Politicians seek to control classroom discussions about slavery in US: Governing

NEW YORK -- A flood of legislative bills, commonly referred to as anti-critical race theory legislation, were put forth primarily by Republicans over the past year and a half in the United States, which are meant to restrict how teachers discuss race and racism in their classrooms, reported the Governing magazine on Sunday.

One of the more peculiar byproducts of this legislation came out of Texas, where, in June 2022, an advisory panel made up of nine educators recommended that slavery be referred to as "involuntary relocation," according to the report.

The Texas proposal is seen by the author of report, Raphael E. Rogers at Clark University, as "part of a disturbing trend of politicians seeking to hide the horrific and brutal nature of slavery -- and to keep it divorced from the nation's birth and development."

"To better understand the nature of slavery and the role it played in America's development, it helps to have some basic facts about how long slavery lasted in the territory now known as the United States and how many enslaved people it involved," said Rogers.

"As an educator who trains teachers on how to deal with the subject of slavery, I don't see any value in politicians' restricting what teachers can and can't say about the role that slaveholders played in the upholding of slavery in American society," said the author. "What I see value in is the use of historical records to educate schoolchildren about the harsh realities of slavery."