The Black Scare

BY ERIC SMAW Recently, the Florida state legislature passed House Bill 233, which requires the state Board of Education and Board of Governors to conduct an annual survey of students and professors at public colleges and universities to determine if they feel comfortable expressing their viewpoints in the classroom. State Rep. Spencer Roach, who sponsored…

Down with the Thought Police!

BY PRANAV JANI 1984 meets Professor Umbridge. That’s what came to my mind when I heard of two bills currently being debated in the Ohio legislature, HB 322 and 327. Seeking to define a category of “divisive concepts” that Ohio children and adult students in college need to be protected from, these bills legitimize the…

Vintage Nebraska postcard

Notes from the CRT Front in Nebraska

BY MATT COHEN NB: I write this post as an individual, but our AAUP chapter has issued a statement about the resolution proposed to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents regarding Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory, the latest elixir of Rightist fear and rage, has become a political chip in the Republican primary…

The Lunacy of Pennsylvania HB 1532

BY JOHN K. WILSON Pennsylvania House Bill 1532, introduced earlier this month, has received widespread criticism after Jeffrey Sachs on Twitter wrote that “not only does it prohibit universities from promoting any of the usual forbidden concepts, it also prohibits them from hosting speakers or assigning readings that do.” If anything, Sachs and other critics understate…

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Teaching about Race

BY IRENE MULVEY At this time, when our nation is confronting deep-rooted racial inequity and having honest and long-overdue conversations about our history, legislators in a number of states have moved to shut down the conversation by restricting teaching about oppression, race, and gender. The details vary, but generally the bills prohibit teaching or training…