OPINION: Our state's foolish denial of racism won't make it go away

May 6—We've all heard the sayings about seeing things right in front of us. Chief among them: "We can't see the forest for the trees."

Lately those trees obscuring the forest are more like all our hurt feelings that keep getting in the way of teaching and talking about how we all can get along and make our city, state and country stronger and more welcoming.

Specifically, we can't have discussions about race — at least not in the view of a good many prominent conservatives like our Republican state lawmakers and the powers that be in the Hamilton Flourishing group, a local knock-off of the Heritage Foundation.

The lawmakers are taking aim at schools teaching about racism — specifically systemic racism. Taking a cue from our thankfully former president and the likes of Lindsey Graham, the Republicans in the Tennessee statehouse are pretending that slavery, the Civil War and Jim Crow have no lasting legacies in our country. Never mind all of those Confederate flags toted by white supremacists in the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.

To that point, our lawmakers appeared to have plagiarized some of wording from a September 2020 Donald Trump executive order to regulate diversity and inclusion training. The order, misleadingly titled "Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping," rejects training that addresses concepts such as implicit and unconscious bias, institutional, systemic and structural racism, and privileges associated with dominant culture traits, such as male privilege or white privilege.

These terms have roots in something known as "critical race theory" which evolved from an academic movement of civil rights scholars to an examination of social, cultural and legal issues as they relate to race and racism. Now, suddenly critical race theory has become a much maligned and misunderstood hot-button, big-basket catch all for a lot of terms that raise blood pressures.

Let's just pause to unpack one of these: "White privilege" does not mean your life is not hard. It means that your race is not one of the things that makes it hard. Yet the term has become like a giant Sequoia tree blocking our view of the forest.

According to the 2020 executive order, these types of trainings promote "divisiveness in the workplace" and are "contrary to the fundamental premises underpinning our Republic: that all individuals are created equal and should be allowed to an equal opportunity under the law to pursue happiness and prosperity based on individual merit."

Yes, we'd love for the world and our country to be perfect, but they are not.

Here's another "divisive concept" defined by the order: "an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously."

Sure, we're all as pure as the blinding snow, and that's why what should be calm and rational learning experiences are dividing everything from classroom social studies to a Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce pledge for racial equity.

In 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, there are just over 40 that are required by Tennessee law, and only 27 of those involve anything about race or specifically African American culture.

Among the standards involving anything remotely racial — required by law or not — many are simply nods to non-whites. For instance: "Identify influential Tennesseans from the late 20th century, including: Al Gore, Jr.; Alex Haley; Dolly Parton; Wilma Rudolph; Oprah Winfrey."

Of these important historical points below, only two — the last ones — are legally 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.

Race and racism, of course, are not the only things about which we stick our heads in the sand.

We see that, too, in these social studies standards. For all the emphasis on Tennessee's role (almost all of the Tennessee history standards are required by law to be taught), not a single "content standard" mentions the landmark "Scopes Monkey Trial" which took place in Dayton and put the teaching of evolution vs. creationism on the map of history. No, no, no: We don't want our learning discussions to be "divisive."

It just goes to show how our lawmakers want to hide the forest with the trees.