History repeats itself. And so editorials repeat themselves.
Last September, we wrote about Tennessee state Rep. Yusuf Hakeem rightfully calling out the state's GOP legislative leadership for sidelining his bill to provide more Black history instruction in Tennessee schools. Instead, Hakeem's fellow lawmakers omitted his bill from the agenda of a summer education study committee. After all, they'd already - just a few months before in May - passed a hurry-up surprise bill prohibiting any publicly funded school from teaching "critical race theory."
In case you've been living in a cave for the past year, critical race theory is a college law school premise that has become one of the GOP's newest dog whistles. The rightwingers claim it promotes division among races, classes and genders. Not only does Tennessee now ban critical race theory teaching in K-12 schools (where it isn't taught, anyway), it allows the state to yank school funding if a teacher in a school is found to teach it. The draconian law now has teachers afraid to mention anything about race, even to teach history.
Now Hakeem is back with a revised version of his 2021 bill that requires the teaching of Black history in public schools, now focusing only on grades 5-8. With that small beginning, the Chattanooga Democrat believes he has a clearer path to winning approval.
It's a good choice. Because too many of Tennessee's white lawmakers didn't seem to understand the difference between teaching Black history and teaching critical race theory, Hakeem narrowed the focus of his bill to just deal with African American studies.
CRT, among other things, questions concepts such as whether "an individual, by virtue of the individual's race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously."
Hakeem simply wants schools to be "required" to teach that American history includes Black history. For instance, Black Americans have fought in every war dating back to the American Revolution.
"But probably," he told fellow lawmakers, "if we canvassed our children, they have no knowledge of the participation of Black Americans in our American wars."
That would include the Tuskegee Airmen who flew P-47 fighter planes during World War II and served as escorts for bombers flying over Italy. Hakeem also pointed to other important Black history: George Washington Carver, a Black agricultural scientist who became famous for solutions to crop problems and his inventions. Entrepreneurs like Madame C.J. Walker, who became the first Black female millionaire in America who made her fortune in hair-care products catering to African-American women.
Sound reasonable? Of course it does.
Here's the rub. It isn't required. In fact very little of the history and social studies lessons listed in our state's curriculum documents are "required."
When the CRT kerfuffle reached fever pitch last year and Hakeem's first bill got sidelined for the second time, we did a deep dive into the 246 pages that outline more than 1,000 of Tennessee's social studies' "content standards" for grades K-12 on the tn.gov website.
We found that just over 40 of those more than 1,000 standards are "required" by Tennessee law, and only 27 involve anything about race or specifically African American culture. What's more, many of those are simply nods to nonwhites. For instance: "Identify influential Tennesseans from the late 20th century, including: Al Gore, Jr.; Alex Haley; Dolly Parton; Wilma Rudolph; Oprah Winfrey."
It seems to us that these numbers in themselves prove there is systemic racism - even in school lessons. But we digress. This is about history, not critical race theory.
So in the spirit of school lessons, let us once again offer our lawmakers a quiz: Of these following seven important historical "standards" listed on Tennessee's 2021 tn.gov website, which two are required to be taught?
* Identify various organizations and their roles in the Civil Rights movement (e.g., Black Panthers, Highlander Folk School, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee).
* Describe the social, economic and political changes to Tennessee in the post-Reconstruction era, and identify the laws put in place to exclude Black lawmakers by 1890.
* Analyze the role slavery played in the development of nationalism and sectionalism, including the fugitive slave laws.
* Assess the economic and social impact of Jim Crow laws on African Americans.
* Explain the arguments presented by Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln on slavery in the Illinois Senate race debates of 1858.
* Identify the significance of the Tennessee Constitution of 1870, including the right of all men to vote and the establishment of a poll tax.
* Analyze the key people and events of the Civil Rights movement, including: Martin Luther King Jr. and non-violent protests, Montgomery Bus Boycott and Rosa Parks, Brown v. Board of Education and Thurgood Marshall, Freedom Riders and Diane Nash.
Answer: Only two - the last ones - are required teachings.
Yusuf Hakeem's bill should not only be passed, it should be enhanced.