We already knew white Texas Republicans were crazy, misogynist, and racist, but new levels of outrageous craziness emerge every day. The Governor banned masks in schools and public places as COVID infections and hospitalization surged. The state deputized private citizens to block a woman’s reproductive rights. The legislature passed a law to limit who can vote that targets Black and Latino citizens. Another law, passed and signed by the Governor in June, dictates how Texas teachers are able to discuss current events and the history of racism in the United States and bans the use of the New York Times 1619 Project in Texas classrooms.
On a smaller scale, but with serious implication for education in Texas and other Republican controlled “red” states, Colleyville Heritage High School principal James Whitfield, the school’s first African American principal, was put on paid administrative leave after he was charged with endorsing the teaching of Critical Race Theory.
The Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. The high school has about 2,000 students. Its student population in 2020 was a little over 50% white, but the percentage has declined since a high of 75% in 2008. It is currently 19% Latino, 16% Asian, and only 6% African American. Politically, Tarrant County, where the district is located, is pretty evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.
Whitfield was accused at a July school board meeting by Stetson Clark, a white, former candidate for the school board, of teaching and promoting critical race theory by "encouraging the disruption and destruction of our districts" in a message to local families where he discussed “systemic racism” following the murder of George Floyd.
Clark ran for the school board in Spring 2021 touting his experience as a fiscal conservative and money manager, support for the Texas Governor’s limited COVID response allowing Texans to ignore the need for vaccination and the wearing of masks, an immediate return to in-person classes, and a return to “classic education.” His campaign Facebook page featured him wearing a large black Stetson hat. He narrowly lost to an incumbent seeking reelection to the board.
In a response to accusations from Clark, Whitfield wrote, "I am not the CRT Boogeyman. I am the first African American to assume the role of Principal at my current school in its 25-year history, and I am keenly aware of how much fear this strikes in the hearts of a small minority who would much rather things go back to the way they used to be."
Since the July school board meeting, hundreds of students, parents, and teachers showcased their support for Whitfield, the news outlet reported. A petition urging the board to keep Whitfield as principal has so far received over 1,500 signatures, and dozens of students protested outside of the district's administration building last week in his support.
In August, an interracial group of high school students protested outside a school board meeting in support of Whitfield. Sean Vo, a senior at Colleyville Heritage High School who helped organize the protest, charged the debate over Whitfield was not really about Critical Race Theory (CRT). “It’s become blatant racism and bigotry. It’s escalated so much to just personal attacks on a man that they do not even know.”
A similar battle over the school curriculum is being fought in the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, another suburban district near Dallas-Fort Worth. Rightwing groups are fighting to prevent the district from implementing a diversity and inclusion plan and they have been able to get a court restraining order to block it. The groups accuse the district of promoting a “left-wing agenda,” “reverse racism,” and creating “diversity police.” The diversity and inclusion plan was developed after videos of Carroll High School students chanting the n-word were posted online in 2018 and 2019.
I guess the suspension of James Whitfield by the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District and the curriculum fight in Southlake are just Texas being Texas and further proof that the United States desperately needs an infusion of CRT.
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