culture war

• 
• SOURCE: African American Studies Faculty in Higher Ed
  1/31/2023
  

  600 African American Studies Faculty Sign Open Letter in Defense of AP African American Studies

  "We categorically reject DeSantis’s autocratic claim to knowing what college-level material should be available in an AP African American Studies course. There is no precedent, of which we are aware, for him or the Florida Department of Education to claim expertise on any other subject matter for AP course adoption."

• 
• SOURCE: Organization of American Historians
  2/1/2023
  

  Organization of American Historians Statement on AP African American Studies

  "The OAH further rejects the characterization of these scholars and their scholarship as examples of “woke indoctrination,” and instead recognize them as central to the interdisciplinary research and teaching of African American history and culture, as well as American history more broadly."

• 
• SOURCE: The Bulwark
  1/27/2023
  

  Kids Could Teach Republican Pols a Lesson About Handling the Harsh Truth

  by Margaret McMullan

  "Decades after she first walked into Little Rock Central High, Elizabeth Eckford said, 'True reconciliation can occur only when we honestly acknowledge our painful, but shared past'."

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/27/2023
  

  Florida's Vague Content Laws are Being Used to Intimidate Librarians

  The DeSantis administration has declined to issue clarification of the requirements of the "Don't Say Gay" and "Stop Woke" laws, which leaves school librarians fearful of potential prosecution if they leave books on their shelves. 

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  1/17/2023
  

  Ilya Shapiro and Chris Rufo Urge State Legislators to Force Colleges to Change

  by Ilya Shapiro and Christopher Rufo

  Two prominent critics of "wokeness" and "critical race theory" in higher education lay out their suggestions for how state legislators can enact the changes they want to see in public colleges and universities—outside of changes to the curriculum. 

• 
• 1/8/2023
  

  Hillsdale College's New Strategy in the School Wars Merges Curriculum and Privatization through "Choice"

  by Megan Threlkeld

  During the Progressive era, as today, American education reformers examined the connection between schooling and the cultural and political divisions affecting the nation. Today's conservative agenda, however, openly rejects the idea of public schools as a force for unity and democratic culture. 

• 
• SOURCE: ProPublica
  1/3/2023
  

  Florida's Anti-CRT Law is Influencing Professors to Cancel Classes on Race

  Faculty, particularly those without tenure protections, are deciding that the vague terms and harsh penalties in the state's new law make the risk of teaching about racism too high. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  12/12/2022
  

  Food Has Long Been a Culture War Weapon

  The likes of Newt Gingrich and Pat Buchanan were eager to use the symbolism of food to characterize Democrats as scolds, busybodies, and elitists. What Americans eat has been difficult to untangle from politics ever since. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Progressive
  12/5/2022
  

  The Culture War on Public Education

  by Peter Greene

  The multifront culture war beseiging schools has one unifying principle: undermining trust in public schools so they can be privatized, without regard for the best interests of children. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  9/28/2022
  

  This Conservative Thinks TPUSA is a Dangerous Turn Toward Campus McCarthyism

  by Jonathan Marks

  Turning Point USA is now a $40 million a year behemoth. Its influence is steering campus conservative culture to the conspiratorial and extreme, "more Alex Jones than Allan Bloom."

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 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.