Editorials & Other Articles

niyad

(113,284 posts) Sat Apr 1, 2023, 02:18 PM Apr 2023

How Feminists and Academics Are Fighting the Right's 'Anti-Woke' Agenda

How Feminists and Academics Are Fighting the Right’s ‘Anti-Woke’ Agenda
3/29/2023 by Karsonya Wise Whitehead

Demonstrators outside the Florida State Capitol on Feb. 15, 2023, protest Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ plan to eliminate AP courses on African American studies in high schools. DeSantis says the courses violates the Stop WOKE Act, which curbs race-related and gender curriculum from Florida classrooms. (Joshua Lott / The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Like many of you, the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) has been watching with increased alarm, anger and frustration the legislative efforts by the Republican party to limit our academic freedom, censor the teaching of African American and gender studies, and place us in an untenable situation where we are forced to defend ourselves and our livelihood. The attack is personal. It is rooted in anti-Black racism, patriarchy, transphobia, whiteness and xenophobia—a propagandistic argument designed to whitewash our collective history. We are under attack.

Last week, North Carolina’s Republican-controlled House revisited a previously vetoed proposal and voted to restrict how K-12 grade teachers can discuss racial topics within their classrooms—making it the 28th state that has either limited how teachers can discuss issues about race and gender or is considering passing legislation. Florida HB 999, currently working its way through the state legislature, specifically bans “the use of pedagogical methodology associated with Critical Theory, including, but not limited to, Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, Radical Feminist Theory, Radical Gender Theory, Queer Theory, Critical Social Justice or Intersectionality.” As such, it provides states with the model that they need to go forward.

Some of these bills are so vague and wide-reaching that they are laying the foundation (breadcrumbs!) for future legislative attacks against any academic work, person or group that critiques the U.S. and supports racial justice and gender equality. It will not stop unless we stop it. The attacks against critical race theory and intersectionality, coupled with the intentional campaign to reframe the term “wokeness” as a veiled slur against Black, Brown and other marginalized people, are reminders that in this country, as bell hooks taught us, classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy. As educators and activists, we understand why this is happening and why it is vital to raise our collective voices to speak into this moment. It is not simply a debate about curriculum; it is a fight about the direction of this country.

This is not a new fight; it did not start with Ron DeSantis’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill or his anti-woke campaign. It did not start with Donald Trump’s memo labeling CRT as “divisive,” while issuing an executive order banning racial justice training. It did not even start with the groundbreaking work of The 1619 Project. This is an old battle that has its roots in the anti-literacy laws that were passed in Confederate states from 1740-1834. It has its roots in the Roberts v. City of Boston case, in Plessy v. Ferguson, in Roe v. Wade. It has its roots in anti-LGBTQ discrimination. It has its roots in white supremacy and the pursuit of manifest white destiny.

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