Florida authorities want to make it sound like this particular school just messed up - but they deliberately created the environment in which this is bound to happen.
This is the feature, not the bug of the reactionary assault on multiracial pluralism Florida has spearheaded. 1/
I think this school's move is great. Force parents to opt-in to education, and if they don't then Snowflake Susie gets to go sit by herself in another room and write "I am a special snowflake" on the blackboard over and over again while the rest of the children continue with their education.
@tzimmer_history its not even "malicious" compliance. It's just compliance. Given the litigiousness of the White-wing, every lesson plan should include permission slip guidance.
Through rhetoric and legislative action, Republicans are mandating a reactionary white nationalist understanding of the past and the present. They’ve made it clear that anything and anyone daring to deviate from the state-mandated “truth” is to be purged and ostracized. 2/
Legislation on what exactly is and is not prohibited is left deliberately vague, which only amplifies its impact, creating an environment in which people, authors, artists are branded as inherently suspicious just for being Black, or queer. 3/
For those who agree with this policy and the underlying ideology, this constantly creates avenues to attack, censor, purge, demonize, ostracize. And those who disagree feel a constant need to self-censor or overcompensate in order to comply and not become targets. 4/
“Parental rights” are instrumental in this crusade to undermine public education and enforce a reactionary societal order, because the only parents who count are white conservative parents whose anxieties align with the interests of the white nationalist state. 5/
The emphasis on “parents rights” is part of an attempt to make every reactionary white person a deputy of the reactionary state and have them help weed out and oppress dissent and deviance. It’s a fundamentally authoritarian vision of society. /end
@tzimmer_history If my daughter brought home a form asking if she can go to "a book reading by an African American author," the next day would see me marching into the principal's office, slapping the note on his desk, and asking, "What the hell is this absolute racist bullshit?"