Kimi Waite
For the past two years, teachers around the country have rallied at historic sites to speak out against anti-history education bills. On June 10, teachers are rallying again for the Teach Truth Day of Action, co-organized by The Zinn Education Project, Black Lives Matter at School and The African American Policy Forum.
The event is co-sponsored by The National Education Association, whose leadership encouraged their three million members to organize and participate to raise awareness about the danger of these attacks on public education.
In Florida, the attacks on truth promote an education agenda driven by white supremacist ideals. Democracy and our collective civil rights depend on teaching and learning an inclusive history of this, not just a whitewashed version.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed House Bill 1537 into law, which requires including Asian American and Pacific Islander history in the state’s K-12 curriculum. But HB 1537 coincides with DeSantis’s ban on AP African American Studies, denying tenure to professors in state-funded institutions, the “don’t say gay” bill, bills banning DEI initiatives in public colleges, and the investigation and firing of teachers.
These measures are part of a larger “anti-woke” agenda to criminalize the teaching of truth.
Asian Americans are not a wedge to be used to divide groups.
This tactic has been used historically to create infighting among communities of color. The most notable example of this is the “model minority” myth, which has been used to create divisions between Black and Asian people.
But contrary to Florida law, there is no Asian American history without African American history.
As an Asian American woman, the Atlanta-area spa shootings in March 2021 were just one of the many tragedies in a larger wave of anti-Asian racism and misogyny. But back then, I remember how the Black community showed up in support.
Prior to the…
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