{"id":345039,"date":"2021-10-11T18:34:24","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T18:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=373123"},"modified":"2021-10-11T18:34:24","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T18:34:24","slug":"ohio-state-board-of-education-member-defends-white-supremacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/10\/11\/ohio-state-board-of-education-member-defends-white-supremacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio State Board of Education Member Defends White Supremacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In July 2020,<\/u> amid nationwide protests against police brutality and for racial justice, the Ohio State Board of Education passed a resolution to address racial inequality in the state\u2019s education system. Black students statewide\u00a0have, on average, significantly lower standardized test scores<\/a>\u00a0and graduation rates<\/a> than other demographic groups, and Black male students are disproportionately disciplined, suspended, and expelled.<\/p>\n

The resolution, introduced by board President Laura Kohler, acknowledges that \u201cOhio\u2019s education system has not been immune\u201d to racism and inequality and that \u201cwhile we earnestly strive to correct them, we have a great deal of work left to do.\u201d It calls for the state education board to offer board members implicit bias training, programs designed to help people understand their own unconscious biases and the ways stereotypes can distort their\u00a0beliefs; for all state Department of Education employees and contractors to take the training; for\u00a0the department to reexamine curricula for racial bias; and for school districts to examine curricula and practices for hiring, staff development, and student discipline. For some members, these simple reforms were too extreme.<\/p>\n

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The measure passed<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0a\u00a0margin of 12-5, with one member abstaining, and quickly sparked a fight over whether its provisions constituted “critical race theory” \u2014 the name of a legitimate sociological theory that is now being used by the right to conjure a vague, amorphous, and constantly shifting threat. With four new members elected in November 2020 and three new members appointed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, the State Board of Education in July\u00a0voted<\/a> 14-4 to ask<\/a> Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to determine if the resolution was legal. In a September 14 opinion<\/a> with an accompanying letter to the board, Yost wrote that the state could not require private contractors to take implicit bias training, criticizing the idea for imputing \u201ccollective guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his letter, Yost included<\/a> a graph from a Gallup poll showing the increase in approval rates for interracial marriages from 1959 to 2013 to illustrate \u201cthe phenomenal distance America has traveled toward the ideals of its founding.\u201d Touting the progress of the civil rights movement, the Loving v. Virginia Supreme Court decision, and Martin Luther King Jr., he labeled the advocates for implicit bias training in Ohio schools part of \u201cthe contra-King movement\u201d that \u201csees our country\u2019s aspirational and founding documents \u2013 the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution \u2013 as instruments designed to establish and maintain white supremacy and racial oppression forever\u201d and \u201cwants to teach our children that their character is determined by the color of their skin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/iframe>\n \n

Two weeks after Yost determined that the resolution was outside his authority, the Ohio House Government Oversight Committee held a hearing<\/a> in which one\u00a0education board member, Diana Fessler, openly defended<\/a> white supremacy. Fessler criticized last year\u2019s resolution<\/a> \u201cto condemn racism and to advance equity and opportunity for Black students, Indigenous students, and students of color\u201d during the September 28 meeting, claiming that the resolution \u201chas one sentence in it, and it is this: \u2018The State Board of Education condemns in the highest terms possible white supremacy culture.\u2019 Now I don\u2019t know how on Earth that could have got past our legal department, because to me it seems patently noncompliant with the Civil Rights Act of 1964.\u201d On Wednesday<\/a>, the board will vote on a resolution<\/a> by member Brendan Shea to rescind the measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you in your wildest dreams imagine that we had adopted a resolution that said, \u2018The State Board of Education condemns in the highest terms possible Black culture?\u2019\u201d Fessler continued. \u201cOh, we\u2019d have a war going on now, wouldn\u2019t we?\u201d<\/p>\n


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State Board of Ed member Diana Fessler defended white supremacy today:
"[Board's equity resolution] condemns in the highest terms possible white supremacy culture. I don't know how that could have got past our legal department b\/c to me it seems non compliant w\/ Civil Rights Act" pic.twitter.com\/JawO6yQjOq<\/a><\/p>\n

— Plunderbund (@plunderbund) September 28, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n