SD senators OK bill shielding students from 'discomfort'
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 2 years ago • 9 commentsBy: STEPHEN GROVES (seattlepi. com)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A South Dakota Senate committee on Tuesday narrowly approved a proposal from Gov. Kristi Noem that would ban public universities from using training that compels people to feel "discomfort" based on their race.
The Republican-controlled Senate Education committee endorsed the bill on a 4-3 vote for consideration by the full chamber, even as several Republicans leveled criticism at it. The House has already passed the proposal, making the Senate vote, which has yet to be scheduled, the final major legislative hurdle for Noem's proposal.
The Republican governor, who has positioned herself for a White House bid, has touted the bill as a ban on critical race theory and a way to ensure "our students are not taught that they are responsible for (the) different actions of our ancestors."
Senate lawmakers heard over an hour of impassioned debate, both from those who championed the bill as a repudiation of critical race theory and critics who say it would put a chill on academic freedom and sanitize the most painful facts of U.S. history.
"What we are seeing is a massive effort to dissuade educators from teaching race and racism," said Abby Menter, who trains teachers, referring to the nationwide political rallying cry on the fright against so-called critical race theory.
The bill's actual text makes no mention of the academic framework. It lays out seven "divisive concepts" and bans universities from making students or faculty members adhere to them or promoting them in required trainings.
The proposal drew sharp criticism from leaders of South Dakota's minority communities, from Oglala Sioux Tribe President Kevin Killer to Julian Beaudion, the director of the South Dakota African American History Museum.
"Your discomfort cannot be used as an excuse not to deal with the issues of humanity," Beaudion told the committee, adding, "My ancestors picked cotton until their fingers bled" under the threat of beatings and hangings.
Native American educators charged that the governor was sending a message discouraging meaningful discussions of a state history that contains a through line of injustices against Native Americans.
"Should we not teach Manifest Destiny? Because I know what Manifest Destiny did to our people, " said Democratic Sen. Troy Heinert. "What about the gold rush? ... That was the end of our existence as a free people."
The bill carves out an exception for academic courses in universities, which proponents insisted allows painful classroom discussions.
"You can teach a class on critical race theory," Allen Cambon, the governor's policy adviser told the committee Tuesday, adding that the bill would still allow classroom discussions that may bring up discomfort in students.
But the bill's stipulations prompted Heinert to call it "one of the largest oxymoron bills I have ever seen."
Republicans on the committee noted that the Board of Regents supported the proposal because it aligned with how universities already operate.
Republican Sen. Blake Curd cautioned against the government stepping into what is taught or promoted at universities, but cast the deciding vote in support, explaining that the debate was "of such importance" that it should be debated on the Senate floor.
The Senate committee is also considering Noem's proposal to ban K-12 public schools from public K-12 school curricula that compel students to feel discomfort based on their race. Lawmakers are set to decide on that bill Thursday.
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Now we dont even want college students to feel any "discomfort" about the racial history of the United States. Oh the humanity.
Apparently the people behind this nonsense feel they are extremely "cool"--and that students are all nothing but a bunch of "Snowflakes".
compels people to feel "discomfort" based on their race.
how can anyone believe it’s proper to compel students to feel discomfort because of the color of their skin?
Accurate US history could be discomforting to some.
Could be discomforting is a lot different than Telling a kid to feel discomfort because of the color of his or her skin.
And yet so many have done exactly that-- so many in fact that this little girl required a police escort:
Telling a kid to feel discomfort because of the color of his or her skin.?
Yup-- quite a few did just that! "They were throwing things and shouting"...
Ruby Bridges: The 6-Year-Old Who Needed a Federal Marshal Escort to Attend First Grade
The moment has been immortalized in a Norman Rockwell painting with the apt title The Problem We All Live With : a little African American girl walks to school, surrounded by a team of U.S. Marshals, with racist graffiti and thrown garbage ornamenting the wall behind her. Ruby Bridges was only 6 years old in 1960 when the first grader arrived for her first day of school at William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans — and was met by a vicious mob. The courageous girl would spend a year alone in the classroom, since other children had been removed by their parents due to her presence. But today, the 65-year-old Bridges says that those difficult days were worth it: "I now know that experience comes to us for a purpose, and if we follow the guidance of the spirit within us, we will probably find that the purpose is a good one."
Ruby, who was born on September 8, 1954, was one of only six black children who passed the tests that determined she could attend the previously all-white school; two families opted to keep their children at their old school, while three were transferred to McDonogh No. 19, leaving Ruby as the only student desegregating William Frantz. Ruby's father was hesitant to send his daughter, but her mother believed that it was important for the family to take that step — not just for Ruby herself, but for the children who would come after her.
An order by Judge J. Skelly Wright dictated that New Orleans schools be integrated by November 14, 1960, so that would be Ruby's first day at school.
"That first morning I remember Mom saying as I got dressed in my new outfit, 'Now, I want you to behave yourself today, Ruby, and don't be afraid,'" Bridges recalled. "'There might be a lot of people outside this new school, but I'll be with you.' That conversation was the full extent of preparing me for what was to come."
When Ruby arrived and saw the crowd, she had no idea that they were there to protest her presence. "Living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras," she reflected. "There was a large crowd of people outside of the school.
They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. I really didn't realize until I got into the school that something else was going on."
Actually in its heyday in the Deep South the Klan not only attempted that-- but was actually quite successful at it.
When I was a kid, throughout Elementary school,I hated math with a passion! (Looking back, I can't remember why I felt that way, but I certainly did)
But at the time teaching of math (or even any discussion of Math) caused me extreme discomfort.
And for whatever reason, years later that discomfort went away-- in fact I rather enjoy it (I even enjpy-- and find very useful-- statistics,which IIRC many people hate!)
Now what really makes me feel discomfort are these total a$$holes on school boards and legislatures that ban all sorts of useful knowledge . . . for the most bizarre reasons!
(And don't get me started on how I feel about their fellow Neanderthals on Social Media who defend this garbage!)
Coming from the party of safe spaces on college campuses; this article is a fucking joke.