Tennessee has joined a growing list of state and local governments that do not want to redefine America as a nation so crippled by racism that it must trash its history and Constitution.
That is the definition that leftists, Democrats and even some Republicans want to impose, as an excuse to abolish freedoms and divide Americans.
On May 24 Gov. Bill Lee signed a measure into law that bans critical race theory (the teaching that America is an evil and racist tyranny favoring whites) from being taught in Tennessee schools.
The legislation specifically bars state educators from teaching that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously.”
Democratic lawmakers offered strident opposition, saying that teachers will be afraid to share their convictions with students about how racially awful the United States really is.
Schools that violate the law could lose their state funding.
Lee told reporters upon signing the legislation that he doesn’t want students to learn about things that “inherently divide” Tennesseans but about how people of different races can live and work together, the Associated Press reported.
“We need to make sure that our kids recognize that this country is moving toward a more perfect union, that we should teach the exceptionalism of our nation and how people can live together and work together to make a greater nation, and to not teach things that inherently divide or pit either Americans against Americans or people groups against people groups,” he said.
