On "Radical Indoctrination In K-12 Schooling" Part II(b)
"Discriminatory Equity Ideology" In The Schools
On 29 Jan 2025, the new administration released an Executive Order titled "Ending Radical Indoctrination In K-12 Schooling." The Order directs the Department of Education, and various other federal agencies, to assess the extent to which schools that receive federal funding run afoul of the various odious policy prescriptions outlined in it. In Part I of my examination of the Executive Order, I focused on its attacks on trans children. In Part II I assessed DEIA generally. In this, Part II(b), I address the Order related to actual DEIA education in the classroom.
To start with a personal story, I don't remember being particularly passionate about racial discrimination growing up, even though I was raised in a city that, at the time, was roughly 67% Black. This is not to say I wasn't keenly aware of the painful reality of racism as a youth. But, it wasn't until I went off to college, in Michigan, that I really noticed how engrained and pernicious racists attitudes are in America.
My secondary school (the great Benjamin Franklin High School, also attended by both my brothers and my nephew) didn't reflect New Orleans' racial makeup, but the elementary and middle schools i attended did. And even in high school, there were Black students in all of my classes, and many among my friends (I know, sounds a tad bit like the old "I'm not racist; some of my best friends are..." saw, apologies).
When I got to Alma College, I could count the number of Black students on, at most, two hands (probably including non-student residents of Alma, MI). Yet I far more often heard explicit racist comments at Alma than I did in any school growing up.
Ironically, while racism was more noticeable to me in college than in high school socially, class instruction was precisely the opposite. In all of my years in elementary and secondary school, I learned precious little about the history of slavery (except that it happened), the Civil War (VERY often called "The War Between The States"), Reconstruction (almost nothing), Jim Crow, or the mid-20th century Civil Rights Movement.
I don't believe I learned about more than a handful of Black Americans in history. While I surely may be forgetting some, the only ones I can remember being taught are Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. Dubois, and Booker T. Washington (the last two only in passing). I can't remember any city schools named for Black Americans, while countless Black students had to suffer the indignity of attending one or another school named for a viciously racist slave owner who believed Black people should never be educated, John McDonogh.
Even at Ben Franklin, in AP American History no less, I was taught that slavery was only one of many causes of the Civil War (something about which I continue to seethe today, a pathetic failure in my education), so-called "states' rights" foremost amongst them (it was at Alma where i was introduced to the notion that states don't have rights; like the federal government, they have authority or powers, but not rights, which are held only by people). In short, the racially diverse New Orleans schools were still suffused with the ideas and language of the Lost Cause (a general topic I explored here), while in almost totally white Alma, I was taught fairly well about the history and legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
This story is all by way of saying that K-12 schooling is a precious opportunity for learning about how America came to be the still racist society it is today. Missing that opportunity is not merely a tragedy, but a moral outrage. If, in seeking to bring about a "colorblind" society (not one I'd actually want to live in, about which more below), or avoiding "discriminatory equity ideology," we fail to teach students about the full range of causes and effects of racism in America, we do our children and ourselves an unforgivable disservice. This is why my blood immediately began to approach boiling as I read the content of this shameful and disgusting Executive Order.
Let us now examine some of the specific content of the EO. Much of it is less about DEI than simply teaching candidly about the history of race in America.
The Order seeks to apply pressure to K-12 schools to change the way that race (and gender) is addressed in the classroom by potentially withholding federal funds from those schools that run afoul of the administration's idea of how these topics should be taught (note that virtually all public schools in the country receive federal funding either directly or indirectly, along with most private ones).
Underlying the Order is the idea that class curricula include the sorts of things that make white children feel guilty for America's history of slavery and discrimination, or for the reality of white privilege (the whole thing seems as if it were written by a committee of Moms For Liberty). It laments any instruction that "Members of one race, color, sex, or national origin are morally or inherently superior to members of another race, color, sex, or national origin," or that "An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race, color, sex, or national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously."
I have yet to see anyone provide a scintilla of evidence that any K-12 teacher has instructed students that anyone is morally superior/inferior by virtue of their race, or that white people shiuld feel guilty about these things. Any upswell of guilt in white students' minds or hearts occurs on its own, or, more likely, are misinterpretions by their parents of classroom material.
America cannot possibly achieve racial equality without remembering and reckoning with its terrible history regarding race. Similarly, I have seen no concrete evidence that any teachers are telling their students that they are inherently racist for being white, or inherently helpless victims by being Black.
The Order makes clear that our society should be striving for what it calls "racial colorblindness." It decries any instruction that "Members of one race, color, sex, or national origin cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to their race, color, sex, or national origin." There is a vast ocean of difference between not judging people based on these attributes and treating people as if they don't exist.
I believe it's reasonable to suppose that the vast majority of white Americans know only one thing that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ever said: "I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" (except that most would probably not know he mentioned his children specifically).
This line is frequently trotted out to imply that Dr. King wanted and expected American society to be colorblind, and that if we fail to strive for it today, we betray his legacy. Given that, earlier in that legendary speech of 28 Aug 1963, he declared that Black Americans live "on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity," I think it's safe to say Dr. King decidedly did not believe we had achieved anything like a colorblind society. Further, dreaming that Black Americans wouldn't be judged based on their skin color is not the same as envisioning a colorblind society. Indeed, it is literally impossible to learn about the history of American race relations in a "racially colorblind" society.
As regards affirmative action or DEI specifically, Dr. King almost certainly would support them in today's America. In the last book he published, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community?, Dr. King explicitly called for Black Americans to receive assistance in enjoying their full civil and social rights: "a society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for the Negro."
(A similarly phrased sentiment was expressed by a white mayoral candidate in New York City in 1965, who spoke favorably of the notion that Black Americans should receive "the kind of special treatment that might make up for centuries of oppression." That man was noted liberal squish William F. Buckley, Jr.)
Colorblindness is something desperately sought by countless white Americans, who desire to forget our country's history of race relations, or at least to let themselves believe that we're past all that now, and that it no longer lives on in society. Yet, it is impossible to treat people as their true selves by wiping away their race or ethnicity (or sex or national origin).
The Order further disparages any instruction that "An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race, color, sex, or national origin, bears responsibility for, should feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of, should be discriminated against, blamed, or stereotyped for, or should receive adverse treatment because of actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin, in which the individual played no part." Here we see the old saw that people today cannot be held responsible for the sins of America's past. Indeed, they cannot. However, neither can we ignore the legacy of the sins of our ancestors, lest they be repeated and perpetuated, causing us never to achieve Dr. King's dream.