How Oklahoma House Bill 1775 Could (Hopefully) Backfire
Victor Luckerson’s new book, Built from the Fire, a history of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and its reverberations through the last hundred years is unlikely to enjoy wide readership in any Oklahoma Public School.
Why? Because Governor Kevin Stitt recently signed Oklahoma House Bill 1775 into law. The general provisions of the law are as follows:
No teacher, administrator or other school employee shall require or make part of any Course offered in a public school the following discriminatory principles:
(1) One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex
(2) An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously
(3) An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex
(4) Members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex
(5) An individual’s moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex
(6) An individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex
(7) Any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex
(8) Meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race
Taken at face value, the eight points describe desirable attributes of a colorblind world. However, the thin veil that cloaks this and other recent state laws is a misguided reaction to Critical Race Theory and folks of all colors clamoring to reexamine our nation’s history through a kaleidoscope of lenses. The point of the law is not so much to be colorblind as to keep the blinders on the dominant narrative of our nation’s history.
I learned about Mr. Luckerson’s book and Oklahoma House Bill 1775 on the same day that Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in higher education based on race. After sixty years, affirmative action was not rescinded because it’s promise had been attained. Rather, it was overturned because a group that will likely achieve more plum spots in elite colleges proclaimed that they had become the object of discrimination. It was an ingenious argument, so representative of these times when the privileged, comfortable, and complacent imagine themselves under siege.
I can imagine similarly upside-down arguments to overturn Oklahoma House Bill 1775. Will we be able to teach the original text of our Constitution if a person descended from slaves asserts that the 3/5 clause makes them feel that “one race is inherently superior to another?” Will we be able to teach the post WWII G.I Bill, in which veterans were uniformly discriminated against because of their race? And if a person is not supposed to feel, “discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex,” does that mean that the Oklahoma Public Schools must embrace trans students?
The rarely acknowledged purpose of public education is not simply to impart necessary life skills, create productive workers, or nurture engaged citizens. It is to spread and reinforce the cultural norms of a society. That’s why pubic education was so valued a century ago, when a surge of immigrants prompted the powers-that-be to indoctrinate them, while the newcomers themselves wished to adopt American norms. That’s why public education is so embattled now, when our cultural norms are threadbare and we’re in the midst of a national argument over the facts of our own history.
The truth of our history is not fully described by the 1619 Project or the 1776 Project. Our history includes the 1619 Project and the 1776 Project, plus many other voices and perspectives. We don’t learn anything by legislating away discomfort. We learn by being made uncomfortable. By being challenged. By having to listen to others’ points of view, and acknowledge those that are valid.
America is a noble idea, often poorly executed. Particularly when it comes to race. Why are we unable to accept that dichotomy? We can celebrate our experiment in democracy while admitting all the ways we’ve fallen short. So long as we commit to continue to try to right the inequalities and injustices.
Reading Built from the Fire in an Oklahoma public school might well be a good place to start.
