Thread by @jzfriedman

It's clear anti-CRT bills are already impeding academic freedom and teaching around the country, in different ways.

Some examples:

In Oklahoma, a fully enrolled summer college course on 'race and ethnicities' has been outright dropped. koco.com/article/oklaho…

In Idaho, Boise State abruptly suspended 52 sections of a class on diversity and ethics b/c of an odd complaint. Investigators later found nothing... but 1300+ students had their course interrupted and made 'asynchronous'. insidehighered.com/news/2021/03/1…

In Iowa, the DoE cancelled a whole conference on “Social Justice and Equity in Education" b/c of the "divisive concepts" bill there. Note, this was not b/c it was yet law-- people were "mindful" of the pending law. This is how 'chilling' of speech works. iowapublicradio.org/state-governme…

This is the same thing we saw when Trump's original EO came out last fall, as universities paused diversity programs or, in Illinois, cancelled an academic talk because it had a whiff of diversity to it. Anything related to diversity becomes targeted... insidehighered.com/news/2020/10/0…

The bills are written vaguely, so they impact anything that has to do with diversity, race, gender etc. For example, details are still emerging on this one, but it looks like there's skittishness about a new diversity gen ed requirement at Iowa State.

https://twitter.com/HistoryBrian/status/1398006575101526017

Even where there aren't anti-CRT bills, the mindset that any conversations about racism are best postponed or cancelled is spreading. This is in MN, where a teacher training with an Ed professor about racism in rural schools was completely called off. brainerddispatch.com/news/education…

Folks who are pushing and defending these bills because they are concerned about the way racism is being taught in schools/colleges tend to be very pro-free speech! Yet they are ignoring the hypocrisy and double standard as these cancellations mount.