Josh Hawley has proposed a law he mawkishly calls "The Love America Act of 2021." This is a brief bill — 3½ pages long. Short on legalese. But infinitely long on the fundamentalist racism that would have had South African apartheidists on their feet, cheering at the historical perversion. In simple language, it states its purpose,
“To prohibit Federal funding for educational agencies and schools whose students do not read certain foundational texts of the United States and are not able to recite those texts or that teach that those texts are products of white supremacy or racism.”
And what are these completely un-racist foundational texts? The bill enumerates the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge we can dismiss as a founding document. Its original version was written years later, in 1892, by Baptist minister Francis Bellamy. I wonder if Hawley knows that Bellamy was a Christian socialist — and believed capitalism to be idolatrous and rooted in the sin of greed. And that this greed leads to social inequities. Probably not. And if he has any say in it, that inconvenient truth will be swept under the carpet.
The Declaration of Independence is not, to my thinking, in itself an overtly racist document. (Perhaps better scholars than I can impute a racist message.) Although it does reference “the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.”
This brings us to the one document that counts, the Constitution. This majestic document is the wellspring of American jurisprudence. But it is not colorblind. I would like Hawley to explain how a teacher can discuss the infamous ‘3/5ths compromise’ in Article 1 Section 2 Clause 3, without reference to race
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons [bold added].
The only way you can argue the language is not racist is to say it wasn’t singling out slaves — in which case, who the hell else was included? Or that slavery wasn’t racist — and it was just a coincidence the slaves were all Black.
Before I get to more thoughts on Hawley’s bill, let’s ask why Hawley is introducing it in the first place. The answer is that the bill is not just about education. It is another in a series of cultural scares conservatives throw out to rile up the mob. In this case, the boogie man is Critical Race Theory (CRT).
CRT is a theory of history discussed by academic philosophers. It is not a curriculum. It has as much relevance to primary education as semiotics and axiology. But facts be damned. Some conservative bomb-thrower realized its potential as a base-roller. And just like that, the right-wing masses were warned of a left-wing plot to turn innocent young white children into self-hating, anti-American drones.
The right’s real problem is that racists cannot stand to be confronted by their racism. Sure, some wear their white supremacy on their sleeve and advocate that all non-whites “go back to where they came from”. But most racists don’t see themselves as racist. They think that America’s current racial conflicts are a product of ‘60s radicals and socialist propaganda. That real America was a harmonious Eden run on Northern European, Protestant principles for the benefit of all Americans.
This disassociation from the truth is evidenced by surveys illuminating the gulf between Black and white opinions on how racist America currently is.
A 2019 Pew Survey showed this in several metrics. Although, even a majority of white Americans think race relations in the U.S. are generally bad. However, if you asked the question solely of conservative whites, I am confident that they would say that race relations are generally fine.
But back to Haley and his whitewashing of American history. Let’s suppose teachers ignore the early racist bits, how do you teach the rest of American History without reference to race? Do you just ignore slavery and say the cotton picked itself?
White conservatives dodge the unpleasant roots of the Civil War by claiming it was about states' rights and calling it “The War of Northern Aggression”. Unfortunately for these fabulists, the slave states put their reasoning in writing.
In its “Declaration of Causes,” Georgia stated
“For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery.”
The document goes on to repeatedly mention Georgia’s determination to protect slavery and resist anti-slavery forces.
Mississippi stated, “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery.”
South Carolina declared that one reason it seceded was the Union’s refusal to honor the fugitive slave language set down in the fourth article of the Constitution
"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."
Texas described the circumstances of its 1845 acceptance into the United States.
“She [Texas] was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery-- the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits-- a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time.”
And in its Secession Ordinance Virginia stated
“and the Federal Government, having perverted said powers, not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern Slaveholding States.”
The language was clear. The cause of the Civil War was the South's desire to maintain slavery. African, negro slavery. You can ignore it. You can lie about it. You can spin it. But the facts are the facts. And to teach otherwise isn’t history. It’s fantasy.
Having hurdled over the Civil War, the conservative apologist history teacher will somehow have to explain Plessy vs Ferguson, Jim Crow Laws, the KKK, and lynching without reference to race. They will have to explain Brown vs The Board of Education, the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Act, the civil rights marches, and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. absent context.
I do know how you do it. America’s History curriculum will be reduced to “Columbus discovered America. The Natives were happy to see the whites arrive. The whites brought Blacks from Africa and gave them jobs while providing them with free food, clothes and shelter. America became the world’s greatest democracy and free-est country by passing laws to ensure the integrity of the vote. Lots of people came here. And everyone agreed that America always had been, and always would be, run on white Christian principles.”
One advantage of that curriculum is that it will free up plenty of time to teach sham science.
Hawley joins a large number of conservative whites who declare that those who want to reach the truth of American history are anti-patriotic America haters, who loath the country and want to tear it down. That is complete hogwash. Good parents both love their children and want them to be the best they can be.
And for a child to be the best it can be, their faults need to be addressed. You don’t teach a child to be a great speller by ignoring all their misspellings. Responsible love looks error in the eye. Addresses it. And corrects it.
And that’s how Americans, who love America, should take care of America. Not ignore its faults, but look them in the eye. Address them. And correct them.
You can’t wish a country to greatness, you have to work hard to make it great. And you can’t make it great without removing the obstacles to its greatness. And you can’t remove obstacles without knowing what they are.
The truth can hurt, but it hurts less than ignorance. Knowing the truth is what inspires people to get vaccinated. Ignoring the truth is what causes people to catch COVID and sometimes die. Of course, Hawley is foursquare behind that kind of ignorance as well.