![]() ![]() Indeed, but why now? In the short view, wild, angry resistance to the new regime has become a constant feature of American politics - the Tea Party in response to a Black president, the Women’s March and resistance in response to Donald Trump, and now this Salem-style witch hunt across America’s classrooms after President Biden’s election. But when I spoke this week to Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education for the writers’ advocacy group PEN America, he said the pace of what his group calls “gag orders” against classroom instructors is the worst since the 1920s’ crusade against teaching evolution that climaxed with the infamous “ Scopes Monkey Trial.” That trial took place in Tennessee just 28 miles west of where Maus was banned in the 2020s. This right-wing freak-out over what they claim is children becoming indoctrinated with ideas about racism or homophobia feels like a new McCarthyism. Joe McCarthy-led “Red Scare” of the 1950s, if not worse. Among his inaugural moves to place government restrictions on classroom instruction, the new governor created an email tip line for parents to report “divisive tactics in their schools” - yet another clap-back to the paranoia of the Sen. Glenn Youngkin has metaphorically ripped off his nice-guy suburban fleece to reveal the greasepaint of a culture warrior. Yet that wasn’t the only grim echo of 20th-century authoritarian regimes. ![]() Spiegelman himself called the move “ Orwellian.” Many raced to condemn the almost unbearable irony of censorship that prevents kids from learning the history of a book-burning regime. In a season of free-speech outrages, arguably the worst moment came this month when school board members in rural McMinn County, Tenn., voted unanimously - on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, no less - to ban author Art Spiegelman’s groundbreaking, Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic narrative, Maus, about the Nazi slaughter of Jews, claiming the book contained some dirty words and nudity (in depicting a concentration camp). There’s regularly news of a school district ousting a teacher or a principal accused of radical views, or an acclaimed book being banned from schools or the local library. Several times a day now comes word of a new bill that would ban classroom discussions around antiracism or books on LGBTQ+ issues or sex education. What happened to Butler in Osceola County would have been noteworthy as an isolated incident, but as anyone who even half-watches the news or spends a few minutes on social media in January 2022 could tell you, it was hardly an isolated incident. “This is the quintessential American story - how do we guarantee equality for all of our citizens?” “I contend you can’t understand what it means to be an American without this history,” he said. It went in cycles.” The Flagler professor is suddenly on the front lines of a new paranoia about classroom teaching, not just in Florida but across much of America. While not surprised, Butler told me by phone Thursday that “I was disappointed, I was mad, I was depressed. The district’s superintendent told those instructors in an email, as reported by NBC News, that Butler’s lecture needed more scrutiny “in light of the current conversations across our state and in our community about critical race theory,” and she expressed concern about potential “negative distractions.” The cancellation came as Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, is making his jihad against “critical race theory” - an often-misused phrase to describe teachings about racism - a linchpin of his reelection drive, and as state lawmakers in Tallahassee weigh a bill that would block schools from making students feel “discomfort” over race. So the professor wasn’t completely shocked this month when administrators for the Osceola County School District abruptly canceled his planned Saturday sessions with their teachers. ![]() In two decades, the lesson never provoked even the slightest controversy.īut the political climate around Butler’s specialty - the history of U.S. and use a wide lens when teaching during Black History Month, from the dawn of Jim Crow to today’s fights over police brutality. Through his lecture, Butler helps Florida educators look beyond the Rev. Michael Butler hasn’t changed in 20 years. The lecture series is titled “The Long Civil Rights Movement,” and the talk by Flagler University history professor J. ![]()
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