North Carolina adopted a new social studies curriculum, despite the efforts of the newly elected Lieutenant Governor to remove any references to “systemic racism.”
(CNN)The North Carolina State Board of Education has passed a new standard for teaching social studies that will include a more diverse perspective of history.
The board added language for educators to teach about racism, discrimination and the treatment of marginalized groups. But due to pushback from some lawmakers, the new standard does not include the word “systemic” before racism and discrimination or the word “gender” before identity.
The new standards passed in a 7-5 vote on Thursday, but only after State Board Superintendent Catherine Truitt removed the two words.
“For nearly two years, the Department has worked to create consensus among hundreds of educators and stakeholders statewide over the history standards. I’m disappointed there was not a unanimous vote on these standards today because the Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education created them to be both inclusive and encompassing,” Truitt said.
Truitt also added a preamble stating, “The North Carolina Board of Education believes that our collective social studies standards must reflect the nation’s diversity and that the successes, contributions, and struggles of multiple groups and individuals should be included.”
According to the preamble, this means teaching the hard truths of Native American oppression, anti-Catholicism, exploitation of child labor and Jim Crow.”Our human failings have at times taken the form of racism, xenophobia, nativism, extremism, and isolationism. We need to study history in order to understand how these situations developed, the harmful impact they caused, and the forces and actors that sometimes helped us move beyond these outcomes,” the preamble said.
The measure was opposed by several Republican members of the State Board who said the new standards presented an overly negative picture of the nation’s history.Among those opposed was Mark Robinson, the first Black lieutenant governor of the state.
“I do not believe we live in a systemically racist nation, nor have we ever lived in a systemically racist nation,” Robinson said. Robinson voted against the standards even after the word “systemic” was removed and said that enough people in the state have questions and concerns about the standards and they needed to go back to the drawing board.
Stuart Egan, an NBCT teacher in North Carolina, was upset by the statements made by the newly elected Lieutenant Governor’s claim that “systemic racism” is a myth, and that anyone who teaches otherwise is wrong. In other words, writes Egan, the Lt. Governor wants to indoctrinate students into a fake version of history, in which people of color were never discriminated against as a matter of law and custom. That’s fake history.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“In other words, writes Egan, the Lt. Governor wants to indoctrinate students into a fake version of history, in which people of color were never discriminated against as a matter of law and custom. That’s fake history.”
NO–That’s Rewriting History.
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a key distinction
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Not systemic? Well, it is who is educated.
Perhaps a quick look at a timeline of “the history of education” and citing critical events in U.S. history. Except for good old Horace Mann advocating for compulsory education for all (of which Mississippi in 1918 became the last state to adopt the law) – no where is there a law, statute, state or federal court case or even a protest to advocate for the rights of white males. (The privilege of not having to think about things that affect others night and day).
Consider the statutes prohibiting or placing restrictive limits of education for African-Americans (pre and post slavery) and women and other identifiable groups. (and, we can add vouchers and tax credits to the list). Statutes = systemic.
And, if racism (and other ‘isms’) is not systemic, why did we need Brown v. Board of Education, P.L. 94-142 (IDEA), Plyler v. Doe, Title IX?
Even George W. Bush acknowledged the “soft bigotry of low expectations” – a phrase acknowledging the need for systemic change – even though the change was NCLB.
If 250 years of U.S. restrictions and necessity for Supreme Court decisions to change them is not an indicator of “systemic” – then what is? (And that’s just a sampling of the documented, “official” systemic examples which are surrounded by daily subtle and not so subtle examples)
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The author of this article has never studied the culture or lived in a country ruled by a king or a communist country. They are systemic. There is no way for them to protest or sue and get any rights. I do not advocate for not telling the truth about our failings, but the failures should not be overemphasized. The positive aspects should be discussed and explained so the students have a favorable view of America.
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