Texas has a group of educators that are trying to influence upcoming historical
lessons in ways that I think you might be able to guess how this is going.
They won't talk about slavery, but there's a new term that they wanna use.
I'm gonna get to that in a second.
Let's go straight into the details here.
So, a group of Texas educators have proposed to the Texas State Board of
Education that slavery should be taught as involuntary relocation during
second grade social studies instruction during second grade.
The groups proposing these second grade curriculum revisions was given a copy of
a Senate Bill 3 Texas's law that dictates how slavery and
issues of race are taught in Texas.
The law states that slavery can't be taught as
part of the true founding of the United States and
that slavery was nothing more than a deviation from American values.
Part of proposed draft standards here obtained by The Texas Tribune say
the students should, I quote,
compared journeys to America including voluntary Irish immigration and
involuntary relocation of African people during colonial times.
Again, second grade education, they're supposed to be teaching young folks about
this as the basis for how they understand how this country was built.
More, because the suggested language here, its surface late,
it's from June 15th meeting that they had in the last more than 12 hours.
Luckily there was some pushback from the folks that were getting told this
ridiculousness and is what happened here.
Board member Aicha Davis, a democrat who represents Dallas and
Fort Worth raised concerns during this June 15th meeting that the term wasn't
a fair representation of the slave trade.
The board sent the draft back for revision urging that the educator group to
carefully examine the language used to describe events.
I'm sure that was a very nice way that they'd say take this garbage back and
give us something that makes sense.
[COUGH] So more, I can't say what their intention was, but that's not going to be
acceptable is what Aisha said, but they're not done with this whole thing yet.
The working group of nine educators that did this is one of many such
groups that's advising the state Education Board to make curriculum changes.
Now this summer, the board will consider updates to social studies instruction
a year after lawmakers passed a law to keep topics that make students feel
discomfort, that's the quote, feel discomfort out of their Texas classrooms.
And also the once a decade process updates what children learn in the states,
nearly 8900 public schools.
But the board is considered curriculum changes one year after Texas passed
a law to eliminate topics from schools that make students feel discomfort.
Okay, so they usually do this nearly a decade a time in gaps of time.
But because there's this new law saying, hey, we have to make sure
that we change the way that we talk about enslaved people in this country and
how this whole country came together.
We need to do this right away.
Very similar to when they're looking to protect people in the country that they
deem more important than the rest of the citizens.
They're really quick to do these types of things when they really want to.
If actually tells you how fast that things can actually work when people
are motivated.
>> Well, of course and Republicans move 1000 times faster than Democrats, so
if they're gonna take away your freedom or your education or anything like that,
they'll do it in a second.
Democrats will get around to it to reversing it in approximately 180 years.
So, look they've got all sorts of fake words
that have cleaned up versions of reality.
So you remember Dick Cheney to enhanced interrogation.
So how was it enhanced?
It was enhanced by during torture, that's what it was, and
they just just put a slightly more technical term on it to clean it up.
And now slavery is apparently involuntary relocation.
Well, okay, involuntary doesn't sound too good but hey you're relocating.
It's bad but well, if it's not that bad,
you guys mind if we involuntarily relocate you right wingers?
Did we forget the part about the whippings and the lynchings and
the murders and the rapes and the taking away of your kids and
treating you as property and making you do all the work.
You wanted to leave that out, why?
Cuz you wanna lie about history.
Why, because you still kinda like it.
So now that's the part that they're gonna say, no, that's not true, really?
I hated slavery.
I don't mind teaching it cuz I think it was terrible, we should never do it again.
Why would I mind teaching that?
You mind teaching it?
Why do you mind teaching it?
Think about it, you mind it because you think, that was us, That was me.
I don't know, your weirdly self defensive about it.
Look, hey, red state idiots.
If you're white, it doesn't mean you did it, that's not what it means, okay?
Look, I'm Turkish here, maybe this could help relate.
Turks had a giant empire.
Did a lot of terrible things, okay, I didn't do it.
It doesn't mean I go and say, don't ever teach it.
No, teach it.
Teach things like, by the way,
the Armenian genocide that a Turkish empire did.
It doesn't make any sense to erase history when you say no, no, don't do it.
Don't teach it, don't, that basically means like, was it so bad.
Yes, it was so bad.
And yes,
there's no harm in teaching actual history unless you think it wasn't so bad.
>> Yeah, I think honing in on this sentence is, is really,
really raising a lot of different things for me cuz going back it says, yeah,
involuntary relocation of African people during colonial times.
So obviously, there's the big problem is the euphemism here for
slavery, which is very much on par with like, level propaganda.
But then also this during colonial times is really interesting because they're
trying to say that the slave trade was only happened during colonial times,
like therefore before the nation of the United States was created
before the constitution.
And that's also not true.
The slave trade continued 18, 20 years into the founding of the nation.
They're doing two things in this statement, there obviously,
teaching children a different euphemism when slavery more than covers it.
Second graders are way more able to understand the concept of slavery than
involuntary relocation.
But also just important to note that not only are they using that language, but
they're also trying to insinuate that the slave trade, this involuntary relocation
was prior to the actual founding of the country, which is not the case.
And then again, just another thing is this discomfort.
It's like discomfort for whom, this is the same state that is
legislating like anything to do with LGBT rhetoric out of the classroom.
And yeah, it's it's discomfort for the exact people in power.
So there's just so many levels of, of ridiculous here, ridiculous.
>> [CROSSTALK] I'm glad you brought up the feeling discomfort because again,
that's what Florida was talking about when they're trying these changes in education.
So again, this is the hierarchy of who they think matters in the country.
Do you think they're concerned with who feels discomfort?
Maybe the descendants of the folks that you called involuntarily relocated to this
country.
The descendants of those people, are they feeling uncomfortable when they go home
and say, hey mom, here's my homework assignment.
We're talking about involuntary relocation and she goes, what the hell is this?
This is ridiculous.
Should she feel discomfort?
And when she goes to the school and says, hey, I'm a parent who wants to advocate
for my child because you guys are giving parental rights and
our influence over our child's education.
Do you know what they'll say to them?
No, that has nothing do with you.
We're actually not talking about you.
You're a second class citizen, you see, cuz we're continuing that same thought
process from that involuntary relocation energy that our ancestors put forward.
And we're trying to continue that into knowledge that you guys to understand how
our progression has gone from that to what we're doing today.
Cuz they don't want people to be fighting back and actually have some kind of basis
for their arguments and for their protest and for obviously they're advocating for
their children's education to actually learn what happened.
It's a complete rewriting of history.
>> Yeah, and I'm gonna wait on this as well.
The feeling discomfort were indisputably correct because you can feel
discomfort either way.
So, hey, don't teach about gay people because non gay
people are feeling discomfort.
Well, when you tell people don't teach about the existence of gay people,
gay students feel discomfort.
Gay parents feel discomfort.
So are they allowed to then say no,
you're not allowed to teach about straight people, like in health class for
example, or you're not allowed to not teach about gay people?
Whose discomfort are we talking about?
How about in this particular case,
you don't think that the descendants of those folks that as Jr said,
you are claiming were involuntarily relocated, might feel discomfort.
Are you trying to sanitize slavery?
No, they literally mean if white right wingers feel discomfort,
we get to veto anything we like.
Otherwise it makes no sense at all.
Okay, can I say, well, you know what I'm apparent in the school,
I feel discomfort that they're teaching the Armenian genocide.
Boom veto, now they can't teach it, that's insane.
How do I get to be?
Well, I felt discomfort, right?
Can Germans say that's it, you're not allowed to teach about the Nazis?
I feel discomfort.
Can Nazis who are not Germans say I feel discomfort that you're saying the Nazis
are bad, okay.
You and I got to take it out of the classrooms and out of the textbooks,
can someone say I feel discomfort that two plus two equals four,
you're not allowed to teach facts anymore.
If idiot right wingers feel uncomfortable.
Man sciences, and by the way this is very real guys.
You get 2 plus 2 equals 4 and you think come on right.
No they took out math books in Florida cuz they claimed it was talking about critical
race theory and then they found out later, just mentioned a black guy.
Come on, they're literally doing it.
And on science, it's a disaster.
Evolution is real, it's science.
It's not debatable.
And they're like well no well it makes me uncomfortable.
I don't like that we are with the other that were an animal,
that makes me uncomfortable.
I think I'm a celestial figure.
So don't teach science.
I think they need a safe space.
>> Yeah, has nothing to do with education and it's all politics.
And it's really sad because the people who will suffer the most are the kids who
are subject to this curriculum.
It's really really really a shame.
And I believe it's the same state that in their textbooks referred to slaves as
workers.
So or maybe that was Florida, I'm not actually sure one of the two but
[CROSSTALK].
>> Yeah [CROSSTALK].
>> Yeah, Texas making a real run in Florida.
>> Let's note that for wackiest crazy estate.
Last thing I land on guys.
This is literal political correctness.
Both the Soviets and the Nazis did political correctness,
it's in the documents that's tracked.
And what they would say to their media and to their education officials,
including their teachers, is do not teach things that are factually correct,
teach things that are politically correct.
So if it's against the Nazi ideology or the soviet ideology do not teach it, even
if it's true, you must teach the things that we consider politically correct.
So that is exactly what republicans are doing in this country right now.
Do not teach evolution.
It is factually correct, but it is not politically correct.
Do not teach slavery.
It is factually correct, but
not politically correct because it hurts our feelings.
It makes us feel uncomfortable.
This is madness.