Guests:

1)  Jessica Mason Pieklo, activist-journalist-attorney and V.P. and Editor of the reproductive Rights Blog: Rewire News Group. She regularly appears on Joy of Resistance, where she breaks down Supreme Court and other legal issues for us.

We will be speaking about the upcoming Supreme Court case in which Mississippi is challenging the very existence of Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion--and this week's brief in favor of the overturning of that historic decision, submitted by 12 state governors and attorney generals

2) Dr. Altheria Caldera is a scholar, writer and equity activist. She is a policy fellow with the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) in whose name she sumitted testimony against Texas Senate Bill 3, which seeks to ban the teaching of Crtitcal Race Theory and associated subjects. She is an incoming Assistant Professor at Howard University and she has written an article entitled: "Anti-critical race theory laws attack women and epople of color. "

In this segment we will focus on possible effects these laws on the teaching of women's history as well as attacks on the teaching profession, 76% of whom are women and whose profession is being legislated primarily by white men, who comprise the majority in state legislatures passing these bills.

ANTI-CRITICAL RACE THEORY LAWS AFFECT WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR

Many states, including  Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa and New Hampshire, have, in the last few months, passed legislation that takes aim at "divisive" teaching of U.S. history, particularly targeting "Critical Race Theory" (CRT) which has become a catch-all term for teaching accurate but unpleasant truths about the U.S. treatment of Black people. CRT is an Academic discipline that teaches the overall effect of slavery on the development of U.S. Society. Among other things, it exposes that much of U.S. wealth has been amassed through the enforced free labor of African peoples over the 400 years of legalized slavery. It is rarely taught before the college level, although laws being passed are aimed at K-12 education as well as college.

Anti-CRT laws state that they  are saving children from any subject matter that  "exacerbates divisions based on race or sex", and, with little, if any, factual evidence, claim that that the subjects of "white privilege" or "male privilege"  create "guilt or anguish" in children. These bills invoke a peculiar mix of pseudo psychology, nationalism and false claims of Marxist Ideology being taught in schools, that is reminiscent of Senator Joseph McCarthy's campaign in the 1950's to root out 'communism" from our governmental institutions. Twenty more states now are considering similar laws.

Rashawn Ray, University of Maryland sociology professor and Brookings Institution fellow, puts it well when he states: “Critical race theory has become a new boogie man for people unwilling to acknowledge our country’s racist history and how it impacts the present.” 

STATE EDUCATION BANS BEING CONSIDERED OR ALREADY PASSED

A proposed law in Alabama states: “The Alabama State Board of Education believes that the United States of America is not an inherently racist country, and the state of Alabama is not an inherently racist state.” The word "inherently" is misleading, as neither CRT, or, for the matter Marxism, claim there is  anything inherent about racism--quite the opposite, they stress that racist and other oppressive beliefs stem from conditioning by society. The bill would give schools the power to fire teachers for teaching critical race theory or "assoiated concepts".

The Texas Senate has passed legislation that would end requirements that public schools include writings on women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement in social studies classes. Among the figures whose works would be dropped: Susan B. Anthony, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Education budgets are being defunded for teaching banned subjects. For instance, Idaho, which passed one of the first of these laws in February, has defunded  "social justice classes" at Boise State University to the tune of  $409,000. This has resulted in the cancellation of 52 classes--including those on ethnic studies, folklore, the study of societies that have achieved harmony, and ethics as expressed through hip hop and comics.

Louisiana has tried to ban teaching that any part of U.S. history is "morally wrong": when Representative Ray Garofalo, a sponsor of the Louisiana bill was asked how he would teach about slavery; he responded that he would teach the "good and the bad". This resulted in so much negative publicity that the Louisiana State Senate was forced to temporarily dropped the bill (it gave away too much about the actual intent of these bills).

EFFECTS ON WOMEN

While most of the attention has been on the effects of anti-CRT legislation on teaching about race, the fact that most of the bills refer to teaching about "race or sex" has gotten scant attention. Such language implies that the teaching of the history of oppression of women in the U.S. would also be shut down with the passage of these laws, giving women in states with such lawsu little chance of understanding their history and, therefore, their present situation.

In our show we will focus on possible effects these laws on the teaching of women's history as well as attacks on the teaching profession, 76% of whom are women and whose profession is being legislated primarily by white men, who comprise the majority in state legislatures passing these bills.

Our show will also include our regular Feminist News Roundup and topical music.