By Lourdes Hurtado and Jorge Carrasco
A battle is raging in the United States over what teachers should teach in schools.
At least 37 states in the country have promoted bills that seek to regulate the academic curriculum in crucial subjects such as race, sexuality and history.
In Indiana, state lawmakers are seeking to ban teachers from incorporating "anti-American ideology" into their classes.
If the legislation is approved,
those who fail to comply could be sued.
And in South Carolina, lawmakers are seeking to prevent teachers from discussing with their students anything based on political beliefs that creates "discomfort, guilt, or distress."
In
Black Heritage Month
, Noticias Telemundo spoke with four Afro-Latino teachers to ask about the importance of schools allowing free teaching about history and racism in a context of growing political polarization.
Wendy Valdez, a high school teacher in the Bronx, New York, told Noticias Telemundo that the states' efforts to restrict educational freedom are "completely worrying."
At least 37 US states are pushing bills to restrict what teachers can teach in classrooms about race, politics and history.Getty Images
"It really causes a lot of anxiety to even think that we could not teach our children, hide part of the story," laments the teacher, who teaches English as a second language to children between 14 and 17 years old.
[Why Racism Against Black People Persists Within the Hispanic Community]
Most of her students, she says, are immigrant teens with little background in race and ethnicity.
Not many of them know about the history of the United States and are eager to receive information about their adopted country.
"They reach an age where they don't know the history of this country. Martin Luther King, the Civil War, Rosa Parks. They like it a lot and they learn it and discuss it and ask questions, they go to the computer, they want to know more," defends the teacher.
What do those who oppose educating about racism argue?
For the most part, the restrictions around the racial issue seek to curb the teaching of the so-called "Critical Race Theory" (
Critical Race Theory
), an academic approach that argues that racism is exercised in a systemic way and studies how it is rooted in the institutions.
Those who oppose this theory, including senior figures in the Republican Party, reject it by comparing it to Marxism.
"(That theory) says that the entire United States and the entire world is in a race war, that every white person is a racist," Ted Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, said last year.
Hispanic-based organizations such as Initiative Libre have the position that not all immigrants or black people have suffered oppression.
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"Categorizing all Latinos and Afro-Americans as oppressed is unfair," defends Daniel Garza, president of the group.
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But not a few teachers reject the justification for restrictions on what they can or cannot teach,
based on such politicized concepts.
"When I taught in Miami-Dade County schools for five years, I never talked about 'Critical Race Theory,'" says Dr. Mildred Boveda, who teaches in the Pennsylvania State University College of Education. " It is hardly mentioned in schools.
It's something that is studied more at the university level."
"If people don't know history, they will repeat it"
Children are not learning this school of thought in the classrooms of the United States, which is why this teacher argues that limiting conversations about race and racism in the classroom only leads to ignorance and confusion.
"That gives white parents, teachers and students the right to complain and silence teachers who talk about uncomfortable things like the history of slavery," defends the professor.
"The problem is racism, but if you say that the problem is talking about racism, then the energy is going to silence the conversation and not face the racism that others suffer."
But conservative families interviewed by Noticias Telemundo say that the "Critical Theory of Race" is dangerous and that
they do not see the need for their children and grandchildren to be taught it in schools.
"I'm not saying that there aren't racist hotspots in some places, but the United States is a country of immigrants, which opens its doors to everyone," defends Flor de María Sulbarán, a grandmother from Ohio.
"To say that the United States is a racist country and teach that to children would be a serious mistake."
Teachers like Dr. Alain Lawo-Sukam, who teaches at Texas A&M University, advocate for free speech and the free exchange of ideas without fear of reprisal.
And for a more inclusive curriculum.
"History is very important. If people don't know what happened, they will repeat it," he says.
"I honestly think it's best to talk."
The Texas Senate has passed a bill to avoid requiring students to clarify that examples of white supremacy such as
slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and hate groups
are "morally wrong."
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Teachers interviewed by Noticias Telemundo said that this ban would make it difficult to teach about the fight for civil rights in the country.
"Talking about Hispanics or Latinos and African-Americans or black people, there's always been this symbiosis. They're not two separate groups," says Professor Lawo-Sukam.
"We cannot survive here as minorities without this alliance."
"If you say you are not racist, ask yourself: are you anti-racist?"
Bringing diverse experiences and conversations into classrooms is critical for students to understand their own story, other educators say.
"The lack of a humanized education of black history has led to more black people being imprisoned, impoverished and murdered. There are more black women who suffer from obstetric violence and other types of violence," defends professor Bárbara Abadía-Rexach, who teaches at San Francisco State University.
"In the United States, Latino people, although they are often marked as white, we know that they are not considered as such but rather as people of color,
aliens
, etc," he says.
"So this is not just a fight for black people."
Most of its students come from Central America.
What they learn in the classroom has helped them assert themselves as Latinos or Afro-Latinos.
"Sometimes they tell me: 'teacher, in my family there are people who have your skin tone, your hair texture, your phenotypic traits. I mean, I can also say that there are black people in my family, right?'
So they feel a safe space in my living room," says Abadía-Rexach.
[Are we Latinos complicit in racial discrimination in the United States?]
“Beyond educating about black people, it is educating in an anti-racist way. If you say you are not racist, ask yourself: is it anti-racist?” he argues.
Children, says Professor Boveda, need to hear in schools about complex issues such as racism "to feel that they are part of history."
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And their parents must understand Afro-Latinos as a bridge between the Hispanic and African-American communities.
For this reason, teachers like her recommend that Latino families educate themselves and encourage important dialogues.
"It's the vehicle we have for them to start those conversations and
say what's on their mind and express what they feel
," says Bronx high school teacher Wendy Valdés.
Protecting the right of students to receive this content in classrooms will benefit everyone.
"It is better to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves: am I part of the problem or part of the solution?
