A proposal suggesting schools should call slavery “involuntary relocation” has been rejected by the Texas State Board of Education.
The board issued a statement, saying, “As documented in the meeting minutes, the SBOE provided feedback in the meeting indicating that the working group needed to change the language related to ‘involuntary relocation.'”
The statement continued, “Any assertion that the SBOE is considering downplaying the role of slavery in American history is completely inaccurate.”
Statement from the Texas Education Agency (1/2) https://t.co/AS9sNYnDv0 pic.twitter.com/BjjwuN2eVE
— Texas Education Agency (@teainfo) June 30, 2022
The chair of the State Board of Education, Keven Ellis, told The Washington Post the board “voted unanimously to send the language back to be reworked.”
He added, “This board is committed to the truth, which includes accurate descriptions of historical events.”
According to Ellis, there was no attempt to “hide the truth from Texas second graders about slavery.”
Aicha Davis, a Democratic board member representing Dallas and Fort Worth, reportedly saw the proposed language the group of educators wanted to suggest and “immediately questioned it,” as the Post reported.
She added, “I am not going to support anything that describes the slave trade as ‘involuntary relocation.'”
Davis continued, “I’m not gonna support anything that diminishes that journey.”
Texas education made headlines in 2021 after Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed an anti-critical race theory bill, as The Hill reported.
The legislation stated that schools cannot teach that “an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual ’s race or sex.”
Additionally, schools cannot “require an understanding of The 1619 Project.”
Schools are also not allowed to teach that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.”
Students are required to be educated on “the history of white supremacy, including but not limited to the institution of slavery, the eugenics movement, and the Ku Klux Klan, and the ways in which it is morally wrong.”
