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For several months the concept of “critical theory of race” has ignited school boards across the United States and in particular in Arizona, a state narrowly won by Joe Biden in the last election. Report in an American high school where the choice of programs is the subject of a new confrontation between right and left.
It’s a political rally in an unexpected place, outside the gates of a high school in Scottsdale, a wealthy suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. ” If I am a candidate to become governor, it is because I am a mother and because I am worried about what we teach in our schools. »
Standing in the back of a pickup truck flanked by the slogan “ our children deserve better », Kari Lake, candidate for governor in Arizona dubbed by Donald Trump, came to support a demonstration of a hundred parents of students who are worried about a too progressive and anti-racist history being taught to their children in the ‘America after George Floyd.
« These are woke programs »
« The way the history of the United States is taught today should really be called anti-American history. These are woke programs… and that’s not good. We should be content to learn to read, to count, that is, to have programs that are supposed to make children succeed later. Instead, you learn that the first thing to do is look at someone’s skin color. I do not see the color of the skin. I only look at the inner qualities of a person. This is what I want my children to learn. I don’t want them to learn that their classmate is an oppressor or that they feel uncomfortable because of their country’s history. »
The former local Fox News anchor, already a poll favorite, only bolsters her popularity with her crusade against critical race theory in schools. This university concept centered on the study of racial discrimination is however not taught in secondary school but it crystallizes all the identity fears of conservative parents like Patricia. “ Why do we teach our children that some people are oppressors and others are oppressed? This is not how we are going to end racism. »
This mother of five boys is convinced of it. Since the anti-racist protests in the summer of 2020, school curricula have been altered and she says history books now put the blame for racism on the shoulders of white American children. ” Some school books and teachers explain to children that if they are white, they must accept that they are privileged. Schools must stop this. In the United States, racism was on the decline and all these stories of critical theories of race are rekindling it and pitting communities against each other. »
Confrontation
The debate turns to confrontation, in increasingly heated meetings of the Scottsdale school board which are now held under police surveillance. Patricia has launched a petition demanding the resignation of the president of this body elected to manage the life of the schools in the district. The man is accused of having put together a dossier on parents who, like them, are opposed to the critical theory of race. But other parents, like Haidi, herself a Scottsdale middle school teacher, still support him. ” We have to teach the history of this country, there are historical events that have to be taught. I get the impression that they don’t want us to talk about slavery or the treatment that was reserved for African Americans. If you don’t teach history, history repeats itself. We cannot hide certain historical facts. Does that mean you learn to hate America? No not at all, I don’t know where they are going to get this. »
This new cultural battle in American schools is in any case a machine to mobilize the Republican electorate. The strategy already worked during the last governorship in Virginia. The Conservatives hope to make it work again to win the midterm elections next November.
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