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Refuse Fascism podcast #81:
Classroom Censorship in Texas

Uploaded October 17: RefuseFascism.org editor Coco Das (@coco_das) interviews Ana Ramón (@ana_ramon89), Director of Advocacy for the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) about the new legislation that takes aim at anti-racist and truthful teaching of social studies and other subjects for students in Texas.

Texas is spearheading and modeling how to achieve what this movement has wanted for decades, to get into a position of what they hope will be un-challengeable political power. On September 2, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 3, the classroom censorship bill that is the second attempt by conservative Texas lawmakers to control historical narratives and limit classroom discussions about race and discrimination. The first attempt was House Bill 3979, which passed into law and became effective in early September.

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>> Transcript for those who prefer to read

Ana Ramon:
The very overt racial atmospherics around this bill and linking it specifically to anti- voting rights… I have never seen the amount of legislative deviations take place on one bill than I have seen for this bill… They literally introduced new rules in the Senate to get this bill passed… This is exactly on trend when it comes to oppressing communities of color or diverse communities from trying to move out of the boxes that they’ve been placed in.

Coco Das:
We’ve been studying this fascist movement and the interest in what you’re calling the legislative deviations, because one of the features of fascism is how it tears up the rules and norms. That’s something that Trump was very effective at. People learn from that. The very norms that people were relying on, the normal channels that people were relying on to stop these outrages, were being torn up. The rule book was being torn up. You had one side, the Democrats who were really playing by the rules, and you had the other side, this Trump’s GOP, this thoroughly hollowed-out party, that’s willing to tear up all the rules and be bad faith actors in getting their agenda passed.

Send your comments to [email protected] or @SamBGoldman. Or leave a voicemail at 917-426-7582 or on anchor.fm.

Also see:
Political “Realities” According to Don Calloway by Coco Das |

Baby Talk Fascists: Reflections on a Summer Encounter by Paul Street |

                         

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