Part of the Series
The Public Intellectual
The right wing in the United States is waging a war against critical race theory. Republican governors such as Ron DeSantis in Florida, Brad Little in Idaho and Greg Abbott in Texas, among others, claim that teaching about the history of racism, mentioning race in the classroom, or addressing social justice issues amount to a form of propaganda that victimizes white students. In this view, teaching about racial justice is a form of racial injustice. Wedding this reactionary ideology to power, a number of states controlled by Republican politicians have instituted laws that forbid teachers from introducing any topic related to racism into their curricula, such as The New York Times’s 1619 project.
This is a form of apartheid pedagogy whose purpose is to prevent any form of critical thinking in the schools and to create a formative educational culture that whitewashes history, and makes racism in its institutional and historical forms disappear. It undermines the critical pedagogical conditions that empower students and others to develop the habits of critical thought, informed judgment, and power that enable them to be critical, informed and engaged citizens. In this script, censorship is reinforced by the threat by right-wing state legislators to cut millions of dollars to educational institutions that fund programs that address social justice and diversity issues. The attack on critical race theory is part of a broader attempt on the part of Republican Party, which has embraced the tenets of white supremacy, white nationalism and racial purity and is intent on reproducing a fascist politics in public schools, higher education and in those cultural apparatuses that make up the social media. Its attacks on critical race theory and critical thinking itself cannot be separated from its voter suppression laws, its attempts to eliminate Roe vs. Wade, and its lawless attempts to deputize vigilantes in Texas to harass and intimidate those who believe in civil rights, abortion rights and educational freedom. Its goal is a reign of tyranny reinforced through a cultural politics that ensures that when and where civic literacy and freedom are destroyed, democracy disappears. The enemy of the Republican Party is not critical race theory, per se, but democracy itself.
This attack on critical race theory is part of a broader attack on the wider issues of critical pedagogy, critical thinking, dissent and civic consciousness. It is a fascist politics intent on destroying the public spheres and institutions that sustain an informed citizenry and a substantive democracy. The conservative wrath unleashed against any form of critical thinking is an example of the manufactured ignorance parading as “patriotic pedagogy.” In reality, it is a cover for concentrating economic and political power in the hands of a ruling elite. Moreover, this apartheid pedagogy functions as a normalizing politics that goes hand in hand with defending policies such as voter suppression laws, the attack on reproductive rights, the undermining of historical memory and the attack on the welfare state. Apartheid educational practices allow the intrusion of criminality into politics by nourishing habits of powerlessness and undermining any viable form of critical agency. Civic illiteracy is the goal of the Republican Party, reinforced by the belief that an uninformed public shaped through a pedagogy of manufactured ignorance will not hold power accountable.
The attack on critical race theory is part of a merging of political education and cultural politics to promote pedagogies of repression as an animating principle and practice of violence, racism, nativism, misogyny and bigotry.
In the conversation with Allen Ruff that I am sharing above, we both interrogate this new reactionary and educational formation and stress how it can be fought through the development of mass movements engaged in direct action, political education, and a cultural politics capable of using visual and popular culture as emancipatory educational tools. At stake here is not only a struggle over critical agency, identity, civil rights, academic freedom, public education, the civic imagination and democracy, but also the centrality of education itself to politics.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.