Michael Harriot Profile picture
Oct 28, 2021 17 tweets 7 min read Read on X
I am big enough to admit when I am wrong

According to the new definition in some of the recently passed legislation, I found a few examples of schools and textbooks that promote Critical Race Theory in schools.

A thread.
First, let's agree that we shouldn't even argue about the 1800s. According to the CDC, the average life expectancy in the US is 78 years old, which means a 78-year-old would've entered school in 1949. But let's skip the 40s. In fact, let's skip the 1950s too.
Instead, every one of these examples of CRT is from the 1960s forward, which means the people who learned these lessons are statistically still living, most are still in the workforce, in fact, NO ONE who learned any of these CRT lessons are even old enough to get Social Security
It's a good thing SC's legislature defines critical race theory because every history student until 1984 learned that:

"Africans were brought from a worse life to a better one. As slaves, they were trained in the ways of civilization."
Again, no "race, ethnicity religion, color or national origin is supposed to be inferior or superior in SC schools, but the book also says:

"...the slaves were given the opportunity to become Christians in a Christian land, instead of remaining heathen in a savage country."
And:

“Most slaves were treated well, if only because it was to the planter’s interest to have them healthy and contented...The Africans were used to a hot climate. They made fine workers under the Carolina sun.”
Here's what they learned about white supremacist terrorists:
In Alabama, there's no CRT law. The state school board just banned it, which would have outlawed nearly every textbook in Alabama up until the 1980s Especially something like this that describes how slavery was so enjoyable.
Or this one, from the 1970s that showed how Slavery was "one of the earliest forms of Social Security in the United States."

Or the one that excused terrorism because "Many Alabama white men believed that they could not depend on the laws or the state government"

This is CRT
In Kentucky's 1983 curriculum, they actually had a film that showed slave life in Kentucky was not "as bad as in other areas of the South.

Then they did an exercise where the kids pretended to be slavemasters!

Thank GOD Kentucky outlawed it after teaching it for 200 years
Texas just lies or eliminates history altogether!

They didn't forget to include Reconstruction, redlining etc. The publisher removed subjects out of Texas' textbooks!

But that was way back in... *checks notes*
Today
It's today, y'all.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Yes, they actually managed to erase racism!
Texas isn't the only state that lies.

Virginia's slave code forbade slaves from reading, owning guns and traveling. But here's what Virginia's 4th-grade textbooks taught kids until the 1970s.

Now, this purposeful lie is SPECIFICALLY intended to make white kids feel good.
But it's not just in the South.

Here's what a textbook from Connecticut taught fourth graders in 2016/

Apparently they don't believe that children are the future because they don't teach them well.

Or maybe the greatest love of all is whiteness.
And one of the most widely used textbooks in the country, The American Pageant, describes the human trafficking of the Trans Atlantic slave trade as "immigration" and says slaves helped out with "chores" on "agricultural plantations"

Good times.
In every state's definition of CRT, these would be banned, even though some of them are being used.

It's because they aren't trying to outlaw CRT. They're trying to outlaw the truth and and continue with the lies.

And I truly understand why they're doing it.
BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW THEY LEARNED LIES!

Only 8% of HS seniors can identify slavery as a cause of the Civil War.
68% don't know the 13th Amendment ended slavery.
Only 16% know that the Constitution provided protections for slaveholders

And THEY DID BETTER THAN MOST AMERICANS
That's why people should actually use these new laws to make sure schools are teaching the correct version of history.

But I just hope you can accept my apology. I was wrong.

White people have been learning CRT this whole time.

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More from @michaelharriot

Dec 2
For five years, I have been covering what is unquestionably the biggest criminal justice scandal in American history.

Today it ended when the most corrupt cop in history took his life.

But it's not over.

A thread.
For 5 decades, police officer Roger Golubski sexually assaulted Black women and forced to give false testimony that he used to send Black men to prison while he ran a sex trafficking and drug cartel in Kansas City Kansas

theroot.com/a-criminal-inj…
The federal trial against Golubski was supposed to begin today.

He didn't show up

According to sources, Golubski ended his own life

kansascity.com/news/local/art…
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Nov 27
Before everyone leaves this app, I want to make a confession

I'm planning a robbery

I already have a target, a crew & a blueprint, I just need 1 more thing:

Will you help me recreate the greatest Black on Black crime in US history?

A story
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On Thursday, May 23, 1861, Frank Baker, James Townsend, and Shepard Mallory orchestrated the greatest heist in American history.

Less than 6 weeks after the start of the Civil War, the enslaved men were essentially donated to the Virginia Confederate Militia to dig ditches
As they worked near the exact same spot where "20& Odd" Africans arrived 1619, the men spotted a boat.

Of course they skedaddled. Scrammed. Vamoosed. They ran like Josh Hawley in an insurrection, crossed the river and presented themselves to Union Gen, George Butler
Read 31 tweets
Nov 5
People who say this election could be the "end of democracy" are so extra...

Or maybe they know the TRUE history of the election-denying white supremacist who led a violent insurrection, overturned a presidential election and ended democracy in America.

A thread
First, you should know that the US Constitution created a form of govt called a "federal republic" where elected officials represent the citizens (as opposed to a DIRECT DEMOCRACY, where people vote on every decision)

But a representative democracy is just A KIND OF DEMOCRACY Image
Image
Saying, "America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy," is like saying: "I'm a MAGA Republican, not an American."

BTW, this is your daily reminder that @laurenboebert is a pro-insurrection MAGA Republican HS dropout who failed the GED 3x... NOT an American. Image
Read 30 tweets
Oct 30
My uncle’s friend Hawk was a feared gangsta. He was ruthless but he was also a chess wizard. According to the streets, Hawk only lost 1 once, years ago, when he was in prison.

So imagine my surprise when my uncle told Hawk: “l bet $100 my nephew will kick your ass

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Now I was like 12 or 13, so even though I was a chess prodigy, I was scared AF

What if I put Hawk in check and he slit my throat ? What if he sicced his goons on me to keep his streak alive? I hadn’t even reached goon-fighting age!

Then my uncle made a deal:
If I beat Hawk, I could keep the money.

A whole $100 dollars? Oh, hell yeah! I was down.

There was just one other problem with my uncle’s plan.

I had never actually played a chess match.

Not one.
Read 15 tweets
Oct 17
One of my former economics students recently reminded me about a concept I used to call "belief economics."

I haven't taught the course it in a long time, but ever since she reminded me, it perfectly explains why everyone is so focused on Black male Trump voters

A thread:
My "Race as an Economic Construct" class applied economic principles as a framework for understanding the concept of race.

I know you've heard that race is an SOCIAL CONTRUCT - it is. But MOST social constructs are ALSO economic constructs.

Even money.
A $100 bill is more valuable than monopoly money bc society constructed a monetary system. Take the pseudointellectual right-wing conspiracy about the gold standard

Why is gold so valuable?

Sure it's rare. But it's not as rare as rhodium or as useful as iron.
Read 29 tweets
Oct 2
While other organizations (hopefully, maybe) will be fact-checking, JD Vance & Tim Walz, as usual, I’ll be translating the dog whistles, white lies and overall Caucasity

The live vice presidential debate “BlackCheck”
JD Vance begins by blaming the “Kamala Harris Administration” for Iran’s nuclear progress.

When was that?Image
Apparently, Kamala Harris has done a LOT. She held a seminar in Iran on how to build nukes

She opened a fentanyl shipping company

She helped organize a human trafficking ring

Somehow, as VP, she passed executive orders to renam the whole South: “Kamala Harris’s open border”
Read 13 tweets

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