As Black History Month begins, the celebration of Black culture, accomplishments, and figures over time is running into a problem – the Anti-Critical Race Theory movement. It was only a matter of time until people saw these two things as one combined thing.
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In Alabama, where a parent complained about teacher diversity training and the Board of Education banned Critical Race Theory teachings back in October, some people are using this as an excuse to cry foul on any teachings involving historical Black figures and facts.
According to Salon, teachers in Alabama are being accused of teaching CRT by simply celebrating Black History Month. Alabama Superintendent Eric Mackey told members of the Alabama House Education Policy Committee parents are accusing schools of teaching critical race theory.
From Al.com:
”There are people out there who don’t understand what Critical Race Theory is. And so in their misunderstanding of it, they make a report but it’s not actually CRT,” Mr Mackey told the committee.
“I had two calls in the last week that they’re having a Black History Month program and they consider having a Black history program CRT,” Mackey said. “Having a Black history program is not CRT.”
Parents might be confused about what is being taught in the curriculum and to whom it’s being taught. But Black History Month? Black history is American history – that means the good and the bad parts. If you speak about Rosa Parks and her activism, it has to be mentioned she was jailed in Montgomery, Alabama, for simply refusing to give up her seat. Unfortunately, many Black people had to excel under the threats of racism, segregation, and slavery. You can’t erase that from history.
As far as Alabama classrooms, Mackey went on to clarify:
“I can tell you what’s in the state curriculum,” Mackey said. “I can tell you what’s in our textbooks and CRT is not in there.”
In a succession of tweets, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Randall Woodfin, stated that “It should not be controversial to admit that our country was founded by very brilliant, yet flawed men. Many of them slave owners.”
