In this case, the fight is over textbooks.
A few weeks ago, I attended a Know Your Rights workshop at
the Memphis Islamic Center led by some friends who now work for the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee
and the American Center for Outreach. Most of the workshop was focused on
religious rights and how to protect them in the workplace, at school, and how
to interact with law enforcement. Overall, it was a very interesting and
informative workshop. As a non-Muslim I wasn’t aware of the interactions that
many of our brothers and sisters face, not just in west TN, but across
Tennessee.
One of the most eye opening parts of the workshop was the
legislative update in which I was informed about a textbook censorship bill
sponsored by Senator Mike Bell (R-Riceville). SB1602, as introduced, would
restructure the textbook commission and the textbook selection process.
Currently the textbook commission is composed of 10 members, all professional
educators. SB1602, would amend the selection to allow 3 spots to be filled by
“citizens of this state who are not employed in the public K-12 educational
system but who are knowledgeable of education issues in this state.” The bill
also amends that the textbook commission would be “(SECTION 2.j.9.C) free from
any biases in its viewpoints; and (SECTION 2.j.9.D) Reflect the values of the
citizens of this state as manifested in the United States Constitution, the
Constitution of Tennessee and other foundational documents of this nation’s
republican form of government.” The restructuring to the textbook commission is
concerning as these 3 citizen members are not required to be professional
educators (currently, this is a requirement for all 10 commission members).
In order to understand this bill and its supporters, it is
important to look back a few months to the concerned Tennesseans who filed a
complaint in April to their local school board (in Williamson County) with 700
signatures about having “anti-Semitic, anti-Christian,
pro-Islamic, pro-Marxist, anti-American and anti-Western content” in their AP
geography textbook. After reviewing the 500-page book, a committee deemed to
book not biased. Not satisfied, Cardoza-Moore, the mother leading the
fight against biased textbooks, appealed again but was denied by the county
school board.
The capitol.tn.gov website gives a one line summary of the
bill “SB 1602: Textbooks
- As introduced, restructures the textbook commission and the textbook
selection process.” This may appear to be a harmless bill (to some), but
because the bill is unclear as to whose values should be represented in the
textbook process and what constitutes a biased view, the ACLU fears that the
seats filled the 3 TN non-educators will be harmful to TN. After all, among
those who support the bill believe that TN textbooks books describe, “conservative
and Southern people negatively” who were driven out by the “racial integration
and other civil rights policies,” the Civil Rights Movement and Native American
history may also appear as too biased.
Because the textbook commission chooses the list of books
that schools systems can then choose from, censoring history can be dangerous.
Already, our TN school systems have strict law regarding book censorship.
I attended the workshop as a TIRRC [TN Immigrant &
Refugee Rights Coalition] staff member to provide additional resources to the
attendees. Throughout the meeting I provided a local perspective and was very
pleased to see so many members ready to participate and be actively engaged and
have a follow-up., as both presenters where from Nashville, and was
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