Banning books and discussion on slavery and racism in SC won’t make racism disappear

Systemic and entrenched racism isn’t in hiding.

Just this week at a mall in Bridgewater, New Jersey, when two teenagers - one white, one Black - were fighting, both were plainly visible.

As the state’s NAACP chapter noted in a statement, “When Bridgewater police found two youths fighting, the immediate reaction was to aggressively throw the Black child to the ground, knee placed around the neck area and cuffed behind the back. At the same time, the white youth, at least equally at fault for the fight as his Black counterpart, was carefully eased onto a couch and treated like a victim.”

Video of the fight and the police response has been seen by millions including Gov. Phil Murphy who Tweeted that “I’m deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video.”

Even the 15-year-old white child involved in the fight knew something was amiss. He can be seen in the video holding up his arms waiting to be handcuffed, but never was.

He told a local news station, “I knew it was wrong, and I knew there was gonna be problems when they did that. They didn’t go for me.”

He went on to tell PIX11 News that “I didn’t understand why. I even offered to get handcuffed as well.”

Thousands of miles away in Georgia, testimony this week in the federal hate crimes trial of the three men who murdered 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery made plain that racist language was part of their everyday vernacular.

Travis McMichael, his father, Greg McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan pursued and killed Arbery as he ran through their neighborhood in February 2020.

During opening arguments in the federal trial, prosecutors noted that the men had no compunction about using racial epithets.

Travis McMichael, prosecutors said, once texted a friend saying he loved his job because “zero n——rs work with me.” Greg McMichael, prosecutors said, once told someone in a conversation about the 2015 death of civil rights activist Julian Bond, “Those Blacks are all nothing but trouble.”

And just days before Arbery was shot, Bryan, after learning his daughter was dating a Black man said his daughter “has her n——-r now.”

The fight in New Jersey and the trial in Georgia took place the same week the South Carolina House Education and Public Works Committee heard public testimony on several bills that basically prevent teachers from having free and open discussions about the history of slavery, racism and related subjects and their ongoing impacts on daily life.

Witnesses implored the panel to resist the urge to pass unnecessary bills that would prevent the state’s children from learning and that would hinder teachers attempting to give South Carolina’s young people the best and most comprehensive education possible.

As one speaker passionately put it, “These bills are an attempt to hide the past.”

If we want American children of all racial backgrounds to be prepared to take on the future, we must give them the knowledge to do so and not merely recite one line from the vast works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

South Carolina schools are not teaching critical race theory and the only reason the theory, part of some college or law school curricula, is in the spotlight is because many who know exactly what it is have lied about it to others.

Education Week defined it as “an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that race is a social construct, and that racism is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies.”

South Carolina’s K-12 students are being taught American history, not critical race theory.

One committee member also noted that some of the bills are vague and overly broad, leaving teachers with no clear guidance on how and what to teach without fearing some reprimand.

Instead of passing these bills, the State Legislature would do well to better support and fund our schools to help our state move up from its notoriously low place in national education rankings.

The children in Bridgewater, NJ know that racism persists. Ahmaud Arbery’s family and the men who killed him in Brunswick, Georgia know racism persists.

We cannot evade reality by ignoring our history.

This story was originally published February 17, 2022 at 11:05 AM.