'Utter propaganda': New York Times reports on Republican-led states trying to 'ban' how the role of slavery can be taught

Despite numerous historians asking the New York Times to make “prominent corrections” to the award-winning 1619 Project, it’s now being used in thousands of schools across the country as part of the curriculum. In response, President Trump announced his own 1776 Project, with the aim of instilling civic pride in students while still teaching history. Despite the 1776 Project not actually existing, critics explained that it would ban schools from teaching slavery.

We’ve already done a post on Christopher Rufo today in which he owns The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes, but a tweet of his from Sunday is worth a look as well. The New York Times did a piece on Texas, which is “awash in bills aimed at fending off critical examinations of the state’s past.” Just like the critics of the 1776 Project, the New York Times says nearly a dozen Republican-led states “seek to ban or limit how the role of slavery and pervasive effects of racism can be taught.” They would also ban lessons that teach “that any state or the country is inherently racist.”

This is a USSR-level lie. None of the bills prohibit schools from teaching about slavery or racism; they prohibit schools from compelling students to believe in race essentialism, collective guilt, and racial superiority theory.

The New York Times is utter propaganda. pic.twitter.com/AK8vuqhGHQ

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) May 23, 2021

No one has suggested schools not teach the history of slavery in America. What states oppose is Marxist-based lessons in which students arrange themselves in a hierarchy of oppression, labeling themselves as the oppressor or the oppressed, and to which degree. What they’re fighting is math classes which teach that focusing on getting the right answer and showing your work is based on “whiteness” and white supremacy and instead using math class to teach segments on “Power and Oppression” and “History of Resistance and Liberation.” Your new math questions? “Where does power and oppression show up in our math experiences?” and “How is math manipulated to allow inequality and oppression to persist?” This is not made up.

Thanks for bringing this up. I tried to have a conversation with somebody the other day about this, explaining that I read four of the bills in full and that I thought they were being misrepresented by the media, and I received this wonderful reply: pic.twitter.com/lNWoYu2tom

— Jessica Moore (@jesscmoore) May 23, 2021

I was then linked to a Huffington Post article about the bills and told to see for myself what was happening, as if that were somehow more informative than the actual bills themselves. That I had read.

— Jessica Moore (@jesscmoore) May 23, 2021

It is literally quite something the USSR would say during the cold war

— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) May 24, 2021

Militants in the press and militants in schools go hand in hand. They play on the same team.

— Miguel Nagib (@miguel_nagib) May 23, 2021

I'm always amazed by well-educated friends who still believe @nytimes is trustworthy. It's usually clear within the first minutes of a conversation whether someone gets their news exclusively from the Times, @washingtonpost or one of the US legacy TV networks. They're clueless.

— Vivienne Bouché (@BoucheVivienne) May 23, 2021

every dive into the reader comments in a Times article fills me with despair.

— Daniel Addison (@derocrates) May 23, 2021

This really infuriates me, because they make it seem as if we haven't taught about slavery and Jim Crow before 2020. Like, WTF. Sure, there is always more we can teach, and we should include more perspectives, but painting this as they do is just dumb

— Center Left Dip$h!t (@bkrugbytight) May 23, 2021

Texas legislation welcomes the discussion on slavery and racism, as well as eugenics and who started it all and why. Conservatives are not afraid of a truthful discussion-libs are. They are the party that supported Jim Crow laws, segregation, etc

— Tamara Colbert (@TamaraColbert) May 24, 2021

Isn't it amazing how we go from "Every institution in the US today is built on racism, and we must destroy whiteness!" to "It's just examining the past!"? 180-degree change in an instant.

They say whatever they need to say to preserve their control.

— James Crawford (@DrJCrawford) May 23, 2021

Bingo.

Resistance journalism has destroyed the NYT. They're essentially a propaganda outlet for the DNC at this point.

— Christopher Young (@chris5977) May 23, 2021

The key word is "obscure." That's how you can make it a "plausible lie." Everything they teach that doesn't comform to what the NYTimes believes they should teach "obscures" the topic.

— Dave Rogers (@iahphx) May 24, 2021

They have no shame and why should they when there’s no accountability.

— Brian McKeon💧 (@Bbbmckeon) May 23, 2021

The story was already written before any research into the subject was done.

Related:

The Bulwark’s Charlie Sykes tries and fails to shame Christopher Rufo for effectively taking on Critical Race Theory https://t.co/omYykaoSXm

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) May 24, 2021