A funny thing happened on the way to the courthouse. Well, the funny thing is that we could avoid the trip. But only if Republican Governor Chris Sununu can get his head out of his ass.
Related: The Teaching Of Critical Race Theory in Public Schools Must Be Challenged In Court
If not a string of lawsuits could stretch as far as the eye can see.
Parents and taxpayers will have no choice but to take school districts to court to claw back their rights. Public employees, if there are any brave enough should do the same.
They are going to disprove the governor’s presumption that critical race theory in public schools and government offices will find shelter under the First Amendment.
That the sanctioned race-shaming of people over the color of their skin, even when it’s white people, is not protected speech and must be challenged.
It will be challenged, this is inevitable.
[A]s legal writer Hans Bader points out, the Supreme Court has ruled that states and public schools have the ability to control curricular speech without violating free speech. Furthermore, under the Fourteenth Amendment, states and school districts have an obligation to prevent the creation of a learning environment that promotes hostility toward a certain race or sex.
These fourteenth amendment rights are already being violated (as is the right to not be bullied) by school districts across the Granite State.
The courts have repeatedly ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment outweighs and limits the First Amendment when it comes to government entities adopting policies and programs that perpetuate racial stereotyping, discrimination, and harassment.
New Hampshire’s effort to fend off what could become a very expensive lesson for taxpayers who will pay for these legal fights is HB544. It is a simple bill that limits any curriculum or training that shames people based on their sex or race.
Former NH State Supreme Court Judge Bob Lynn has already offered a public opinion on the legislation, rebutting the governor whose arguments hold no water.
In practice, CRT-based programs are often hateful, divisive, and filled with falsehoods; they traffic in racial stereotypes, collective guilt, racial segregation, and race-based harassment. The real test for intellectuals on the left is not to defend their ideas as abstractions but to defend the real-world consequences of their ideas.
Governor Sununu has insisted that while he may not approve that he will not “ban” CRT which, like CRT, is backward and misleading. CRT is systemic racism pretending to be anti-racism. No Ban exists in this bill nor would its passage ban CRT. But rejecting these facts might leave us with this;
To raise the stakes even further, we could also propose a counterfactual. If the Ku Klux Klan sponsored a public school curriculum that stated, “whites deserve to have the power and privilege” and “black culture is inherently violent”—a simple transposition of critical race theory’s basic tenets—would Goldberg and Sachs [Gov. Chris Sununu] jump to the Klan’s defense?
The government exists to protect our rights not to compel our speech, race-shame our children, or sanction this day-to-day psychological bullying by teachers, administrators, and peers. (which is also illegal in New Hampshire).
“for … critical race theorists, opposing racism is not categorical; it is instrumental. Official discrimination against blacks and Latinos is considered “bad”; official discrimination against whites and Asians is considered “good.” Following Herbert Marcuse’s dictum on “repressive tolerance,” the modern Left has begun to enact a regime of officially sanctioned double standards: discrimination is encouraged, as long as it advances the Left’s power.”
The divisive concepts legislation (HB544) prohibits systemic race-shaming of anyone be they black, Latino, or Asian or Caucasian.
It is literally anti-discrimination legislation we should not even need but do and the only thing I see standing between New Hampshire and real racial equality in our offices and classrooms (and stopping a boat-load of lawsuits) is Chris Sununu.
HT | Christopher Rufo – City Journal
Contact your State Senators and tell them why they need to leave the HB544 language in the Budget.
Contact Governor Sununu’s office and tell him as well.
