culture war

• 
• SOURCE: Observer
  9/15/2022
  

  What "Parental Rights" Debates are Getting Wrong

  by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

  The success of the right-wing Moms For Liberty organization in raising fears of critical race theory and gender ideology obscure other historical models of parental activism; a cartoonish image of parents as reactionaries prevents dialogue that can get parents productively involved. 

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• SOURCE: The Racket
  9/1/2022
  

  Why the Right Hates History Now

  by Jonathan M. Katz

  Conservative intellectuals like L. Brent Bozell used to claim the authority of history because the saw it as a set of texts that affirmed the right of men like them to rule. Now that the field has changed, pundits like Bret Stephens have little use for it. 

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• SOURCE: Texas Tribune
  6/30/2022
  

  One Absurdity of Texas's Divisive Concepts Law? Call to Rename Slave Trade as "Involuntary Relocation"

  A working group proposed the change for second grade social studies to the Texas State Board of Education under the shadow of legal jeopardy educators and school systems face under a new law that makes it unclear how the subject of slavery can be taught.

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• SOURCE: ProPublica
  6/29/2022
  

  The Other Cancel Culture: A University Administration Caves to a Conservative Crusade

  The Idaho Freedom Foundation has lobbied state legislators to use the leverage of the higher education budget to attack everything from diversity-related courses to affirmative action to an indigenous land acknowledgement in Boise State's virtual commencement.

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  6/8/2022
  

  Anti-CRT Legislation at Fever Pitch in States

  Suzanne Nossel of PEN America argues that legislation that dictates what can be taught is at "the top of the pyramid" in terms of the broad array of threats to free speech on campuses. 

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• SOURCE: Jacobin
  5/24/2022
  

  School Privatizers are Carrying the Culture War Banner

  Moral panics are proving useful for a right-wing agenda of undermining public trust in public education; America's oligarchs are stoking them, argues a school social worker. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  5/24/2022
  

  The CRT and "Don't Say Gay" Panics Aren't About Controlling Public Schools, but Destroying Them

  by Adam Laats

  In the 1920s, the KKK sought to strengthen and control the public schools as vehicles to teach their version of "100% Americanism"; today's culture warriors hope to undermine trust in schools as a way to defund and privatize them. 

• 
• SOURCE: American Historical Association
  5/18/2022
  

  Historians on Teaching with Integrity in the Face of "Gag Laws"

    Leonard Moore, Katharina Matro, Julia Brookins, Kathleen Hilliard, James Grossman, Hasan Kwame Jeffries, and James Sweet describe how their ability to examine the past honestly and students' freedom to learn support democracy. 

• 
• SOURCE: Texas Tribune
  5/17/2022
  

  Texas Librarians Face Harassment as they Navigate Book Bans

  While some librarians in the state have been fired for refusing to comply with bans, many others have or are contemplating quitting over political interference with their work and social media harassment. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  5/19/2021
  

  When a Right-Wing Attack on Textbooks Was Stopped

  by Jonathan Zimmerman

  A McCarthy-era attack on a leading civics textbook fell short because of both organized resistance and the unpopularity of the ideas behind the ban. Supporters of academic freedom today can potentially draw on both of those elements, too. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  5/16/2022
  

  Calling Culture War a "Distraction" Mistakes its Meaning

  by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

  The right is fighting to make sure that one group's values are more influential than any others'. It's impossible to separate this from material politics, and the left needs to connect its values to changing the way people live. 

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  4/12/2022
  

  Social-Emotional Learning Doesn't Have to be a Culture War Wedge Issue

  by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

  Why are efforts at teaching empathy and emotional self-regulation being treated as left-wing indoctrination? 

• 
• SOURCE: PEN America
  4/28/2022
  

  With Educational Gag Orders, The Vagueness is the Point

  The failure of states to offer precise guidance for which lessons are acceptable and which aren't suggests that "divisive concepts" laws and other legislation are intended to chill teachers' ability to discuss politically sensitive subjects. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  4/26/2022
  

  How "Divisive Concepts" Laws are Targeting Universities

  A survey of recent legislation affecting the teaching of "divisive concepts" in history and other courses, plus changes to what kinds of diversity trainings are required or permitted in multiple states. 

• 
• SOURCE: Truthout
  4/25/2022
  

  The Dark Money Behind KBJ Attacks Is Coming for Public Schools

  by Alyssa Bowen

  "Dark Money" organizations allow a small group of elite families to use their wealth to control the content of education around the country. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  4/20/2022
  

  Tucker Carlson Heralds Yet Another "Crisis of Masculinity"

  by Mona Charen

  Tucker Carlson's recent examination of testicular tanning as a boost to manliness shows the need for societies to support pathways to male expression that don't lead to violence or painful sunburns. 

• 
• SOURCE: Vice
  4/13/2022
  

  The Far Right is "Doxxing" More School Officials they Claim are "Groomers"

  Online calls for violence against teachers and school staff suggest that the right's portrayal of LGBTQ adults as inherent threats to children will soon generate a body count. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/17/2022
  

  The Next Front of the Culture War? Your Public Library

  "Conservative activists in several states, including Texas, Montana and Louisiana have joined forces with like-minded officials to dissolve libraries’ governing bodies, rewrite or delete censorship protections, and remove books outside of official challenge procedures."

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• SOURCE: Florida Today
  4/17/2022
  

  CRT Not What You've Been Told, Florida Professor Tells Public

  Michael Butler, author of two books on the civil rights struggle in Florida, told an audience that the controversy was being stoked to prevent constructive public debate by folding all historical discussion of racism into a "frightening, dangerous, scary" term. 

• 
• SOURCE: Iowa Starting Line
  4/17/2022
  

  Why Iowa Students are Walking Out in Protest

  Restrictions on "divisive concepts" are among the legislative developments that make Iowa high school students fear their educations are being treated as a political football.