“FROM WHERE I STAND ”

Sandra Crenshaw, Lobbyist for Justice, interviews Annette Gordon-Reed,

Author of The Hemingses of Thomas Jefferson Monticello

As of August 2022, Texas led the nation in banning books from public libraries.  Banned Books Week

is celebrated in the third week of September, the same week as the Texas Tribune Festival, where over 350 worldwide panelists local and national elected officials were in Austin, Texas discussing political and policy issues that impact the nation.  It was befitting that I asked all panelists the question “Should we ban books from public schools with photos of violent acts committed in slavery-like lynching and burning down homes and businesses and the current protest riots including the graphic details of the murder of George Floyd?

Annette Gordan Reed, a native Texan, and  Harvard professor, who also penned “On Juneteenth” where she remembers her grandmother shared with her, the day an accused black rapist was shot in the back of the head in an east Texas courtroom as he stood before the Judge.  His white murderer was acquitted.  But she answered, “I think second graders today can handle it.”  Mrs. Reed and I are around the same age but she recalls that she rarely heard the word slavery.  As I interview others from Texas of all ages, we did not learn about slavery from public schools.   Are we better off because the brutality and violence nature of slavery was hidden from us? What impact will it have on children of the next generation?

I interviewed  Toluse “Tolu” Olorunnipa, author of  “Who was George Floyd .”   Tolu is the first reporter of native African and Nigerian descent to cover the White House. I asked him, if the critics of The 1619 Project called the protests the 1619 Riots, and the Texas State Board of Education was considering a book on Juneteenth that referenced the George Floyd protest as the reason for the national holiday and did he believe violent and brutal video should be shown to second graders in public schools.   “I believe all violent acts should be age-appropriate, the author said.  Olorunnipa was recently named the White House Bureau Chief for The Washington Post in July 2022.

I disagree with Nicole Hannah-Jones, the creator of the 1619 Project which is also banned by the Texas legislature.  She believes that parents should leave the school curriculum with the experts and teachers. What Hannah Jones failed to understand is that parents are voters, therefore they have a great impact on what is being taught in their public school.  I tell people that I have no children but I was a child once ”upon a time” and I did not experience violence or knowledge of violence.  Pictures of lynchings traumatized me when I was in college, so I feel that even if one child can be traumatized, we should not publicize graphic details.  The Jewish faith has museums and teaches it in the church where children’s parents are with them and can better explain it.   Absent from the workshops and school board meetings and lobbying our legislatures are the Black Parents.  Hannah-Jones believes that slavery should be the center point of our nation’s history.  As a black Texan, I agree with her that we built this country and deserve credit with full citizenship. I concur with her that laws were written to hide the racism inherent in policy, laws, and government. Most people call out “ systemic racism” but can’t explain why?

Hannah-Jones is a journalist who doesn’t understand democracy or maybe she is calling attention to the issue, and she might not have the audience without the controversy.  She speaks to the crowd and says what they want to hear, so loudly that 20 million dollars were donated to put 1619 in the public school’s curriculum without accountability.  She is an adherent to critical race theory.  CRT as is known is the critical thinking of scholars and lawyers who look at race and come up with solutions to make this country a better place.  We have only heard the government bans, debunking the 1619 Project, and criticisms of lawyers, politicians, journalists, and historians but no critical solutions to racism. In Part II, I will take my stab at explaining CRT in plain language so that we, the people, can hold our government accountable to what is being taught in public schools.