One of the most controversial bills this year, banning some discussions about race in the classroom, passed the state Senate Friday in Georgia.
Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, is trying to keep nine topics regarding race and racism out of Georgia’s k-12 schools.
“We specifically identified nine divisive concepts we believe should never be used in our children’s concepts,” Hatchett said as her introduced.
The concepts include banning any teaching that a person is inherently racist solely because of his/her race, skin color, or ethnicity, or that a person should feel guilty or demeaned by a teacher because of his/her race, ethnicity, or skin color.
“Right now teachers should not be able to teach that the United States or the State of Georgia today as a whole is racist,” Hatchett said.
Democrats who are against the bill argued that it avoids the reality of race in America and draws a line on what is allowed.
“After centuries of slavery and discrimination in the law, we have not eliminated racism or is vestiges from our society the problem is this bill demeans Black students by trying to pretend that racism was eliminated,” said Sen. Elena Parent, D-Decatur
Other opponents argue that it puts undue pressures on teachers to speak about racism as history only.
“The teacher can say yes the United States ‘was’ discriminatory but when do I cut it off? 1965? 1945? 2000?” questioned Sen. Harold Jones, D-Augusta.
The bill is not specifically referred to as a bill banning critical race theory, but instead focuses on blocking divisive topics and requires schools to form a complaint system for parents.
“So do you want your children to be taught that one race or ethnicity is inherently superior to another race?” Senator Bill Cowsert questioned Parent. “Something along the lines of white supremacy?” he added. “No. No. I certainly did not say that,” Parent said, adding that she thinks the bill is unnecessary as the sponsor pointed out that it addresses 0.01% of classroom concerns.
“There’s redlining rules and Jim Crow laws. Those are things that happened in the past and those are things that should be brought up but today a teacher cannot say the United States or State of Georgia are fundamentally or systemically racist,” Hatchett said in an exchange with Sen. Kim Jackson who argued that systemic racism is a present issue to discuss.
The bill requires schools to form a complaint system for parents and the public.
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