Texas

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  5/4/2021
  

  Black America’s Neglected Origin Stories

  by Annette Gordon-Reed

  History education helps create "origin stories" for individuals and groups that affect how people see themselves and their society. The narrowness and incompleteness of African American history as taught in schools supports limited understandings of Black identity. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  5/8/2021
  

  Alamo Renovation Gets Stuck over Arguments about Slavery

  Renovations to the Alamo have hit a predictable political snag, as conservative Texans insist that the site maintain its denial about the slaveholding of many of the Alamo's defenders or the pro-slavery ambitions of the Republic of Texas and threaten to block bills encouraging more historically informed exhibits. 

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• SOURCE: Texas Tribune
  5/4/2021
  

  Tensions Boil at UT-Austin over "The Eyes of Texas"

  "Kendall Walker, a UT-Austin senior who is part of the student strike in the admissions office, said she thinks administrators wrongly assumed the issue would die down after the school formed a committee this past year to study the song’s origins."

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• SOURCE: KUT
  4/28/2021
  

  'History Is Written By The Victors,' But The Texas Freedom Colonies Project Works To Change The Narrative

  Andrea Roberts leads the Texas Freedom Colonies Project to recover the history of post-Civil War Black communities which were important sites of mutual security, economic development, and culture in the state, but have largely been erased by the seizure of land from the occupants. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/21/2021
  

  The Historian Annette Gordon-Reed Gets Personal in ‘On Juneteenth’

  "In 'On Juneteenth' Annette Gordon-Reed leads by example, revisiting her own experiences, questioning her own assumptions — and showing that historical understanding is a process, not an end point."

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  4/13/2021
  

  ‘That Man Makes Me Crazy’: Neil Matkin's Reign at Collin College Draws Scrutiny

  Neil Matkin's regime connects several trends: the politicization of higher ed administration, the diminishment of faculty's role in shared governance, and the imposition of business logic in higher ed administration. But faculty and staff say that the personal element is what makes the situation truly intolerable. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  3/30/2021
  

  The Republican Poseurs Who Claim to Be True Texans

  A number of the most prominent conservatives holding or running for office in Texas are, in fact, recent arrivals. They echo the influx of pro-slavery fanatics to the Republic of Texas, and also obscure the growing diversity and political moderation of the state's large urban areas. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  3/12/2021
  

  An Honest History of Texas Begins and Ends With White Supremacy

  by Casey Michel

  Amanda Vickery of the University of North Texas says that recent proposals in the Texas legislature for a curriculum of Texas patriotism won't acknowledge the way that slavery and white supremacy were central to the Republic of Texas. 

• 
• SOURCE: Texas Monthly
  3/7/2021
  

  A University of Texas Report Will Find That ‘The Eyes of Texas’ Has “No Racist Intent”

  A University of Texas Commission's report will likely serve as reinforcement for the administration's decision to keep the tradition of playing "The Eyes of Texas" after football games, pleasing many rich donors and angering student activists. 

• 
• SOURCE: Bloomberg Equality
  3/11/2021
  

  My Family’s Long-Gone Texas Land Shows How Black Wealth Is Won and Lost

  by Jacqueline Simmons

  A host of the Pay Check podcast introduces a new season that will examine her family's history of landholding in Texas as a lens on the historical roots of the black-white wealth gap. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/7/2021
  

  Texas School’s Lesson on Chivalry Asked Girls to ‘Walk Daintily’ and Obey Men

  Students interviewed were divided between recognizing the pedagogical goal of showing how chivalry could excuse the subordination of women, others (and some parents) disagreed with the method. 

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• SOURCE: Austin American-Statesman
  3/2/2021
  

  It's not Tex-Mex: New Documentary Digs Deep into Texas Mexican Food, History

  Adán Medrano's new streaming documentary focuses on the influence of indigenous culture and the labor of women and immigrants in the food culture of Texas. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  3/6/2021
  

  Conservative Donors Have Their Own Cancel Culture

  "In 1903, the two students premiered their song at an annual campus minstrel show, where white musicians performed it in blackface. It became a tradition at subsequent minstrel shows and was soon embedded in the university’s culture. Some people apparently want to keep it there forever."

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  2/25/2021
  

  Fired for Tweeting?

  "In a written statement to The Chronicle, Burnett said, “Collin College is a government organization that has unconstitutionally sought to punish me for my speech as a private citizen." 

• 
• SOURCE: Texas Tribune
  3/1/2021
  

  “UT Needs Rich Donors”: Emails Show Wealthy Alumni Supporting “Eyes of Texas” Threatened to Pull Donations

  A number of wealthy University of Texas alumni have threatened to withhold donations unless "The Eyes of Texas," a song with roots traced to blackface minstrelsy and the Lost Cause mythology, is reinstated as the Longhorns' postgame anthem. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/21/2021
  

  Texas Failed Because It Did Not Plan

  An analysis of three interrelated failures of planning, logistics, and markets that led to the Texas electrical disaster. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/21/2021
  

  Why Texas Republicans Fear the Green New Deal

  by Naomi Klein

  The Texas blackouts show the political and social dead ends of the market revolution and the fossil fuel economy, says Naomi Klein. Politicians and industries wedded to the status quo are attacking the idea of a "Green New Deal" because it's encouraging people to imagine alternatives. 

• 
• SOURCE: Informed Comment
  2/17/2021
  

  From COVID to Power Outages in Ice Storms, the Texas Republican Party has Created a Failed State

  by Juan Cole

  Texas Republicans have gotten out of the way of the market and preached the futility of government action. A non-winterized utility grid is the result. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/23/2021
  

  Energy Deregulation Worsened the Texas Crisis — And Enron is Partly to Blame

  by Gavin Benke

  The problems in Texas are a product of an approach to the energy business that Lone Star State companies like Enron pursued at the end of the 20th century. 

• 
• 2/18/2021
  

  The Texas Weather and Power Catastrophe

  by HNN Staff

  The combination of severe winter storms and persistent cold and a deregulated energy supply system without compulsion to invest in winterization has left Texans without power, heat or drinking water for days. Senator Ted Cruz appears to have decamped to Cancun while politicians blame wind and solar power for frozen natural gas refineries.