My thoughts on Oklahoma's HB 1775...

I get it. You’re still uncomfortable that racism exists today.

I thought it would be gone in my lifetime, too.

1/7

You hate the thought that racism exists. That some people are racists - or worse, someone might think YOU are racist ... because racism is abhorrent ... so those who AREN'T targeted just don’t want to talk about it.

It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary. It’s unnerving.

2/7

Why?

Because deep down inside they know THEIR lives today would be far different if the historical tables had been turned and we were studying THEIR family stories in US History.

3/7

So how do we have conversations about racism, its root causes, and how to change things ... when we create gag rules to prevent uncomfortable conversations?

How do we teach about racism and its devastating effects on the US?

4/7

How do we teach about owning people, Jim Crow, redlining, sundown districts, lynching, Chinese Exclusion, and why we had Japanese-American Internment Camps ... but no corresponding German-American camps?

5/7

How can I get you to understand that in the America where I was born, it was against the law for my parents to marry? I was 3 years old when Oklahoma finally changed the law to allow interracial marriage.

6/7

Giving teachers a gag order won’t reduce racism in Oklahoma. It just tells them we don’t trust them ... and makes them a target for #Karen.

That won’t improve the lives of Oklahoma’s kids.

#okleg

END