Meeting the Moment:A guide to Defending civil rights in our schools
The Federal School Discipline & Climate Coalition (FedSDC) offers this guide to outline the goals, actions, and harmful effects of the anti-civil rights campaign. It highlights successful strategies and key resources for local advocates seeking to resist these attacks and preserve civil rights and education in our country.
Introduction
The right to attend school free from discrimination is under attack.
In 2020, right-wing think tanks and funders started a radical campaign across the country, intended to undo the racial progress of the Black Lives Matter Movement. This coordinated and well-funded effort to stop this progress in the U.S. education system inaccurately redefines terms like critical race theory, diversity, equity, and inclusion to create fear about racial and social justice. Right-wing policymakers have proposed over 600 policies at all levels of government—local, state, and federal—to silence both K-12 and higher education discussions of historical and current racial discrimination in the U.S. These policies are not only aimed at historically marginalized racial groups, but also gender and sexual diversity, often directly targeting LGBTQI+ youth.
This vocal minority is not a grassroots campaign, but a coordinated and well-funded right-wing attempt to reverse civil rights gains for Black and Brown communities and other marginalized groups, weaken public education, and ultimately unravel the foundations of democracy. Most parents in the U.S. (82%) believe teachers should be able to talk about race, gender, and sexual orientation at school.
WHAT IS THE ANTI-CIVIL RIGHTS CAMPAIGN?
FedSDC uses the phrase "anti-civil rights campaign" to describe how radical conservatives promote the narrative that racial justice i no longer a legitimate social goal and that efforts aimed at getting rid of racial discrimination are actuallly anti-white measures that lead inequality.
Source: https://eji.org/news/history-racial-injustice-anti-civil-rights-movement/
This guide aims to address the campaign as an intersectional attack on civil rights, highlighting its impact not only on racial justices, but also on gender justice.
