The Texas State Board of Education has received a recommendation from a group of Texas educators formed to advise for curriculum changes, including a new state law passed to require that students don’t “feel discomfort” over topics like race and slavery. As such, the proposal is that slavery should not be referred to as “slavery” during elementary school social studies instruction—but as “involuntary relocation.” Doesn’t that sound much nicer?
The group proposed the change to conform to Texas’ new state law that slavery can’t be taught as “part of the true founding of the United States” and that slavery was ”nothing more than a deviation from American values.”
It could be worse. Texas tried in 2015 to get away with calling enslaved people from Africa “workers” in social studies textbooks. Schools were encouraged to present “balanced” views of slavery, which led to lesson plans like this one. Sadly, Texas has a long record of trying to rewrite history, starting with its own—and what really happened at The Alamo.
Renaming the term “slavery” won’t make the reality go away. We can’t keep ignoring or even excusing slavery just because it makes some people feel bad. That fact remains no matter what Texas ultimately decides to call it.