{"id":34607,"date":"2022-02-24T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=34607"},"modified":"2022-02-23T12:26:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T18:26:37","slug":"how-oklahomas-classroom-curriculum-bans-affect-black-educators-and-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2022\/02\/24\/how-oklahomas-classroom-curriculum-bans-affect-black-educators-and-families\/","title":{"rendered":"How Oklahoma\u2019s classroom curriculum bans affect Black educators and families"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; margin-bottom: 20px; border-radius: 6px; overflow: hidden;\"><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px;\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/b81a3a96-f378-49af-a5b5-75ead553ae0d\"><\/iframe><\/div><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Karlos Hill plops the books on his desk in Norman.<\/span><\/p><p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One. Two. Three\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He\u2019s counting the texts that he says contain controversial topics that could be questioned under Oklahoma\u2019s so-called Critical Race Theory ban.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The stack grows taller as he pulls out popular books like \u201cJust Mercy\u201d and heavy textbooks. These are books talking about difficult topics like racism and slavery.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey would have to cancel half my shelf, man,\u201d he said. \u201cLook at that. I mean, but this is canceling knowledge.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s knowledge that as a scholar and parent &#8211; he\u2019s chair of the Clara Luper Department of African and African-American Studies and father of 8-year-old twins &#8211; is important to both those duties.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And as voices like his are drowned out by louder, more radical ones advocating for book bans and attacking Critical Race Theory, Hill said he and others are trying to reframe the conversation in classrooms and at dinner tables across Oklahoma<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019ve got to be right there trying to understand what is the teacher communicating, because if I don&#8217;t care, then my kids don&#8217;t know to care, they get misinformed,&#8221; Hill said.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>So what is CRT?<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Critical Race Theory (or CRT for short) is a popular discussion topic on Fox News and has permeated political talking points in Oklahoma for more than a year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe will teach history,\u201d Gov. Kevin Stitt said <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/gop-governors-crack-down-critical-race-theory-teach-race-superior\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in an interview with Fox News<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> earlier this month. \u201cWe\u2019re just not going to get into the race baiting stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But critics say the bill isn\u2019t about race baiting. Instead it\u2019s about muting voices who would have difficult conversations around race and slavery, Hill said.<\/span><\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2021\/07\/08\/what-oklahoma-teachers-need-to-know-about-the-states-so-called-critical-race-theory-ban\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">House Bill 1775<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was popularly called a CRT-ban in the media. However, the phrase isn\u2019t actually anywhere in the text of the measure. Instead that law, signed by Stitt last year, bans conversations that make a student uncomfortable based on their race or sex.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hill credits Critical Race Theory to Black legal scholar Derrick Bell, who died in 2011.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHe made an arguement about the enduring role that racism and racial discrimination has played in American institutional life, not just legal culture, but pervasive throughout American culture,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But that definition seems lost. Instead Hill says the debate is being leveraged by conservative lawmakers to energize their base and win elections.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThis critical race boogeyman, this manufactured polarization is very effective in doing that, but it&#8217;s going to have long term disastrous consequences,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were no complaints filed with Oklahoma\u2019s State Department of Education about CRT before the law was passed and only <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kosu.org\/education\/2022-01-17\/oklahoma-received-only-two-unfounded-allegations-of-violations-of-critical-race-theory-ban-law\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">two unfounded complaints were filed last fall<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The battle against classroom censorship<\/b><\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hill is the father of 8-year-old twins who attend Moore Public Schools. And though sometimes it feels like a losing battle to deal with mistruth about a subject he teaches like Critical Race Theory, he and others must continue to talk about race and slavery and a multitude of other difficult topics.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is institutional support for professors and parents like Hill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ACLU of Oklahoma\u00a0 is currently suing Oklahoma over HB 1775. And that organization&#8217;s Executive Director Tamya Cox-Toure says politicians should stay out of classroom speech debates.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d Cox-Toure said. \u201cWe really should honor the expertise and the work of our school administrators and educators, into determining what is necessary and what is proper to be taught in schools.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The suit continues after it was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2021\/10\/21\/aclu-lawyer-discusses-challenge-to-oklahomas-critical-race-theory-ban\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">filed in October<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Since that time there have been various legal maneuvers to get some parties names removed or even have it dismissed altogether. But the case persists.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Megan Lambert is ACLU of Oklahoma\u2019s Legal Director.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe prohibition of using specific words in a space where the First Amendment is at its height is some of the most severe and draconian examples of censorship we have seen in a while,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fact that our Legislature has reached so far into the classroom that specific words are banned from the classroom is absurd. Not only from a policy perspective, but from a First Amendment perspective.\u201d<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ACLU\u2019s suit is far from complete. More bills like 1775 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2022\/02\/11\/one-week-of-session-down-where-do-education-issues-stand\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are being introduced this session<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But it\u2019s an important fight to continue, she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBy no means do we think we&#8217;re done and we will continue to see\u00a0 these type of censorship bills evolve and we&#8217;ll continue to try to be as present and as vocal as possible,\u201d Cox-Toure said.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several of the plaintiffs in the suit are at OU as students. And though Hill isn\u2019t involved in the suit, he said he\u2019s happy about the work they\u2019re doing and he\u2019s going to keep doing similar work of his own.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That includes making sure the public, his students and even his own children have good, productive conversations about race.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI\u2019m certainly not going to stop teaching what I teach,\u201d Hill said. \u201cI&#8217;m recommitted to doing what I do more than anything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karlos Hill plops the books on his desk in Norman.One. Two. Three\u2026He\u2019s counting the texts that he says contain controversial topics that could be questioned under Oklahoma\u2019s so-called Critical Race Theory ban.The stack grows taller as he pulls out popular books like \u201cJust Mercy\u201d and heavy textbooks. These are books talking about difficult topics like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":34606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34607"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34607"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34610,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34607\/revisions\/34610"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}