New Tennessee Law Forbids Colleges to Require Agreement with ‘Antiracist’ Concepts

A new Tennessee law forbids public higher education from requiring allegiance to “divisive concepts,” including some tenets of “antiracism” and diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.

The legislation becomes binding July 1, according to the Tennessee General Assembly. The bill passed the Tennessee House and Senate in late April, and Gov. Bill Lee signed it April 28.

Read the full story

ACLU Wants College Athletes to Run Track, Not Play Golf, Calling it ‘Among the Whitest of Sports’

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is pressuring Central Michigan University to bring back their men’s track and field team, citing that the original decision as having “far-reaching racial implications.”

The ACLU of Michigan blasted CMU for eliminating the men’s track and field program, but then adding a golf program, which it contends is “among the whitest of sports,” Central Michigan Life reports.

Read the full story

Metro Nashville Public School Leaders Hosted Panel on ‘Antiracist Teaching, Learning, and Leading in Classroom’

Screencap from the school board panel

On Saturday, several Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) leaders were featured in a panel discussing anti-racist teaching, learning, and leading in the classroom. The Educators Cooperative (EDCO) hosted leaders Christiane Buggs, MNPS Board Chair, and Ashford Hughes, MNPS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Executive Officer as two of their four keynote panelists.

Buggs and Hughes were part of a larger EDCO conference, titled “Keeping What Works After Trying It All: A Celebration of Educator Brilliance.” Their panel specifically focused on a follow-up to the EDCO series, “Antiracist Teaching, Learning, and Leading from the Classroom.” The goal of their keynote panel on Saturday was to review educator progress on assumptions and practices that either build up or detract from culturally responsive classrooms. EDCO identified Buggs and Hughes as leaders in equitable education.

Read the full story

Tennessee Attorney Sues School District for Targeting, Segregating White Teachers in ‘Antiracist Training’ and Calling Them ‘Racist’ If They Don’t Comply

Braden Boucek

Tennessee attorney Braden Boucek is representing a teacher in a newly-announced lawsuit against a school district for alleged egregious civil rights violations. Boucek is the director of litigation at the Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF), who filed on behalf of the teacher on Tuesday.

The school district, Evanston-Skokie School District 65 (District 65) in Illinois, reportedly requires teachers to undergo “antiracist training” within 2 years. As evidenced by the lawsuit, the training instructs teachers to accept that white individuals are “loud, authoritative, and controlling;” understand that being “less white” is “less racially oppressive;” acknowledge that “white identity is inherently racist;” denounce “white privilege;” and participate in “privilege walks” where they must stand in line and separate themselves according to statements relating to their race or color. After training, the district mandates teachers to relay this information to students. If teachers show any semblance of disagreement with these teachings or directives, then the district labels them as racist.

Read the full story

Michigan Professor Among Those Declaring Correct Grammar Is Racist

Speakers at Towson University’s virtual “Antiracist Pedagogy Symposium” criticized university writing curriculum and programs for being racist and perpetuating Whiteness. 

The event occurred on June 17.

April Baker-Bell (pictured above), associate Professor of Language, Literacy, and English Education at Michigan State University, argued that idea of Standard English among teachers is used to maintain racist assumptions about “Black language.”

Read the full story

Albion College Makes Kendi’s ‘How to Be an Antiracist’ Required Reading for First-Year Students

Ibram X. Kendi

Albion College recently announced its selection for the 2021 Common Reading Experience: “How to Be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi. The Richard M. Smith Common Reading Experience is a mandatory program for all first-year students.

According to the school’s website, “all of Albion’s first-year students read a shared text that serves both to connect students to one another and to help them make the important shift from high school to college.”

In an email addressed to the Albion Community on Wednesday, June 2, 2021, the Common Reading Experience (CRE) Taskforce revealed that it had chosen the book for the first-year mandatory curriculum. 

Read the full story

Top High School in U.S. Releases New Admissions Plan Based on ‘Racial Equity’ Lottery Instead of Academic Merit

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) released a new admissions plan for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology largely based on lottery rather than academic merit. The new plan proposed by FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand omits the current standardized testing requirements.
FCPS says it will admit 100 students based on high evaluations. The high school would select the remaining 400 at random through something they call a “merit lottery.”

Read the full story

Fairfax County Public Schools Paid ‘Critical Race’ and ‘Antiracism’ Theorist Ibram Kendi $20,000 for One-Hour Virtual Presentation

Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) paid critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi $20,000 to give an hour-long virtual presentation. Kendi is the bestselling author of “How to Be Antiracist,” a book of circular definitions used to explain critical race theory.

The average teaching assistant earns $23,000 a year; the staff spent nearly that much for a 45-minute lecture and 15-minute Q&A. 

Read the full story