Whose Right(s)?: Civil Rights Impact of Cultural Conflicts in the Curriculum

Abstract

Statutes seeking to prohibit the teaching of certain curricular topics that are considered divisive infringe upon the civil rights of students, parents, and teachers. The conflict over what should be taught implicates the rights of students, specifically their right to receive and to learn information; the rights of parents, specifically the right to control the education of their children; and the rights of teachers, specifically the First Amendment and academic freedom. “Anti-Woke” legislation, as it is broadly termed, is designed to silence those who seek to engage in the critical analysis of the structural and systemic barriers that have prevented the United States from fulfilling its idealistic yet unrealized founding principles that all men are created equal. In short, it has brought the culture war directly into the classroom and the content of school curricula is the battleground. Amidst the “anti-woke” national outcry, opposition to a variety of different curricula and ideas can be found such as the demonization of a pedagogy created in the legal academy, i.e., Critical Race Theory (CRT) to a history project popularized in a mainstream newspaper, i.e., the 1619 Project, to curricula focused on African Americans, gender identity, gender, and other marginalized groups to work related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). The conflation of these varied concepts was intentional and designed to galvanize support from parents and others for political purposes. The “Anti-Woke” adherents falsely believe that colleges and universities, and K-12 schools purposefully use all these concepts to engage in the Leftist indoctrination of students. In response to this fear, States have engaged in a concerted campaign to pass anti-woke legislation to erase and rewrite history and by extension to silence marginalized voices.

Keywords: anti-woke, woke, diversity, DEI, equity, inclusion, civil rights, First Amendment, race, gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation, Critical Race Theory, CRT, 1619 Project, academic freedom