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I suspect that leadership in both the House of Delegates and the state Senate would rather their committees cool it with the various culture war bills, but here we are.
For nearly two weeks now, the House of Delegates has dealt with House Bill 4011, a bill meant to address a problem primarily happening in states controlled by Democratic majorities, the teaching or discussion of philosophies derived from critical race theory.
The reason I word it that way (and as I explained in a past column) is because critical race theory itself is a college-level theory taught in master's programs and law schools. The theory itself is simply not taught in K-12 schools.
Probably one of the worst things conservative activists did was adopting the CRT term as a catch-all phrase for multiple philosophies often derived from CRT. It allows progressive activists to say in response to these conservative activists that CRT is not taught in public schools, and they would be correct in that.
But again, when these conservative activists use the term CRT, they more often mean things like anti-racism as presented by Dr. Ibrim X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo. Boston University defines anti-racism as "the practice of actively identifying and opposing racism. The goal of anti-racism is to actively change policies, behaviors, and beliefs that perpetuate racist ideas and actions."
Coleman Hughes, formerly a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute that produces model legislation similar to HB 4011, said the concepts derived from CRT teach that "...racism is systemic and pervasive; race-blind standards are really white-supremacist standards in disguise; lived experience confers special knowledge on victims of racism..."
HB 4011 seeks to limit the discussion of concepts, such as anti-racism, derived from CRT, as well as require schools to post online or make available any curriculum or documents concerning the teaching and/or discussion of non-discrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion, race, ethnicity, sex, bias, or any combination.
The bill states that no person should be blamed for actions committed in the past by someone of the same race, sex, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Schools and county board of education officials would be prohibited from compelling students and staff to adopt any belief or concept that one race, sex, ethnicity, religion, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior to another.
Like so many bills introduced by the majority party these days, it seeks to combat an issue more common in blue states, or even purple states like neighboring Virginia that spent the last few years in the control of the Democratic Party. There are plenty of anecdotes of incidents across the country, such as young white children being told they are oppressors simply for being white, weighting grades based on the race of the student, and written apologies being required of white students for past crimes against marginalized people by their ancestors.
Have these types of incidents occurred? Yes? Are they widespread? Not based on anything I've seen or read. Are these things happening in West Virginia? Probably not to the degree of other places, and I suspect probably not in more rural school districts. Again, West Virginia is a Republican-majority state now made up of working-class conservatives, which means that many of the teachers in our communities likely resemble these communities as well.
Most likely, if anything is done here in West Virginia, it is teachers and students simply discussing the issues of race, sex, gender, and other complex and complicated issues. You'll likely never find this in the classroom curriculum. Many times, it is curious students asking an adult they're around on a daily basis -- their teacher -- about something they've heard or seen or even just an item in the news.
I recall learning about the Civil War, slavery, the Three-Fifths Compromise when our founders crafted the Constitution that counted black slaves as less than a white person, the Underground Railroad, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Dred Scott decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that said slaves who escaped to free states were not themselves free, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Jim Crow, segregation, Plessy v. Ferguson, the escorting of black students to school by the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his march on Selma and his "I Have a Dream" speech.
I could go on. I had a great education combined with my own love of history. What I didn't learn in class, I sought out on my own. My history teachers were some of my favorite teachers. I can only hope other graduates of West Virginia public schools received the same level of history of education as I did. Some of this education involved discussing current events of my time, such as the Rodney King beating, the trial and the riots that resulted.
I'm not here to advocate for or against HB 4011. That's not my job. But I do wonder whether these conversations and discussions in my youth would have occurred had HB 4011 been around when I was in high school. I don't completely buy into CRT philosophies, but I'm not blind to systemic racism or even my own privilege (though I would caveat that by saying having grown up poor, there is a lot of discrimination against low-income people regardless of color).
I am biased in this regard: being a news reporter protected by the First Amendment that protects free speech and freedom of the press, I do believe that one combats speech they don't like with more speech, not less. Banning books, canceling podcasters, or limiting discussion of controversial topics in schools usually backfires.