BY LOGAN JOHNSON
In 2020, state bans on teaching “divisive concepts” in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education began sweeping our nation. These prohibitions, referred to as educational gag orders, have put educators at risk of penalties if they incorporate materials and discussions in their classrooms regarding race, gender, LGBTQ+ identities, and minority narratives of United States history. Many in our nation have been shocked by how Republican legislators are using this erasure as a strategy to execute partisan ideology. It is demeaning and rather intrusive—ironic for a political party that traditionally values limited government. To this end, I remember attending a town hall on educational gag orders and hearing a student ask, “How can Republicans take away teacher and student academic freedom so easily?” The harsh reality is that our academic freedom has always been at risk of legislative interference despite it being our right as scholars. Educational gag orders are merely the modern era of erasure legislation that seeks to wipe out the lived experiences of minorities, best exemplified in the historical pattern of Black erasure in education policy.
“Black erasure” is the conscious erasing of Black bodies and scholarship. Historically, Black erasure in education policy has taken two forms: restricting Black access to education and whitewashing curriculum, instruction, and school environments. The first noted account of Black erasure in education policy was in the 1600s, not long after the first slave ship arrived in the United States. In this instance, slave codes, enacted by the racial majority to make slavery a permanent reality, prohibited Black people from reading and writing and established clear punishments for those who attempted to learn. The use of Black erasure in education policy early on in United States history set a precedent for its future use, a strategy policymakers continued to use throughout our nation’s existence. Black erasure in education policy can be noted in the 1700s via antiliteracy laws, in the 1800s with Jim Crow laws, and in the 1900s to the beginning of the 2000s with bans on affirmative action and multicultural education.
Though originally aiming to erase Black people and scholarship from education, legislators have widened the scope of the erasure strategy via educational gag orders by targeting more minority groups such as the LGBTQ+ community. However, the modern era of erasure not only targets the lived experiences of minority groups but also the purposes of postsecondary education, such as providing learning opportunities, preparing individuals to contribute to the economic workforce, and assisting people in contributing to societal democracy. In my article “Bad Precedent: The Trump-Pence Administration’s Executive Order 13950 as Pretext for Republican Attacks on Academic Freedom,” published in the recent volume of the Journal of Academic Freedom, I explore the detriments of this interference with each purpose of higher education, emphasizing concern for our nation’s societal democracy. As a nation, our ability to mold controversies and differences into solutions that create a better society is at stake.
Logan Johnson is a doctoral candidate in the School of Education at the University of Cincinnati studying education policy and higher education.
