. On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a neighborhood formerly called Greenwood and crossed from north to south by a “Black Wall Street” along which were many successful businesses run by blacks was destroyed by white residents, and more 1,000 of its black residents were killed or injured.
Oklahoma Republican Governor Kevin Stitt swears nothing in the new law will stop teachers across the state from addressing the story of this massacre after it goes into effect on July 1. According to the site PoliticoIn particular, Oklahoma law will prohibit lessons which suggest that an individual “by reason of race or gender is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously”, or that individuals are responsible past actions committed by other members of the same race or sex.
Critics of the law say it will prevent teachers, among other things, from exploring the racism that led to the Tulsa massacre and contributed to the racial inequalities that persist 100 years later in a city like Tulsa. In short, they see measurement as a new way to whitewash history.
(Photo Getty Images)
