New Documentary on DeSatan’s Takeover of Florida's New College

CBS Enforcing What Trump’s FCC Is “Thinking About"

Avoid Red State Universities If You Want An Uncensored Education

Plato and Aristophanes too hot for Texas’ censorious fascists? Thought, itself, is at risk in these bastions of bigotry. Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/u...

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— James Horn (@schools-matter24.bsky.social) January 9, 2026 at 8:17 AM

Trump’s Shiny Object of the Day:

This new diversion from the demand for release of the Trumpstein Files takes the form of a dystopian fantasy so blatantly stupid it would have to put together directly by the Disaster-in-Chief, himself. 

"Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) wrote on X in all capital letters, 'IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY'LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY. CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM’.” 

Source: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-colleges-2674149248/

Victory for Right to Read: Federal Judge Eviscerates Florida Book Banning Law

From MSNBC:

A federal judge has closed the chapter on key parts of Florida’s censorious ban on school library books that conservatives deem “pornographic” and harmful to children.

Amid a broader assault on diversity in the state, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in 2023, known as House Bill 1069, that set up a process for parents to challenge books for removal from school libraries that they feel are unsuitable for young readers. The repressive law requires that schools remove books within five days of a parents’ complaint and make them unavailable while they’re reviewed. The process, broadly targeting books with “pornographic” content or that “describe sexual conduct,” has ensnared many titles by nonwhite and LGBTQ authors over purported obscenity.

Last year, multiple publishing companies, Florida parents and authors filed a lawsuit seeking to thwart the bill, naming as defendants various members of the state education board and school boards in Orange and Volusia counties. And the suit appears to have succeeded, in large part.

“By enacting HB 1069, the Florida legislature sought to prohibit material from entering or remaining in school libraries that is not obscene for minors,” District Court Judge Carlos Mendoza said in his ruling on Wednesday, which found the section that targets descriptions of sexual conduct to be unconstitutional.

He listed several examples:

The following books, among others, have been removed: The Color Purple, Half of a Yellow Sun, Cloud Atlas, The Splendid and the Vile, I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them, On the Road, Nineteen Minutes, Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska, How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, The Kite Runner, Slaughterhouse-Five, Shout, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, The Handmaid’s Tale, Native Son, Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa, Water for Elephants, Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, and Homegoing. None of these books are obscene.

Read the rest here. 

Oak Ridge Schools Bows to Book Banning Legislation by the Tennessee Taliban

Fifty years ago I was Director of Library Media Services at Oak Ridge High School. I could not have dreamed that 50 years later librarians would be scouring shelves to find school library books to purge in hopes of satisfying the illiterate legislative members of the TN Taliban who passed a criminally-vague and illegal statute last year, which aims to impose unconstitutional restrictions on intellectual freedom and the right to read. 

Here's a sample from over 300 axed titles :

Really!  Rodin, Hopper, Donatello???  Could this capitulation represent another case of unethical (un)professional conduct compounded by cowardice, or have professional standards sunk so low as to allow this kind brazen stupidity to prevail in the hiring of public school educators in a district that once celebrated intellectual freedom and artistic achievement?

The Oak Ridge Schools’ surrender to the political scourge that MAGA embodies could prove costly.  PEN America reported on June 10 that its lawsuit against Rutherford County Schools for banning hundreds of school library and public library books has led to the restoration of some of the titles removed earlier this year. The lawsuit, which is supported by TN ACLU, continues, however, until all the titles removed are restored to the shelves.

Open Letter to Knox County Schools Regarding Book Banning

Dear Ms. Searles:

I was shocked and saddened to see that Knox County Schools has published its list of 48 books that will be banned from school libraries in Knox County.  As a former librarian in the system (1982-1996), I believe this preemptive action by KCS represents a capitulation to the politically-backward and oppressive ideologues who must be rigorously opposed if the Right to Read, the Library Bill of Rights, and the freedom to think and intellectually and ethically grow are to be preserved in our public schools, which are our most vital laboratories of democracy.  

According to news stories, KCS librarians actively participated in this unethical capitulation and professional malfeasance by identifying books that they believe violate a nebulous and untested state statute that does not require the identification and expurgation of books by librarians. 

The American Library Association, the Association of School Librarians, and the Office of Intellectual Freedom all provide guidance for how to deal with censorious demands by astroturf groups like Moms for Liberty, who in fact represent the interests of anti-democratic influencers whose mission includes the destruction of democratic values in our communities and our country.

Librarians have an unambiguous professional responsibility and a moral duty to offer inclusive, quality collections and to refuse to engage in the expurgation of books. Librarians are obligated to protect the children and parents they serve and to resist efforts to violate the rights of their students (https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations):

Access to Library Resources and Services Regardless of Sex, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, or Sexual Orientation: The American Library Association stringently and unequivocally maintains that libraries and librarians have an obligation to resist efforts that systematically exclude materials dealing with any subject matter, including sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Amended 2020

Access to Resources and Services in the School Library: The school library plays a unique role in promoting intellectual freedom. It serves as a point of voluntary access to information and ideas and as a learning laboratory for students as they acquire critical thinking and problem-solving skills needed in a pluralistic society. Although the educational level and program of the school necessarily shapes the resources and services of a school library, the principles of the Library Bill of Rights apply equally to all libraries, including school libraries. Amended 2014

. . . . Expurgation of Library Materials: Expurgating library materials is a violation of the Library Bill of Rights. Expurgation as defined by this interpretation includes any deletion, excision, alteration, editing, or obliteration of any part(s) of books or other library resources by the library, its agent, or its parent institution (if any). Amended 2014

 See Library Bill of Rights below:

LIBRARY BILL OF RIGHTS 

The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

VI. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.

VII. All people, regardless of origin, age, background, or views, possess a right to privacy and confidentiality in their library use. Libraries should advocate for, educate about, and protect people’s privacy, safeguarding all library use data, including personally identifiable information.

Adopted June 19, 1939, by the ALA Council; amended October 14, 1944; June 18, 1948; February 2, 1961; June 27, 1967; January 23, 1980; January 29, 2019.

Inclusion of “age” reaffirmed January 23, 1996. 

Although the Articles of the Library Bill of Rights are unambiguous statements of basic principles that should govern the service of all libraries, questions do arise concerning application of these principles to specific library practices. See the documents designated by the Intellectual Freedom Committee as Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights.

Source: https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

I believe that the Age-Appropriate Materials Act of 2022 and the subsequent passage of Public Chapter 782 do not, in fact, require the most recent actions taken by Knox County Schools.  Rather, the identification of the 48 titles in KCS libraries represents a dangerous form of “submission in advance,” whereby legitimate institutions preemptively take self-censoring actions that serve to encourage the ignorant audacity of book banners to demand more and more titles be removed from library shelves.

There are many Tennessee citizens who are very upset by this latest bow to authoritarian demands. KCS should be aware that lawsuits are not the sole prerogative of angry fascists.

Sincerely,
James Horn, PhD

ec: Dr. Jon Rysewyk, Superintendent

 

You, Too, Can Cancel Your WaPo Subscription

This morning I was still shaking with a little bit of rage (even after 4 days) for the Washington Post's failure to endorse Kamala Harris in the most important presidential election ever.  When the nice Philippino woman who takes Bezos's cancellation calls (over 200,000 as of October 28) asked me why, I told her that when one billionaire made a decision that overruled the entire professional journalistic staff of WaPo, it was finally clear that the credibility of paper had reached Absolute Zero.  

Who could ever read anything in the Post, whether news, commentary, or cartoon, without wondering if Bezos's fascist hand had not first initialed it?

Ron's Florida: Where Shakespeare Goes to Die

Under the misleadership of the preening, petulant, charm-free prick, Ron DeSantis, Florida has become the laughingstock among civilized people everywhere on the globe. Today the Tampa Bay Times gives us another reason why, with its report on public schools in Florida that have succumbed to pressure to further Desanti-tize the school curriculum by encouraging teachers to have students read excerpts from literature rather than entire works, thus channeling students away from Shakespeare's insights into any of a growing list of topics that might rankle Moms for Liberty, the right-wing astroturf group that gave motherhood a bad name-- topics like gender, sexuality, romantic love.  

Can bans on the study of power-hungry narcissistic despots be far behind? 

From Tampa Bay Times:

English teachers in Hillsborough County are preparing lessons for the new school year with only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s works.

Students will be assigned pages from the classics, which might include “Macbeth,” “Hamlet” and the time-honored teen favorite, “Romeo and Juliet.” But if they want to read them in their entirety, they will likely have to do it on their own time.

School district officials said they redesigned their instructional guides for teachers because of revised state teaching standards and a new set of state exams that cover a vast array of books and writing styles.

“It was also in consideration of the law,” said school district spokeswoman Tanya Arja, referring to the newly expanded Parental Rights in Education Act. The measure, promoted and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, tells schools to steer clear of content and class discussion that is sexual in nature unless it is related to a standard, such as health class.

Teacher Joseph Cool told the Times, “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare. Because that’s what sold tickets during his time.”

The district said that, because students need to read more writers, they are no longer required to read the complete books. 

“We need to make sure our students are prepared with enough material during the year so they will be prepared for their assessments,” Arja said. . . .

Read on.

Fascist Censorship Group Runs into Parent Buzzsaw in Chattanooga

 From Raw Story:

Watch three minutes of parent testimony at Hamilton Co. School Board Meeting:

https://www.rawstory.com/moms-for-liberty-2660238007/

Carolyn Mickey, a school librarian at Alpine Crest Elementary School in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, was shocked when a far-right group targeted her over a Mother's Day lesson that they claimed was "Leninist" indoctrination and an attack on Western civilization.

The lesson, designed to be inclusive to kids with nontraditional families, included two books: "Stella Brings the Family" about a girl with two dads, and "Mother Bruce," about a male bear who adopts a brood of goslings who call him their mother. Mickey even notified parents beforehand and allowed them to opt out, but that wasn't good enough for Moms for Liberty, who successfully pressured the school to cancel the lesson.

But according to footage obtained by the progressive group The Tennessee Holler, parents in the area were having none of it, and slammed the school board for caving to fringe anti-LGBTQ extremists.

The lesson, designed to be inclusive to kids with nontraditional families, included two books: "Stella Brings the Family" about a girl with two dads, and "Mother Bruce," about a male bear who adopts a brood of goslings who call him their mother. Mickey even notified parents beforehand and allowed them to opt out, but that wasn't good enough for Moms for Liberty, who successfully pressured the school to cancel the lesson.

But according to footage obtained by the progressive group The Tennessee Holler, parents in the area were having none of it, and slammed the school board for caving to fringe anti-LGBTQ extremists.

"My kids' librarian has been vilified," said one woman. "I knew there would be pushback from a few loud bullies, but I'm enraged that the administration sided with them. A majority of families have been denied an important lesson in our increasingly diversified world, and a platform was given to a group of fearmongering extremists ... they're the only ones that brought sex into it."

One man said of Moms for Liberty, "I've never seen them there shoveling mulch, putting up swingsets, hanging door frames. We're here in the trenches, we're with these children. I'm a Christian man married to a woman, but I think everybody should be represented fairly ... If you want to raise your kids in a closet and just shelter them from everybody, homeschool them, send them to Christian school. This is a public school for everybody."

"Instead of backing Mrs. Mickey up, you let the bullies win,” said another woman. "When you let the bullies win, they're going to keep bullying."

 

Brooklyn Public Library Offers Teens Everywhere the Right to Read

If you are age 13-21 and would like to gain access to any or all of the books that have been pulled from your school or public library in response to censors and book burners, the Brooklyn Public Library's Books Unbanned program is offering you a free library card that allows patrons anywhere in the U.S. to check out any of its eBook holdings. Really!

Brooklyn Public should be congratulated for their actions against the fascist censors and for their support for the American Library Association's Freedom to Read Statement (download your own copy and take it to your next school board meeting). 

If you are aware of efforts in your community or school to ban books, you may access confidential consulting services (for free) on what to do from the American Library Association.

Watch here or read CBS's coverage of this unique program to preserve children's Freedom to Read.

The DeSantitizing Agenda of the "Joke Mob"

In his masterpiece, The Authoritarian Personality, Theodore Adorno overlooked one unlikely possibility that has, indeed, emerged in our current political theater.  And that is, of course, that at least one current authoritarian aspirant to the White House demonstrates that one can display all the characteristics of authoritarianism without having any personality at all. Enter Ron DeSantis, stage right.  

What occupies Ron's psychic space where personality resides in real people is a closed circuit of  uncontrolled neuronal firings that consistently manifest as rage, hate, and socially-detached megalomania. Even the simple act of eating apparently does not escape the pattern.  As a DeSantis staffer told The Daily Beast, “He would sit in meetings and eat in front of people, always like a starving animal who has never eaten before… getting shit everywhere.”

But before this thin-crusted authoritarian bully gains his rightful place in history's permanent dustbin of American fascist fascinations, he is sure to do lots of damage, particularly in his home state of Florida. For even though the declared enemies of the "woke agenda" can't tell you what "woke" means, there remains, nonetheless, actionable connotations that allows and encourages terminally-ignorant followers of the corporate media hate channels to keep their torches lit and their pitchforks sharpened.  And vague connotations for a word that can't be defined leaves the field open for every fascist wannabe to choose his own favorite bigotry to advance by attacking any effort to reduce bigotry.

DeSantis knows that Fox and its spawn can be counted on to maintain a 24-hour IV drip of hate--enough to keep white economically-oppressed viewers focused on protecting, at all costs, the ideological cryptocurrency of white male protestant capitalist plutocracy (WMPCP). 

Rupert Murdoch and his oligarch pals have arrived at a foolproof formula to rake in billions of dollars for making the ignorant more ignorant, the angry angrier, and the hateful homicidal.  In short, Murdoch is responsible for creating and maintaining the basest of the Republican base, which gives cover for humorless despots like DeSantis to busy themselves dismantling democratic institutions and snuffing out democratic aspirations in order to undergird social and economic control by the WMPCP.

To create the dystopian fascist future that had remained only a John Bircher wet dream prior to the coming of T---- in 2016, DeSantis as T---- 2.0, along with his army of social DeSantitizers, e. g., Moms for Liberty, have chosen a censorial and abusive strategy to bulldoze democratic principles and practices, equality and equity goals and initiatives, institutional power sharing, and free thought and expression. 

Exhibiting the charm of a Florida gator and the subtlety of a bull shark, DeSantis's utterances ooze the rank musk of toxic masculine politics mixed with the smarmy chronic whining of a pampered bully brat. Repulsive, yes, but also effective. 

Witness the latest "joke mob" success in Tallahassee, FL, where a tiny band of vigilante parents on the hunt for any potential threat to theocratic fascism have succeeded in having a charter school principal fired for allowing Michelangelo's David to be viewed in a middle school classroom.  

From the NY Post:

While Tallahassee Classical is reportedly required to teach about Renaissance art in the 6th grade, three parents spoke up about the lesson’s contents and claimed it upset their children.

Two parents said they wanted to be notified about the lesson before it took place and another parent slammed it as pornographic, [Principal] Carrasquilla said.

She told HuffPost one parent was “point-blank upset” and “felt her child should not be viewing those pieces.”

So now with the DeSantitizers in charge of school curriculums across Florida, even the Hillsdale College curriculum, permission must be granted by every parent, apparently, for any element of curriculum to be offered.  This episode exposes the ramifications of this kind of anarchistic upside down form of authoritarianism now made operative at the institutional level.  

The clip below is from a Slate interview with Tallahassee Classical Board Chair, Barney Bishop, which quickly went off the rails when Alice in Wonderland logic of this approach was made clear by the interviewer:

Just to be clear, last year you sent a notice to parents warning them that students were going to see Michelangelo’s David?

Yes. This year, we made an egregious mistake. We didn’t send that notice. Look, we’re not a public school. We’re a public charter. Parents, after they saw all the crap that’s being taught in public schools during COVID, decided of their own that they didn’t want their children to be taught that. Here we teach the Hillsdale Curriculum, focusing on civic and moral values. We teach a traditional, Western civilization, liberal classical education. And if there’s controversial topics or subjects, we tell parents in advance. We’re going to be sensitive to everybody at the school.

I tend to think of a classical education as being the mode in the 17^th, 18^th century, where you study the Greeks and Romans, and Western civilization is central. A tutor or teacher is the expert, and that teacher drives the curriculum. You’re describing something where it seems the parents drive the curriculum. How does your classical education differ from the classical education as I think of it?

What kind of question is that, Dan? I don’t know how they taught in the 17^th, 18^th century, and neither do you. You live in New York?

Virginia.

You’ve got a 212 number. That’s New York.

I lived in New York when I got the cellphone, many years ago. Now I live in Virginia.

Well, we’re Florida, OK? Parents will decide. Parents are the ones who are going to drive the education system here in Florida. The governor said that, and we’re with the governor. Parents don’t decide what is taught. But parents know what that curriculum is. And parents are entitled to know anytime their child is being taught a controversial topic and picture.

Parents choose this school because they want a certain kind of education. We’re not gonna have courses from the College Board. We’re not gonna teach 1619 or CRT crap. I know they do all that up in Virginia. The rights of parents, that trumps the rights of kids. Teachers are the experts? Teachers have all the knowledge? Are you kidding me? I know lots of teachers that are very good, but to suggest they are the authorities, you’re on better drugs than me. . . .

DeSantis Holds Children's Education Hostage to Score Political Points with FL Fascists

The videos below provide a thumbnail sketch of the dire situation in Florida schools, where the fascist DeSanti-tizers, under the direction of their thin-skinned bully governor, have taken it upon themselves the ban library and classroom book collections that includes millions of titles until they are reviewed by a small group of school librarians, whose numbers have been repeatedly diminished by continuing funding cuts across the state.

Over 1,000 Books Banned During the Past Nine Months

From PEN America: 

Book bans in public schools have recurred throughout American history, and have long been an issue of concern to PEN America, as a literary and free expression advocacy organization. Over the past nine months, the scope of such censorship has expanded rapidly. In response, PEN America has collated an Index of School Book Bans, offering a snapshot of the trend. The Index documents decisions to ban books in school libraries and classrooms in the United States from July 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.

 . . . .

It is not just the number of books removed that is disturbing, but the processes–or lack thereof–through which such removals are being carried out. Objections and challenges to books available in school are nothing new, and parents and citizens are within their rights to voice concerns about the appropriateness and suitability of particular books. In order to protect the First Amendment rights of students in public schools, though, procedural safeguards have been designed to help ensure that districts follow transparent, unbiased, established procedures, particularly when it comes to the review of library holdings. Of 1,586 bans listed in the Index, PEN America found that the vast majority (98%) have involved various departures from best practice guidelines outlined by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the American Library Association (ALA). Such guidelines have been designed to ensure rigorous standards and to avoid ad hoc, highly irregular acts that could run afoul of relevant legal doctrine. These guidelines include the filing of written, formal challenges by parents or local residents; the formation of review committees, generally comprised of librarians, teachers, administrators, and community members; and that books are to remain in circulation during the reconsideration process until a final decision is made. Challenges to library books and curricular and classroom materials are meant to happen first at the school-level, and then, if a decision is appealed, at the district-level. While the Supreme Court has recognized the “broad discretion” granted to local school boards in the “management of school affairs,” that discretion does not negate the responsibility of engaging in proper, considered processes concerning selections or removals. Rather, per Pico, school boards must exercise their discretion with respect to matters of education “​​in a manner that comports with the transcendent imperatives of the First Amendment.” News reports from school districts around the country indicate that this directive is being eschewed, as the responsibility of local school boards to employ appropriate  safeguards and best practices in these decisions is being widely abrogated.

TN Takes the Lead in Protecting Murderous Myth of White Supremacy

 A clip from an op-ed in the Times today--written by a Tennessean:

Legislative attempts to restrict how children are taught about racism in schools have multiplied, according to the nonprofit news organization Chalkbeat, which tracked such efforts in 28 states. Tennessee, where I live, just passed a law banning any discussion of race that might cause a student “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress.” Laws like this one are designed to tie the hands of teachers and simultaneously appeal to the meanest elements of the Republican base.

I’ve watched this play out at close range as the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national organization of conservative parents, filed an official grievance with the state commissioner of education. The complaint alleges that “Wit & Wisdom,” a literacy curriculum used in more than 30 state school districts, including Williamson County, violates the new state restrictions.

The specific target of Moms for Liberty’s ire: a unit in the second-grade curriculum called “Civil Rights Heroes.” The texts singled out for objection include “Separate is Never Equal” by Duncan Tonatiuh, the story of a Mexican American family’s successful effort to integrate California schools; “Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington” by Frances E. Ruffin; and “Ruby Bridges Goes to School: My True Story” by Ruby Bridges, the Black woman who integrated New Orleans public schools when she was a first grader.

It’s important to note that these titles are all early readers or read-aloud stories written for young children. Nothing in them is untrue, nor is anything “anti-American” or “anti-white,” as the Moms for Liberty argue. They’re just true stories, told simply, of people contending heroically with the terrible consequences of racism.

The Moms for Liberty complaint is based in a ludicrous reading of these wonderful books. I read every book in the unit and was amazed at how carefully they all kept the unavoidable ugliness to a level that would not traumatize a child — not a Black or Brown child whose ancestors may have faced far worse than the injustices recounted in these pages, and not a white child whose ancestors may have sympathized with the people hurling insults at 6-year-old Ruby Bridges.

On the contrary, the books take care to point out that some white people did stand up for the rights of their Black neighbors. Indeed, the only message that could possibly be derived from these stories is the need to treat others with dignity and to work for justice for all people. Today Ms. Bridges gives talks to schoolchildren about what happened to her as a little girl. In “Ruby Bridges Goes to School,” she writes, “I tell children that Black people and white people can be friends. And most important, I tell children to be kind to each other.”

CRT: Who Needs a Theory When the Historical Facts Say It All, Part 1

•  1607: Jamestown, the first British North American settlement, was founded in Virginia.   

• 1619: The first African Americans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia.
  

• 1640: Virginia courts sentenced a black run away servant, John Punch, to "serve his said master . . . for the time of his natural Life."

One of the major tenets of critical race theory (CRT) acknowledges

. . . that racism is a normal feature of society and is embedded within systems and institutions, like the legal system, that replicate racial inequality. This dismisses the idea that racist incidents are aberrations but instead are manifestations of structural and systemic racism.

Of all the elements of CRT, this one seems to explode more heads among Republican authoritarian cultists than any other, and to send them rushing pell-mell to the nearest school board meeting to disrupt, bully, or intimidate school board members and administrators.   

For the most part, school officials have, heretofore, complied with the demands of common sense and their elected or professional responsibilities to allow educators some say in whether or not to teach history or to teach the malicious fictions preferred by cancel culture white supremacists who can be found in congressional office suites, corporate board rooms, at editorial desks, and trailer park laundromats.

While critical race theory is despised, denied, and subjected to lies by those who both know what the theory really says and by those who remain clueless, careless, or, otherwise, uninterested in truth, the facts of our history cannot and will not be dismissed or eradicated as long as there are those who act to keep alive democratic principles.

And even though K-12 and even undergraduate history curricula are most often entirely deficient when it comes to sharing with students fact-based historical narratives that include the raw racist truths that are central to the American story from Colonial days to the present day, educators will not be cowed by racist liars, nor will scholars bow to censorious demands of white vigilantes who are egged on and funded by elected or self-appointed fascists.

So let's begin our incomplete historical survey of values, codes, and statutes that built the legal fortress that has protected racist oppression, white supremacy, and racial inequality in America from the 1600s to the 21st Century.

The text below is from a PBS documentary series, Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery, Part 1. Part 1 documents the "terrible transformation" from indentured servitude to slavery in the British colonies prior to the American Revolution.  The documentary clearly traces how the vast slavery empire in America did not arrive on these shores in any way fully formed or pre-ordained but, rather, evolved as one inhumane law at a time was written to give legal protection to white landowners who placed their own avarice and greed over the Christian principles that they espoused, even as their actions made such principles a mockery in the face to God and man.

The transformation from indentured servitude (servants contracted to work for a set amount of time) to racial slavery didn't happen overnight. There are no laws regarding slavery early in Virginia's history. By 1640, the Virginia courts had sentenced at least one black servant to slavery . . .

Three servants working for a farmer named Hugh Gwyn ran away to Maryland. Two were white; one was black. They were captured in Maryland and returned to Jamestown, where the court sentenced all three to thirty lashes -- a severe punishment even by the standards of 17th-century Virginia. The two white men were sentenced toan additional four years of servitude -- one more year for Gwyn followed by three more for the colony. But, in addition to the whipping, the black man, a man named John Punch, was ordered to "serve his said master or his assigns for the time of his natural Life here or elsewhere." John Punch no longer had hope for freedom.

It wasn't until 1661 that a reference to slavery entered into Virginia law, and this law was directed at white servants -- at those who ran away with a black servant. The following year, the colony went one step further [Act XII] by stating that children born would be bonded or free according to the status of the mother:

Virginia, December 1662: Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a Negro woman should be slave or free, be it therefore enacted and declared by this present Grand Assembly, that all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother; and that if any Christian shall commit fornication with a Negro man or woman, he or she so offending shall pay double the fines imposed by the former act.

The transformation had begun, but it wouldn't be until the Slave Codes of 1705  that the status of African Americans would be sealed.  . . . [see upcoming posts at this blog]

The shift from indentured servitude to racial slavery in the British colonies is evident in the development of the colonies' laws.   

Maryland, 1664: The first colonial "anti-amalgamation" law is enacted (amalgamation referred to "race-mixing"). Other colonies soon followed Maryland's example. A 1691 Virginia law declared that any white man or woman who married a "Negro, mulatto, or Indian" would be banished from the colony forever.  

Virginia, 1667: Christian baptisms would no longer affect the bondage of blacks or Indians, preventing enslaved workers from improving their legal status by changing their religion.

Act III. Whereas some doubts have risen whether children that are slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their owners made partakers of the blessed sacrament of baptism, should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted and declared by this Grand Assembly, and the auhority thereof, that the conferring of baptism does not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom; that diverse masters, freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavor the propagation of Christianity by permitting children, though slaves, or chose of greater growth if capable, to be admitted to that sacrament.

Virginia, 1669: What came to be known as the "Casual Killing Act," this law allowed for the killing of any slave who "resists" his master.

Act I. Whereas the only law in force for the punishment of refractory servants resisting their master, mistress, or overseer cannot be inflicted upon Negroes, nor the obstinacy of many of them be suppressed by other than violent means, be it enacted and declared by this Grand Assembly if any slave resists his master (or other by his master's order correcting him) and by the extremity of the correction should chance to die, that his death shall not be accounted a felony, but the master (or that other person appointed by the master to punish him) be acquitted from molestation, since it cannot be presumed that premeditated malice (which alone makes murder a felony) should induce any man to destroy his own estate.

I want to admit, too, my own education left me with an thoroughly incomplete picture of our past and that many of the facts that I share above and will share in subsequent posts came to my attention only as I dug them out for myself during the past quarter century of research and teaching.  

So if some of the facts presented in this series are new to you, please don't feel that your own education is any more deficient than the society at large.  You may be assured that almost everyone in America has been similarly miseducated about our racial history.  Sadly, the majority on the U. S. Supreme Court, as well as a sizable segment of our population, would keep it that way. Don't allow it.

 

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Biloxi, MS School Decides to Censor "To Kill a Mockingbird"

"To Kill a Mockingbird" has been removed from a school curriculum in a Mississippi school district because it "makes people uncomfortable."  

Let's make the censorious, racist asses who run the Biloxi schools uncomfortable until they decide differently.

Dr. Larry Drawdy Interim Superintendent P.O. Box 168, Biloxi, MS 39533 160 St. Peter Ave. Biloxi, MS 39530 Secretary: Mrs. Lee Ann Dubaz Telephone: (228) 374-1810, X-1118 FAX: (228) 436-5171   Ms. Pamela Manners Interim Assistant Superintendent   Secondary Programs and TestingP.O. Box 168, Biloxi, MS 39533160 St. Peter Ave. Biloxi, MS 39530 Secretary: Mrs. Michelle Johnson Telephone: (228) 374-1810, X-1134 FAX: (228) 435-6289

The Sun Herald reports that Biloxi administrators pulled the novel from the 8th-grade curriculum this week. School board vice president Kenny Holloway says the district received complaints that some of the book's language "makes people uncomfortable." Published in 1960, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee deals with racial inequality in a small Alabama town. A message on the school's website says "To Kill A Mockingbird" teaches students that compassion and empathy don't depend upon race or education. Holloway says other books can teach the same lessons. The book remains in Biloxi school libraries.

Nashville Prep Chooses Inappropriate Novel and Then Censors It for Students

Nashville Prep is one of those total compliance chain gang schools where children are treated more like prisoners than pupils.  Despite the propaganda spread by the school regarding its top testing status, state testing shows a more mixed picture (Blue is highest, red is lowest).  Note the direction test results take over time.

But this is not about Nashville Prep's propaganda but, rather, its arrogant and ignorant decision to, 1) select a high school novel for middle school students to read, and 2) to censor parts of the novel without regard to the the integrity of the work or to the lesson being provided to students.

Are students to learn, even in middle school, that the paternalistic authorities have the right to "redact" anything they feel is inappropriate for citizens to read?

Of all the great novels written with the interests and developmental needs of middle school students in mind, why butcher a good novel written for mature readers and serve up the mangled carcass to children as if it is a feast?

No process, no consultation, no humility.  Just arrogance, stupidity, and an over-riding need to control.  Story here in the Tennessean.

Je Suis Charlie

What Dennis and the Prostisuits Won't Allow NEA Delegates to Say

Posted at UOON:

Text of Jonathan Massey’s speech.

“Jonathan Massey, Arizona, speaking as an individual in support of this item.

Some of you may remember that, in 2009, noted “friend of public education” Newt Gingrich went on a nation-wide speaking tour with Arne Duncan and Al Sharpton to promote Race to the Top.

Others may recall that, just two years ago, the NEA Representative Assembly voted non-concurrence with President Obama’s education policies, AKA Race to the Top.

Some may realize that, a little over a year ago, when Wisconsin teachers were on the ropes fighting for their rights, Barack Obama chose not to go to support them, and instead went to Florida to appear with former Governor Jeb Bush to laud him in public as “a champion of education reform.”

Recently, our country’s Voucherista-in-Chief, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, praised the Obama Administration’s efforts on education. And, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie described the Obama Administration’s education policies as an only-Nixon-could-go-to-China kind of moment, saying, “We need a Democratic president to make these reforms in education to lead the way.”

Joe Williams, Executive Director of Democrats for Education Reform (AKA part of The Billionaire Boys Club) said that in the ‘90s there was a push for changes in education by governors, but it dried up, and that Barack Obama gave the mojo back to governors!

Race to the Top is a catastrophic program for students, schools, and teachers, driven by private school-educated elitists and corporatists seeking to undermine public education so they can slice up the educational pie for profit.

Both Race to the Top and Arne Duncan need to go, and there is no organization better than the NEA to say it!

Oh, yes, did I mention that Mitt Romney has said repeatedly that he agrees with President Obama’s educational policies? He has! And he does!

Thank you.”

[Sources aside from general knowledge: “Obama, GOP governors share many views on education” by Kimberly Hefling, May 8, 2012, AP; “Obama praises Jeb Bush on education reform” by Nia-Malika Henderson and Peter Wallsten, March 4, 2011, washingtonpost.com]